What's New? - December 2021

Today's a big one folks - so let's just jump straight to it. 

​

Pricing

For some time now, many of our long-standing fans have been asking us things like "How can I support Report Toaster" or "How is this app free?" 

As we alluded to in our article back in November, we originally launched Report Toaster as a free app with the intention to scope out the market, develop new features, and of course, solicit some very valuable feedback. Ultimately we knew we would need to monetize the app, but wanted to do so in a way that would both minimize the loss of functionality and continue to support our valuable existing customers...

Well, what better way to do that than with a bit of transparency? 

As you might expect from a reporting app, data processing and storage is our biggest cost. Thousands of stores, millions of orders, and enough webhooks to give any developer a serious headache. The larger the storefront, and unsurprisingly, the more data that's required. In the end, we settled on a pricing plan that would be both easy to understand and would try to reflect this consideration as equitably as possible. 

As a result, all of our pricing plans are designed to match the chosen Shopify plan for your store:  

Simple, right? In fact, for many of our smaller customers, the fact that Report Toaster gives them reports that their Shopify subscription doesn't allow is probably worth the monthly price alone:

Did you know - if you're mainly interested in unlocking better reports, a Shopify Basic Subscription ($29.99) + Report Toaster ($9.00) is actually still cheaper than upgrading to either Shopify ($79.99) or Shopify Advanced ($299.00)? 

And as for most of our larger customers, well... having an app that combines powerful data analytics with quality customer support is a combination that speaks for itself. 

But no matter what your chosen paid plan is, you will always have access to More Data and More Features. Let's look at each of these in turn. 

More Data

We would love to offer unlimited data to everybody, forever. But considering the costs associated with the storage and processing of all this information, we had to strike a balance somewhere. Therefore, each of our paid plans will allow users access to unlimited data**.

(**Okay so technically, Shopify only allows third-party apps to go back and sync up to 2 years of data. But any customers who had been with us for say, 1 year, would therefore have up to 3 years available.)

The advantage of having a much larger set of data is that you have a lot more flexibility when it comes to generating reports. You can do things like: 

1. Compare different sales over time (e.g. my Black Friday sales compared to this time last year.)
   
2. Analyze longer-term trends (e.g. monthly lows/highs over a 2-year period.)
   
3. Ensure you have complete calendar years (e.g. for tax reports.)

And so much more! The possibilities are nearly endless, and we wanted our paid users to feel like they had the freedom to create everything their business needs. 

Now in comparison, our Free plan (available to Shopify/Shopify Basic users) will be limited to 1 year of data. This we felt was a fair compromise to limit how much their data costs impact our system while still demonstrating the potential value of our app. 

More Features

As well as having access to more data, certain features of our app will only be available on our paid plans. A couple of these you might have seen already, such as our Shared Links and Scheduled Reports. We're also planning to add a very big, very exciting new feature in just a couple of weeks, which we feel will radically re-invent the way merchants integrate their different apps and analyze their data.

Really cool stuff. Keep an eye on this space as we make these features available.

What Now? 

We know the holiday season is very busy for most of our merchants, and we wanted to find a way to make this transition as easy as possible.

This is why we decided to offer our existing customers a free gift - an extension of the free trial of Report Toaster until January 10th. We felt like this was the best way to show our appreciation for our existing customers and give you time to make an informed decision. So go ahead - explore the app, try out the different features, and choose the best plan for your business :).

At the end of the trial period, what happens next depends on your Shopify plan:

1. For Shopify Plus and Shopify Advanced users, you will be prompted to upgrade to the respective paid plan to enable continued service. 
   
2. For Shopify and Shopify Basic users, you will be prompted to either upgrade to the respective paid plan for your account, or the Free plan will be selected by default. 
   

You can learn more about our different plans by checking out the app listing here.

One final note - we want to do right by our customers. Users with special circumstances regarding pricing should contact us if they're having issues paying or need to discuss broader data requirements.

Ultimately, we want to work with you to get you squared away and sorted with what you need. So if you have any questions about the trial, our free/paid plans, or anything else to do with your account, reach out to us via the chat or email us at support@cloudlab.com. 

Until next time! 

• Related Articles

• Whats New? - December 2023

  It's nearly the end of the year, but even so we managed to sneak in a few additions to everybody's favorite reporting app. Let's take a look! New Premium Reports Based on the feedback from our customers, we're always in the process of developing new ...

• What's New? - May 2022

  May is finally here, and with another month comes another exciting development for Report Toaster.  Tax Reports  Helping a few of our merchants compile their data as they struggled through the tax season gave us an idea - we really needed our own ...

• Whats New? - July 2023

  Another month has passed, and we're now ready to show off a few new Premium Reports! Premium reports are any reports that provide extra data or advanced metrics that assist merchants in making better decisions. For example, here is our Days to ...

• Whats New? - April 2023

  It's April, and we've been hard at work behind the scenes to create some new Premium reports! Premium reports are any reports that provide extra data or advanced metrics that assist merchants in making better decisions. For example, here is our ...

• What's New? - April 2022

  It's now April, and this month sees us adding some interesting capabilities for handling Inventory and Returns inside Report Toaster. Let's take a look :) Inventory Location One of our most requested features, merchants have been asking us for the ...