Some of you have noticed about very similar app available on Mac App Store called CodeBox. To clarify this situation I’ll tell you a little bit of history. Back in early 2009 I got an idea for storing and managing of code snippets. Since I am a web developer I invited Vadim to join and develop Snippets for Mac. He didn’t even know what snippet itself were, but he was ready to join this project to help implementing of my ideas.
Since then many things have happened. I think we’ve built great product for developers who love using Snippets, we know it from your feedback :). We even took runner-up position on Ars Design Award in category “Most Innovative Mac OS X App”. There were some other applications like snippets before our launch, but Snippets became the best and most innovative product. Thank you very much for your support.
Since the beginning we had some disagreements about the way to go and the future of the Snippets, main of them are:
- I thought we should go freemium (like Evernote does); Vadim wanted shareware.
- I wanted to grow as a company making the platform and offering more stuff; he liked to be indie developer focusing on Mac only development.
- I wanted either app to be free (making money from additional services) or more expensive than cheap; he wanted app to be very cheap (literally 5$).
So, before releasing our latest 1.2 version he decided to leave Snippets to do something new, maybe for iOS. As he said. May be he did something else, but a day before launch of Mac App Store he decided to compile Snippets with some features cut, small UI changes and a different name. He even forgot to change the name Snippets to his new name everywhere. FAIL.
What is the difference?
For now not much. As I said, in Vadim’s application there are small UI changes, lack of some features, price and availability in Mac App Store. Of course, we have different future since we will go different ways like we wanted all the time.
As I mentioned before, all of the ideas implemented in the app were mine. Without them Snippets wouldn’t be the most innovative app being just a couple of months on the market. As one of the Snippets user said by email "ideas are the difference between good and mediocre software".
Anyway, competition is GOOD! We will see how we could simplify a developers’ daily job.
There is Snippets on Mac App Store.
Right, and this is very confusing. Someone has taken name Snippets on Mac App Store. I have already contacted developers to resolve this situation but nothing has changed yet. And the answer is "Yes" for the another popular question "Will Snippets be available in Mac App Store?".
Future.
The work on Snippets is actively going on, but direction will be changed a little bit and new cool features are coming. I’m going to write another blog post about my final decisions, plans and the future of Snippets. Please follow us on Twitter, subscribe to this blog’s RSS or subscribe by email. I have really good news for you. Stay tuned!
Comments
Snippets is clearly #1, but you should consider going with 3 pane view too.
Thank you. 3 pane view is in our task list for the upcoming release.
So what does this all mean to all of us existing paying users ;( antother SNAFU :( like with so many other apps that switched to MacStore ;(
I bought snipplets just a little bit over a month ago, and started using it just recently. Nevertheless a great app indeed.
What does SNAFU mean? Is it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNAFU and in your question meaning that you have to pay again? If yes, this is definitely Apple’s Mac App Store problem. It is nothing more than just a tool to accept customers payments and installing software in tech terms. I hope we can avoid these problems and you will not pay twice.
Yeah I know it’s only Apples fault ;( but I was just letting some steam out ;( (to be honest unprovoked, being more pissed at Code Box). I definitely won’t be buying CodeBox but will wait for some sort of snipplets “upgrade” by you.
what a pity, feels like theft
original snippets all the way :)
You made me delete my positive comment on codebox at the App Store
As a developer who is considering Snippets, there are two things that are holding me back from purchasing it, although some might consider these minor.
While I appreciate that I can change the colors in the editor, I would like to see these match up with BBEdit’s options. As it stands, I can’t match the colors in Snippets with the colors I use in BBEdit.
I’d also like to see a visual cue of a tab in the editor, also like BBEdit.
Thanks for the feedback and feature request. We will consider adding this functionality.
I’m developing a code management tool which will support Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPhone and iPad.
That’s right. Competition is GOOD! :-)
Good luck! :)
Snippets is great but the basics of the app are easy. You made a great app doing something easy to use and very helpfull.
To be the leader, rich your app with steroids. Little details difference an app from a great app.
C’on let’s work.
You wanted it to be free, and the other guy wanted it to be $5? Where did the $40 price tag come from?
