I've been trying out Plottr and I really like it, the featureset jives really well with how I outline and what information I want around in that process and how I want to manipulate it.
You'd think that would be enough for me to recommend it, but for some reason it's followed suit with the enshittification of the internet and the primary way to access it is a subscription service. It's a fuckin' piece of software that you download to your computer and has files stored locally. It is feature complete and a full release so there is no real excuse for a subscription-oriented model except the company realising that a drip feed from your wallet is more profitable than selling you a piece of software that does not need any upgrades. The website attempts to justify this by saying 'lifetime updates' are included but it is currently fully functioning as is so I question the value proposition of paying in perpetuity to use a program on my computer to access and interact with files stored on my computer.
(There is an online version as well. I understand subscription models in this case as this is an area where continued development and maintenance are required, as well as server costs for your files etc.)
But, you say! There is a lifetime license! Problem solved!
It is two hundred fucking united states dollars.
I am in a good financial position these days. I can spend money on stupid shit I want. But I cannot get past the audacity of charging $200 for what should be the default fucking option for owning software.
There's nothing that quite does what Plottr does, at least that I've found. But for some comparison:
Scrivener is $59.99 once-off and is probably the best writing-oriented program out there
Aeon Timeline is $65 once-off including a year of free updates
Campfire Blaze honestly has a payment structure I am sideeyeing but at least you can get a lifetime license tailored to what you need out of the program and characters + timeline is still cheaper than Plottr
Wavemaker is donationware
Metos is a subscription model, but has Web-only considerations mentioned above, specific plans for features in development, and is $24 annually rather than $150
The entire Microsoft Office suite is $149.99. Between Word, Excel, and OneNote you could definitely figure something out from a writing perspective and also have all the functionality of a full suite of office software FOR LESS MONEY THAN PLOTTR.
There are of course a wide array of free softwares (Google docs/sheets, Libre Office, etc) but I specifically wanted to call out paid options here to demonstrate how ridiculous their pricing structure is
I dunno man. People are allowed to charge whatever they want for the things that they make, but this is just so blatantly out of step with the market that I can only assume the lifetime license price is specifically aimed at deterring lifetime purchases and extracting the maximum amount of money possible from their target market through subscriptions instead. I feel a particular kind of way about that target market being writers, a group notoriously not known for their financial stability.
Fuck subscription services with no ongoing value proposition taking over how we access software and fuck every company that makes the revenue-driven decision to engage in this tactic. Even if your motivations are honourable (we have people to pay! you want us to be able to pay our hard-working employees, right?) you are pursuing those goals through nothing less than the exploitation of your customers for maximum financial gain.
