I really doubt that that’s true. But let’s say I were going to introduce a lower-priced, but somewhat less functional version of Calendar Grid Pro (you might have noticed that the naming here implies that this might be in the offing… “Where is Calendar Grid Lite? What does it offer?” you might ask.)
Well, that’s a complex issue. Calendar Grid Pro isn’t really designed as a date picker (though it can do that). It’s main value is in dynamic, interactive date range picking and the subsequent business processes that typically ensue (i.e., allow user to select an available range [where available is actually a very complex topic], knowing the range acquire the individual dates within that range [something that cannot be done in vanilla Bubble without scripting], rapidly perform some iterative process over the dates within the range [again, something that vanilla Bubble does not let you do without additional scripting]).
That’s the cool part. That’s the part that incorporates my knowledge and experience with booking processes. That part is super-monetizable. And if you need stuff like that, and want to do it in Bubble, the price point is a bargain compared to the time it takes to figure out – or even implement if you know how – even one part of that process. (Like, load moment/moment-timezone and ensure they are ready, dynamically unblock dates, dynamically change minimum/maximum nights, handle changeovers if you need, do the iteration part, etc., etc.)
The other part that’s interesting and obviously monetizable (as I’ve done it) is View Only mode. Just show availability.
Single Pick and Multi Pick mode are kind of by products of the other two modes. Once you have all the other stuff in place, those capabilities just kind of fall out. It wouldn’t make sense to not include them with the Range Mode capabilities. But on their own, do they offer any particular value over other simple date picking solutions? Perhaps.
The questions are: Is Calendar Grid Pro interesting without Range Mode (which would be obvious part to omit in a Lite version)? What would be the right price point for that?
Well, here’s some data: First, while it’s early days for CGP, I’ve yet to have a specific request or question about single date picking, like, “Hey, this is really cool, but I don’t need fancy range stuff. Might there be a less expensive version without that?”
Second: What’s the right price point for that? Well, in my production app, paying customers pay $5/month per property calendar (with some discounts available for multiple properties or annual pre-payment as is common in SaaS) for the “View Only” type calendar. It has no interactivity and no built-in inquiry and notification features like my other offering, the Booking Widget (which is really what I’d like people to subscribe to, right?).
So, would I price a tool that lets someone more easily create the same sort of service (or similar service) for any number of customers at less than $5/month? That seems weird, right? So, at that level, with the same sort of discounting as CG PRO, the one time cost would be $50. Maybe it would have a steeper discount, I dunno.
Note: I’m not actually concerned about an existing customer of mine going, “Oh hai, I’ll just use this Bubble thing and Keith’s plugin to make calendars for all of my properties and that will only cost me $5/month rather than $45 or whatever.”… because there’s a lot more that goes into in than that and they are not in the business of web development.
Of course, that’s not the only use case for a cool-ass date picker / calendar generator. And that’s not the only value proposition for our imagined Calendar Grid Lite product. For example, let us say that one is allergic to any type of code and so even the very well documented “custom calendar via repeating group” technique seems daunting. Or maybe you want to pick dates in some other timezone. Or maybe you want a magically locale-aware, picker because (like me with GRUPZ and me and my customers with their vacation rentals, you have a surprisingly high percentage of international customers and prospects).
How do you even do that locale-aware part in Bubble and how long does it take? What’s your time worth? How do you even begin to understand timezone awareness or “picking in zone”? I’ve documented that extensively and even built a sample app that shows how that can be done. But it involves loading external libraries and Run JavaScript elements and JavaScript to Bubble element and blah-de-blah-de-blah. It can take more than hour to read my explanations, understand them and examine my sample project, etc. How much is your time worth?
All of that stuff is really great info for folks who want to become exceptionally skilled at Bubble development and increase their knowledge about web and web app development. But what if you wanna just pick a date in some other damn timezone and move on with your app’s core business functionality?
There you go. There’s the value prop.
It’s why I pay @gaurav $4/month for his excellent int’l phone plugin. Because I tried to build it on my own inside of Bubble, but it’s too slow and too hard to maintain. And two, even though I could do my own plugin to implement intl-tel-input, I have other things I want to spend my time on. It solves the problem of getting me valid phone numbers for my users and making sure they are accurate and SMS-able. And for my customers getting them valid, accurate phone numbers for folks that inquire with them. That’s full of win.
(And hey, I still spent a couple of hours configuring it just so and adding other things like integration with Twilio’s free validation API in Bubble.)
The additional question is, “Is it worth my time to maintain a Lite and Pro version of the same plugin or to even branch my code to do that experiment?”
At the moment, it’s unclear. Again, nobody’s asking for that cheaper Lite version.
There will always be people, by the way, who (for many different reasons) are very cost-sensitive and, even if they understand the value of something, will try to get that something for a lower cost. Or who will not pay anything and will accept something less functional but free.
There are also people who understand the value of something and will gladly pay more than you are asking and think you’re a dope for providing something so rad for so little money.
This is something worth thinking about when you plan and price your products.
