We briefly touched on this topic in our last status update, but we felt it deserved a standalone post to provide a bit more context and clarity.
For those just looking for a quick summary, head to the Tl;dr.
Lifetime Plans have been part of Filen from the very beginning. They’ve played a key role in helping us get started and grow, especially in the early days, when one-time purchases gave us the flexibility to build out the platform without relying on outside investors.
Over time, that support also allowed us to take bigger steps, like investing in our own infrastructure and operating on fully in-house servers. That kind of independence is something we’ve always valued and we’re genuinely thankful to everyone who supported us by choosing a Lifetime Plan and making that possible.
Each year around Black Friday, we’ve traditionally run a major Lifetime Plan sale. For many, this has become a regular and expected part of the calendar. Outside of that, however, we’ve increasingly limited their availability, mainly because offering them long-term comes with sustainability challenges.
It doesn’t really make sense to withhold Lifetime Plans all year for the sake of financial stability, only to then sell a larger number at a lower price within just a couple of weeks. It’s a bit like cutting back consistently, only to overcompensate in a short burst -> which doesn’t quite align with the original goal. That’s why we had reconsidered how we approach Lifetime Plans going forward.
Since the Black Friday 2024 sale, Pro Lifetime Plans were not available in between the two sales. For almost an entire year, they remained offline. Part of that was due to our internal algorithm reacting to an unusually high sales volume during the sale and automatically removing them from availability. The other part was a conscious decision on our side not to bring them back immediately, because we wanted to reduce our dependence on one time sales and avoid creating long term obligations that might get in the way of ongoing development and operations.
With this year’s Black Friday, we decided to bring the Pro Lifetime Plans back one last time, as a final opportunity for those who had been waiting. That sale is now over, and with it, Pro Lifetime Plans are being phased out permanently. They will not return in this form in future campaigns.
The Starter Lifetime Plan will continue to be available for now, and there are no changes planned there at this time.
We are sharing this so that expectations are clear, both for those who already have a Lifetime Plan and for those wondering whether they will come back again. If anything changes regarding the Starter Lifetime Plan in the future, we will communicate it clearly and in advance.
Thanks for being here and for supporting Filen along the way, whether through a Lifetime Plan or otherwise.
Tl;dr
- Pro Lifetime Plans have now been phased out permanently.
- The Starter Lifetime Plan will continue to be available for now.
- Everyone who has a Lifetime plan will of course keep it, we’re not taking anything away from anyone.
