“In general, monetization plugins packaged around a particular service provider is not allowed. If you are the said service provider and are interested in providing a Corona Plugin for your service, we would love to work with you. Please contact ads@coronalabs.com for more information.” https://marketplace.coronalabs.com/submission-guidelines#corona_plugins
My only question is, for now you have those certain ad plugins as pro and the rest as free. But at any time, seemingly spur of the moment, you may decide, this or that free plug in you will now charge for. Again, the same problem is happening that you guys made with the splash screen plug-in, you are making the future of developing with corona sdk totally unpredictable for developers and in turn will drive away many devs whole prefer a more stable payment environment. Might be a good idea to at least figure out what you plan to do in terms of charging for things at the beginning of each year so devs can expect them instead of just jumping out of the blue with new payments as and when you see fit.
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 
AdMob, Chartboost, or AdColony do not guarantee higher revenue so why are you classifying those as “pro” as compared to other ad providers. I believe they are simply more commonly used by developers which makes them a good candidate for monetisation by Corona.
First of all, I’d like to thank those who have supported Corona all these years and have worked with as we find a balance in our ecosystem that creates a sustainable platform business. Though it may not always seem like it, we do consider the feedback that comes our way as well as the discussion that occurs in these forums.
Secondly, I want to thank our team (especially Ingemar who has been hacking tirelessly to get this collection of plugins together as a high priority) for coordinating around this release. I’ve worked with a lot of groups over the years and the Corona team really really loves working on this product and doing its best to serve the community. My job is to keep the lights on but their tenacity and dedication is what makes everything tick.
Finally, it’s important to know that we aren’t trying to rob developers by charging the prices we do. A single plugin at $495/year is less than $50/month. Yes it’s paid annually but the primary reason for that is because we discourage the idea that a developer buy for one month, release their app and then cancel the subscription. We are considering a monthly plan with a 12-month commitment. If you’re not interested in paying for the Corona Professional Bundle, there are many other monetization options to choose from to boot up your game with until you hit a volume of impressions before you believe it worth the money and commitment to buy the Corona Professional Bundle.
Hi Roj
Thanks for posting here. I agree there is a need to create sustainable ecosystem. I have been with Corona for about 5-6 years and over the years have been advocating to developers around me to give the platform a try. There isn’t a need to create awareness via splash screen to end-users who are largely not developers.
I hope you can also understand most of here are hobbyists and indie developers that are trying to make ends meet with the ad revenue. The life span of games / apps are generally short with the strong competition out there. Users who download our apps may uninstall them within minutes or hours. Thus we cannot expect consistent ad revenue even with Admob so it is a challenge for us to commit to even a year of subscription at such high cost.
I hope you can consider revising the plugin subscription to something much more affordable like USD99 per year and hopefully including the removal of the splash screen.
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
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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:
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495.00/year 100% revenue
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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