Hootsuite Cries “Fremium” + the Masses Quiver. Why?

The popular social dashboard Hootsuite recently announced last week it’s new “fremium” pricing plans where there is a basic free level of service and then subsequent tiers of paid services, each level offering more features than the one before it.

Based on the comments to their premium levels introductory post as well as the chatter in various LinkedIn discussion groups I belong to, it appears that the immediate response to the monetization of Hootsuite is lukewarm at best.

Some of the least-thrilled and Fremium push-back comments include:

• “It’s not worth the $60 a year to do what I currently do. As soon as I have to choose, I’m canceling my account.”
• “Using HootSuite and lovin’ it. However, with new announcement about “Freemium”, I’m not sure which features I might lose unless I start paying for it. In that case, I might return to TweetDeck.”
• “I’m using Hootsuite both on laptop and via mobile. I think it´s great. But after the announcement of Freemium I’m not sure to use it anymore, especially when there are other free services and apps.”
• “With the announcement of Freemium, I was just getting ready to jump…”
• “HootSuite is really nice for aspiring bloggers such as myself who wanted power tools that could help them make a few bucks on the side. Now I will have all kinds of limitations unless I’m willing to pay more for HootSuite ($19.95 a month) than I pay for UNLIMITED web hosting from DreamHost!I pay $10.95 a month for that. That’s absurd.”
• “As a government user, we are not allowed to have a credit card. We can only pay for items after issuing a PO and receiving a bill. I know this is the case for many government agencies as well. I am also in support of non-profit and government doscounts. Your pricing plans for the services that we have been using for free since you launched seemed very steep when I spoke with the Mayor and Board of Trustees earlier.”
• “Unfortunately 20$ per month (240$ per year) to get only one team member is by far more that I can afford, provided that I don’t get any profit. To be honest: when I saw your prices I thought that either you were crazy or there’s a lot of people earning a lot of money with social networks (and I would like to know how do they do it).”
• “HootSuite is by far my favorite Twitter client, but with three team members using HootSuite, this would take us from free to $50 per month with about a week’s notice? It’s a great tool, but the cost will have me quickly looking for alternatives.”
• “Actually, this is kind of crazy. I understand that this is business and we all need to make a living but to go from free to exorbitant fees seems a little radical. My account has 10 users. Even $100 per month won’t be enough to accommodate that many. My company is struggling to stay alive, we can not afford $100 per month or even $20 per month. I am really, really unhappy. I need to find something else.”
• “I applaud your efforts to make money, but for me it’s looking like an expensive option.”
• “$49 a month for custom URL branding, and that’s *only* if you pay $100 a month for the Platinum package. Seriously? Sorry but that’s really disappointing.”
• “I’m very afraid that I may have to leave Hootsuite. I work for a state agency and these changes, very likely, will not work out for us. ;-(“
• “very disappointed that I sang so highly of Hootsuite all these months, getting so many persons on board! Now, we all are now considering a migration, to another client. These packages just are not suitable, nor are some issues clearly defined (especially as it relates to non-profits) I do both non-profit and corporate accounts, and these packages just do not suit me at all. There are clients with >8 team members, therefore you are expecting us to suddenly pay $1500 per month? For 10 persons? I am definitely considering moving, unless you review these unrealistic packages.”
• “I have used just about every twitter client in the market and I found hootsuite as the best for professional use. However, with the new freemium model and my current usage level, I find the price tag that I’ll have to pay quite steep, so I am looking for a replacement.”

Despite all these disgruntled remarks, some are not as displeased:

• “HootSuite is great!”
• “Though it’s got its limitations, I am happy with HootSuite and won’t hesitate to upgrade to a paid plan. I like its web-based access (vs. Twhirl/Seesmic’s downloaded client), and its user interface (vs. Tweetdeck, whose black screen I still can hardly look at), as well as the ability to schedule posts. “
• “For broadcasting I use Hootsuite and I love it. For monitoring and analysis, I am curious as to what the new Hootsuite plans are offering and will probably wait to make a decision until I can see a demo/video on the Pro plan.”

Yes, well, clearly it appears that from the sheer volume of folks who are T’d off about the Fremium model that a good portion of the Hootsuite population is truly either unhappy or unsure as to if they’ll stay with Hootsuite.

While I think the pricing plans are definitely an issue for most people, there seem to be other factors causing disharmony such as:

• unrealistic pricing models for non-profits, educational institutions and government agencies
• limited options for team users or for users managing multiple client accounts
• too short a window of time for folks to adjust to new pricing models

The Hootsuite stock answer for most of the gripes pertaining to their new pricing models in the comments area appears to be:  “We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers like you.”

It will be very interesting to see how Hootsuite steers through this challenging time of change. And how ever things pan out on the other end of this transition will highlight key lessons for anyone seeking to introduce monetization after providing a great service for free for any period of time.

I know of various folks who are highly dependent on Hootsuite and it’s capabilities; I am wondering about them as I type up this blog post and am curious how they will react or respond to this Freemium introduction.

Side note: Other Twitter Clients of Interest

In the research for this blog post, I came across some of the other Twitter clients folks were starting to either look into as alternatives to Hootsuite *or* get back to before they had left those clients for Hootsuite. Here’s a quick list of Twitter clients peaking interest and discussion as far as I can see:

• Brizzly
• TweetDeck
• Twitbit
• Twitterific
• MrTweet (relaunching September 10th)
• Twibes
• PingFM
• Seesmic
• Co-Tweet
• Yoono
• Socialoomph

I’m definitely going to keep a watchful eye on how all this scrambling-for-other-free-Twitter-clients-as-good-as-Hootsuite will pan out. Your input, as always, is welcome …