There is “or more expensive than cheap”. Pricing is very hard topic for the software industry. In short, there are couple reasons for the final Snippets price and main of them are:
1) Snippets has a very limited target audience (you can’t sell millions of copies)
2) You can’t offer high quality by selling for 5$ since you can’t sell much.
3) $30-$50 is the lowest price range for the high quality Mac software.
Free Snippets is now available — http://snippets.me
I just want to let you know, be wary of posting upcoming features. If he’s willing to gank your initial idea, he’s willing to code your new ones into his app and sell it before you get to. So just be careful. I had to learn that a hard way…
I really hope you decide to go with the “more expensive than cheap” option. I’m willing to shell out 30€ or so for a good app, and pay for updates, but I don’t want to pay for a subscription just to sync…
But I understand you’ll have to make the decision based on what makes most sense for your business.
I personally can completely understand people who don’t want to pay for subscription. But the difference is that when you pay for software and its updates you pay for the features. When you pay subscription fee for the sync service and other stuff you pay for the value. It’s a new trend of software and it works better for both vendors and consumers.
You may use not all of the features from the new release of software, but you have to pay for update.
I think the whole $5 software game in this field will crash and burn as a business model; this is not going to sell in huge numbers. Your work is great but only for coders. Your not going to be on every kids iphone….
I agree free (so you can guide and let the community do the work for themselves while you do your day job) or paid $30-$50 (make this your day job and have enough funds to code everything privately).
Five bucks software for an app like snippets will inevitably mean “over time” a lack of funds to get features in “speedily” and a lack of community coders because your charging they won’t help you. An overall slide in time even if both models starting from here seem the same deal but one is mega cheap.
The outlined business model here makes more sense and seems better thought out.
Honestly, I think it makes more sense in such a limited field to have stuck together – but if differences are so far apart. You seemed to work very well together and fast. Thank you both for these innovations on our platform.
Best of luck to both of you in the future I look forward to see if I am right or wrong.
Just now I will stick with snippets.
I’m a little bit puzzled…
Basically, the coder behind Snippets left to release a 10 times cheaper copy.
I fear the worst concerning the future of Snippets
I would not worry people leave apps they worked on every day to let another go on with it. It is life. Objective-c/cocoa is the fastest growing language/framework after maybe python/django. There is no shortage of coders out there coming to the Mac. The only reason this got publicity is because the old developer copied Snippets pretty much wholesale and sold it for $5. If he had done something else know body would even know about it.
Funny to read your story. A friend asked me recently whether I would be interested doing a screencast about CodeBox. Soon I got in touch with Vadim. When I told him I could do a free screencast for Mac OS X Screencasts, but remain in control over it (especially publication. Which means I wouldn’t have to publish anything) , or do a paid one, as commissioned work, he seemed to be totally happy with the free version. $5-thinking that is!
Sorry you had such an unfortunate situation.
More expensive than cheap is not 30€! At least not for a code collector app. Compare the price to apps like Textmate (44,85€), Espresso (59,95€) or CSSEdit (29,95€)! These apps are also not sold to everyone. I’m not a developer, but i’m sure it’s much more work to develop CSSEdit than Snippets.
I’m interested in Snippets since many month but, the price seems to be to high for me. I think, 19,95€ would be fair and realistic.
Textmate is way too expensive and Snippets is also.
I agreee that 20 Euro is much more reasonable.
Ill wait for the competition and the price to be normal.
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Please do some tutorial videos like all good independent Mac software developers are doing. This gives the buyer lots of incentive and helps them learn the software quickly. Keep up the good work!
I bought CodeBox first, thinking it looked simpler and cleaner than Snippets (also being unaware of the history behind the two apps). Unfortunately, I found it to be a little buggy (tried to change an expansion abbreviation and it just wouldn’t let me – ultimately had to delete snippet) and also the toolbar implementation seemed to be more complicated. I tried out Snippets and, so far, it feels like a better fit for me. Overall, my impression is that Snippets has a bit more thought put into how it will be used.
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Looks like features cut and logo cut: logopond.com/gallery/detail/43070