Sad news for Corona… that give me a bad feeling that you guys are going to give up the platform, and squeezing out any “values” and let it go later.
How can you convince new comers, new projects and customers to Corona platform, by telling them we have free IAP, Revmob and Vungle Ads plugin, and three month later,…!?
I will pay for the plugin, just because I have to keep my projects go. This $495/year for a stupid Admob access… my god!
Hi Roj,
It’s good to see you in the forums after you purchased Corona Labs.
Anyway, the point is that we are fully aware the Corona team is working to keep the platform up and running. The problem is that you guys are introducing radical changes to the pricing out of the blue and telling that the price is reasonable. Like I said before, I understand you are trying to keep your business going but you are constantly making changes, adding price tags to stuff out of nowhere. What’s next? Will you introduce a “Gamer Bundle” and charge for GameCenter, GPGS and GameCircle plugins? Who knows, right?
Some of us are trying to keep their own business running and some of us work as an employee. For both parties, it is getting difficult to stick with the platform since you are constantly changing your mind about the pricing. Right now, you introduced an additional $1000 to our budget before we were even prepared which could have been spent for user acquisition, targeted ads etc.
I’ve asked before and I’m asking again, if you want to justify your pricing changes please share a roadmap with us so we know what and when we are going to face changes.
So what happens after the end of January?
I’ve only just got my app released and ad’s were just starting to show some promise (granted it was only a few dollars but…)
And now I have to start all over again with new plugins ???
(also - all the links to access my ad’s dashboard seem to have disappeared, where do I track current impressions, see how much my ad’s will make prior to the cutoff)
I’m not in a position to be able to pay $995 per year, my app has only just about made $250 in sales so far.
As much as I love Corona I see this as a bit of a slap in the face for indies just starting out and I think either more notice should have been given or have a plan in place to work with indies at the lower levels to help them get to a place where $995 is a more reasonable prospect.
8-(
I’m more or less in the same boat as you. i have been playing with coronads, chartboost and adcolony less than a month ago. Starting to have a solid custom framework to be able roll between them and wanted to implement on a new project application…
Now fact is I don’t see anymore my ads test application in my dashboard dev and the “monetization” button no longer available as I guess it is activated as soon as I will buy the plugin.
Problem is, I can’t afford the plugin of 1 ground on an 80% (more or less) developped project. Adding the fact that it would be my very first finished project, that wouldn’t make sense for me as a starter.
I mean, I understand the point of corona, but I dread to choose another free plugin now and after a month a so of development and testings announced that I have to pay for it … would just drive me crazy, but now that my app is at the edge of ending I see no other thing to do than continuing with a free new plugin, despite the fact that it delay me a bit …
In that optic, one could give me any advice on good plugins for banner ( to replace corona ads) , interstitial and video reward ( to replace chartboost and adcolony ) and as easy to use as corona ads ?
I mean, will it still be simply by adding the plugin to a project with the format name of the ad 5 interstial, banner top/bottom etc…) ?
Anyway we can send credits to corona team, especially Rob, because they try to answer our questions and fix glitches we can encounter. For a free platform, the support is very good and noone can say the contrary on this… Still the roadmap idea stated by another forumer ain’t no bad idea, to avoid some unconvienent/unexpected unwilled surprised 
Forgive my confusion, but am I reading it correctly that there will be no free Admob solution once we use a build later than 2016.3005?
So we have two alternatives:
Pay 500$/year for a monetization plugin
Use free plugin like AppLovin and share something with Corona
Is this ok?
I couldn’t find any information what what is the Corona’s revenue share if you use AppLovin or Vungle?
Also… Personally I think the price is just too high.
I have been with Corona for about many years, i feel I can’t accept The Corona Professional Bundle is offered at $995/year . and i decide not continue using Corona SDK for my further development. I deeply understand the Corona SDK need to earn money for running company, but i can’t image suddenly need to pay US$495/yr, and i don’t know what will happen in next year, more need to pay?
Vungle is free and applovin is 5% rev share currently.
You can already consider adcolony, admob, chartboost and Corona ads to another new step…
Let’s say it like that after all…
BTW I have started to have a look at the other solutions, and I think that it’s necessary to sweep away the plug-ins of providers that we can’t even register on their web site…I just find it amazing…
For the moment I will try to move on with vungle, but I guess it could also become soon far from free to charges too… Just a huntch…
That seems to be the case. You will need to start your subscription.
Can you offer more alternatives for AdMob plugin? I also think the price it’s too high.
Example:
495.00/year 100% revenue
Free, but 5% revenue Corona
I’m paying for the Splash Screen Plugin also. So that will be 495 + 99 = 594.
It’s so sad. After many many years supporting Corona, it’s the first time that I’m thinking to leave. 
Best regards.
dmglakewood wrote:
Just wanted to give credit where credit is due and say thank you guys for listening to us. We don’t always agree with your decisions, but historically speaking you guys have done a great job listening to us and pivoting in a new direction. I’m absolutely thrilled that corona ads has gone away and ads are on a flat fee now. Is there any plans to convert the other plugins to the same flat model (applovin)?
