Instapaper, the popular read-it-later service, is doubling the price of its subscription for new and existing subscribers alike. The good news? In a blog post this week, the company promises “increased investment” in the service that will result in “faster feature development.”
This marks the first price increase for Instapaper Premium in nine years, the company says. With the changes, the monthly plan is increasing from $3/month to $6/month. The annual plan will rise from $30/year to $60/year. The price increase goes into effect for new subscriptions immediately, and for existing users after January 1.
Instapaper outlines a few reasons for the price increase. First and foremost, the company says the increased revenue will let it invest more in the business. “We’ve heard from many of you that you want faster feature development,” it says in its blog post. “Our new pricing will allow us to hire more engineers so we can deliver more features faster.”
In line with the promise of new features, Instapaper has announced something it calls Permanent Archive. Here’s how this feature, which is exclusive to Instapaper Premium, works:
Today, we’re launching Permanent Archive, an Instapaper Premium feature that ensures you will always have access to the content you save. That means articles you read, highlight, and create notes on will always be accessible to you, even if they disappear from the Internet.
Permanent Archive is available today for all Instapaper Premium customers. Your articles have already been permanently archived as part of the feature launch.
The price increase will help Instapaper continue delivering features like Permanent Archive “while maintaining a self-sustaining business.” The company teases things like upgrades to text-to-speech, improved organization features, and new summarization tools as other features on the roadmap.
Finally, Instapaper promises that it “won’t need to increase the price for the foreseeable future” after this change. It’s also launching a new “Instapaper Premium for Students” option, which you can learn more about on the company’s website.
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