Movable Type’s Pricing
There’s very little about this subject that hasn’t already been said but I mention it because most of this blog’s readers don’t need to read up on the plethora of other “popular” blogs out there. I have the luxury of knowing that this blog isn’t widely read and thus, I can focus my posts on those whom I care about rather than catering to a mass audience (I do that elsewhere).
For my friends who are on Blogger/Blogspot/LiveJournal and still considering the move to MT (of which there are many of you), think twice.
That’s not to say “don’t” but do take some new information into consideration. Over a certain number of author/blogs in an installation, MT3.0 will cost money. In what is possibly the most confusing price structure page I’ve seen, let me boil down the facts that are important to you:
- MT3.0d is a developer edition. That means there’s some, but very little there that will make your life better as a blogger.
- If you are one author and expect to have less than 3 MT blogs, you can still get MT3.0 for free anyways.
- Over that, you pay 69.99 for 5 authors and 5 blogs but you get support from the company etc.
- There are nuances to definition of blog and author and other things that I won’t bore you with because for most users they’re not relevant but feel free to ask me.
Here are my thoughts for those who are considering the move to MT or just recently switched:
- you probably won’t have more than 1 author 1 blog so you can still get it free
- MT still has the best support and now that it’s a real product, you actually can EXPECT support (if you got the pay version)
- MT has the best plug-in community out there
- Mike uses WordPress and so far as I can tell, that’s a viable alternative but could require more developer skills to customize
- MT 2.661 is still free and as you can see from all the blogs out there, it’s a great tool. Magazines like Boxes and Arrows and our web comic OK/Cancel run on it and they don’t even look like blogs.
- There’s always Typepad, another product from MT’s Six Apart. Admittedly, it isn’t free. You get hosting and a product even more feature rich than MT out of the box so basically it’s blogspot with no ads and much much better functionality.
The way I see it, most of you can still go with WordPress, MT 2.661, or even MT 3.0 (which, when released beyond developer edition, should be quite impressive) without paying a dime. If you don’t want to setup stuff, Typepad’s a cheap alternative ($5/mo for 50MB and basic MT stuff) and at the higher end, even handles photo albums and stuff.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. I currently have mine, kathryn’s, jamie’s, anita’s, and thao’s blogs all on illusiondesigns. In addition, I start short term blogs to sell my stuff, or for school projects. Most likely, I’ll fork over $70 because I like MT and it’s a good product. I can switch if I wanted to but I also believe in paying for a product that is good.
I’ll also have to make decisions regarding OK/Cancel’s platform but that’s a much more complicated discussion that I won’t get into yet.
If you have any questions, let me know.
Related blog entries with good insight:
Six Apart’s Commitment to a Free Version
Kottke’s The End of Free
Jay Allen’s 6A Quells the Fury
Mark Pilgrim’s Freedom 0
MT3.0 and Eating
4 Comments