Thanks again for listening to our concerns in the other thread.
Edit: P.S. Thanks for doing it before the new year as well so we can enjoy that extra little tax break
I fully agree with everything that dmglakewood expressed. Thank you for listening carefully to your developers and thank you for offering alternative routes to successfully monetize an app. My company has had good success with AdMob and Chartboost so we will undoubtedly be subscribing. Others will find the money daunting. It does seem to me that those who are despairing aren’t considering the many, many new ad partners and monetizing alternatives added by Corona during this past year. The list is impressive.
I, for one, haven’t had the time to explore how good or poor these other plugins and their companies might be. But a good number of them are reputable advertising “names” with good overall reputations and track records in our app business. Hence, many other app developers (beyond Corona users) must be displaying ads from those companies (or their surveys or their ad walls, etc.) and making satisfactory money – or those companies wouldn’t be successful.
On the technical side, I have a question. Once this change takes place, I assume that the Chartboost plugin will revert to not passing anything through Corona’s setup. So we will again be using Chartboost’s Dashboard to view results and set up payments or new products. Is that correct? And if so, could someone at Corona remind me of your projected timing on this?
Thanks for listening to all of our varying thoughts.
Steve
For those who can’t afford these plugins, we do offer a bunch for free that offer competitive eCPMs, have a wide variety of ad formats. Chartboost and AdColony were rev-sharing models which for many of our studios and successful indie developers. The flat-fee is something they asked for. We are trying to create a model that works for everyone.
@sbullock, with the new Chartboost and AdColony plugins you will have to create an account with them and manage your business relationship through their developer portals. The same for AdMob, with the difference being we never routed it through Corona Ads.
@Aatos Media, only two plugins have an up front revenue share: Facebook Audience Network and AppLovin. This is handled behind the scenes, so you don’t pay us. You get 100% of the income your portals’ report. The bulk of our monetization options remain free.
As for the future, I don’t believe we have any plans to change any additional existing ad plugin to a paid model.
We want a balance between flat-fee, revenue sharing and free plugins to fit the variety of business models each of you have. As we decide to add new monetization options, we will evaluate each one and decided which model it fits best into. We have no intention of leaving our lower earning customers behind but at the same time we have to recognize that our higher earning customers need something that works for them. It’s about finding that right mix.
Rob
Rob and team,
We appreciate your listening to us and adjusting to better meet our needs. We’re just hoping for more consistency going forward. Also we hope you might consider offering a paid plugin for any of the current revenue share ones (specifically FAN) at some future date.
Here’s hoping you’ve found the revenue model that keeps the ilghts on
What do enterprise users have access to with this weeks business plan? The pro subscription would now be in the same ballpark as a small business enterprise subscription right? Would enterprise users have access to the ad binaries too?
Guys don’t compare Unity with Corona.It’s a comparison of apples and oranges.
Corona SDK is the paradise of the newbie.The chance to become from zero to hero.
Charging hundreds of $ for monetization plugins is going to ruin everything.
Rob I deeply respect you but this looks bad.You don’t have enough GOOD monetization plugins to pull that move.
If you don’t add more of them into a paid model then Corona SDK might have a chance.
As someone that has over a billion ad impressions I can safely say that applovin has the best ecpm of any company I’ve ever used. So to say there aren’t any good monetization plugins isn’t fully true.
Hi @greenblueinteractive,
Let me address a couple of points:
While we offer easy-to-learn-and-build features that are incredible for new developers, we can’t overlook the fact that we have some incredibly successful studios using Corona as well. Some of those studios range from small two person operations to studios with well over 100 employees. We need to have business plans that are attractive to all Corona users, from the hobbyist with a dream, to the small startup, to the successful large studio.
As far as the “good” plugins are concerned, if you look at various Top 10 and Top 20 lists, we are well represented. Consider
http://blog.soom.la/2016/01/top-20-mobile-ad-networks.html as an example. From that list we offer:
AdMob
Chartboost
AppLovin
Vungle
AdColony
Supersonic
InMobi
RevMob
Kiip
Take out the three new paid plugins and you’re left with 6 in this list’s top 20 (and 4 in the top 10) that are free for you to use. Our plugins that didn’t make this list frequently show up in other lists, i.e. Appodeal and AppNext, or they have specializations that make themselves great to use for certain types of apps (KIDOZ and SuperAwesome for child-friendly apps, for instance).
There is no reason a developer who is starting to grow their business can’t be very successful with our suite of free-to-use plugins. Then, when you begin to gain momentum and you feel ready to step up to one of the flat-rate plugins (AdMob, Chartboost), you can do so.
Rob
By “good” monetization plugins I mean the data I collected using them in my apps for weeks / months and hundreds of thousands ads.
“Good” may be completely subjective but that’s how I saw it in my apps.
One ad network could be in position 4 and another in position 5 but the difference in revenue chaotic.
As I said before, if you don’t make more of them paid it might work (newbie developers have some monetization tools, corona increase income etc etc).
I strongly support Corona :D
If I do not use build later than 3005, will I still be able to build apps with a free admob solution?