I’ve been out the loop for a while and only just read this last night. A bit of a shock knowing that have to update most of my apps , 50+ soon as most of the ad plugins won’t work with my code any more. I was scrapping chartboost as didn’t want to use corona ads. Now I’m being forced to go pro just to update age old apps. Mixed feelings about it as I was indie and pro subscribers over the past years so I’m used to paying but does seem like you have everyone by the balls now who use ads. I’m a bit shocked with the changes I am going to have to make in a couple of weeks, with code and costs just to update old apps. What would be fair is to allow older corona builds to continue supporting ad plugins for 6 months or so to allow changes to be made with so many apps developers have to work on. I was even tempted to look at Gideros as a free alternative. What I’m saying it’s just a suddden change to me. What’s happened in a year already is unnerving and I need consistency. What other changes could possibly be in a month or two?
One change that may happen in the (near?) future is Corona folding if they don’t generate sustainable revenue soon.
We as developers don’t know what the financial health of Corona is, but given the recent activity on pricing, it appears that some version of paid for plugins and/or pro bundle WILL have to work soon - or it’s lights out soon. Something to ponder…
Thank you Corona. This is good.
The new program and pricing seems thoughtful, fair and considerate of developers in a variety of different business situations (beginners, seasoned, struggling, successful, overseas, domestic, etc.).
Wishing your entire team happy holidays and a truly successful 2017!
Steve
@Vince_: Unfortunately we don’t have a try-before-you-buy feature setup. Many of the community plugin developers have requested it, but our current infrastructure doesn’t allow it.
@pirx: No, it’s not a PR move. We thought the earlier pricing was fair but after listening to reasonable points-of-view, we adapted.
Rob
@Rob… I think the existing uploaded apps will fork fine until you want to recompile and update them anyway. You won’t be able to do that without the new plugin but you don’t need to go through all your apps just for the sake of updating Admob. The binaries that are already in a store will continue working as before. Please someone correct me if i’m wrong.
Apps in the wild running AdMob will continue to work until you have a realistic need to update them. Google will eventually turn off ads to that version of AdMob, but I’ve not seen any messages indicating when. When we turn off the legacy AdMob plugin (plugin.google.play.services) it will be a build-time change. You won’t be able to update your apps without the new plugin.
Chartboost and AdColony are a different story. Since the older versions run through Corona Ads dashboard they will stop serving ads at the end of January as will Corona Ads. Those apps will need to be updated ASAP to give enough time for your customers to get their updates.
Rob
As I wrote before this is a good news, 199$ per year sounds as more reasonable fee now.
Just a question, the January 30 cut-off of the old admob pluging is still active or not?
I have read many commments here of developers in same my situation, 30 day is very short time to upgrade all the apps.
As in case of other network services that are changed, have 3 o 6 months of transition time can help the developers.
Thanks and best wishes for Xmas.
Ale
There all kinds of reasons why I need to update. I was aiming on doing them all in the new year, probably Februrary . Now this is a spanner in the works for me (cost and workflow can of worms). If it was 499 I might be more comfortable especially when these pricing package styles keep changing. I’m sure it was about that a couple of years ago before it went free , but at the same price as both IOS and Android corona cards together which is odd, I’d be better to get corona cards and integrate my own ad networks for a couple of days work, with the added benefit of never having them being unsupported by a third party. I know I might spend a month getting my head around it but maybe I’ll be better doing that and have options for adding any other native api at the same time. Maybe its time for a big change. Even if the timing isn’t too great.
Hello guys,
Can somebody please explain three short items for me 
#1 Will AdMob still be available FREE OF CHARGE (I do not get this announcement part: “AdMob updated” ) ?
#2 What Reward ad networks are available FREE OF CHARGE at this moment?
#3 How much % Corona takes now from ads (before this pro plugin)?
Many, many thanks!
Ivan
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AdMob is no longer free. You currently still have access to the old AdMob V2 plugin (plugin.google.play.services). It will be removed in the near future (after we give people time to migrate and we address some technical issues). And you can’t use more modern plugins like GPGS or Google Analytics with the older plugin.
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Consult the monetization guide: https://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/monetization/monetization/index.html to see which Ad Networks offer Rewarded video or other Rewarded ads, polls etc. It’s easier to say whats not 100% Free: AdMob, AdColony, Chartboost, Unity Ads (paid plugin), AppLovin, Facebook Audience Network (revenue share). The rest are 100% free for you to use.
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The only two plugins were there is a percentage involved is AppLovin and Facebook Audience Network. Those currently are set to a 5% share through placement sharing. That is for every 20 ads show, 19 get credited to your account and 1 gets credited to our account. Your dashboard for those two will show you 100% of your revenue. Previously Chartboost and AdColony were also revenue sharing based but are not flat-rate priced.
Rob
Thanks Rob for clear explanation.
Ivan
Rob, just one more clarification: are the new plugins (Admob especially) good to go? You mentioned a need to resolve some technical issues. If I purchase now, can I safely implement without correcting things afterwards or any significant changes coming later?
Yes, all the new updated plugins are good to go. The “technical issues” are with the old plugin.
Rob
As a legacy user, and Corona enthusiast since 2010, I have been asking for some kind of business/professional paid tier for many months now.
After several emails, and adamant “no” responses, we moved our catalogue of apps over to Unity. It was very dismaying to say the least, but we did it.
Now we are presented with this news, in a shocking revelation, why has Corona decided to all of a sudden provide this tier when it seemed like there was no negotiating this?
Either way, I think this is a wonderful idea, & I am so elated to read that Corona is FINALLY listening to it’s users.
The only thing I think is missing from this tier is a paid Applovin plug-in that doesn’t take revenue from the users.
I think that, and many more ad plug-ins should be offered on an a la carte basis for an annual fee.
But kudos to Corona, despite many excruciating emails over the course of the last few months, you finally got it right this time.
Agreed. Applovin really needs to be offered with a flat fee model with no revenue share to give developers a choice. Small developers would start using applovin with revenue share. And when their yearly income from applovin exceeds $5000 for example it would make financial sense for them to pay the flat fee for the plugin. If they don’t have this option they will abandon applovin and explore other monetisation options without revenue share to avoid paying thousands of dollars per year to use a plugin. With the current model it doesn’t make sense for big developers to use applovin.
@gains - exactly. This is what I have been saying all along, for months and months now. Give people options. If those that don’t make much revenue want to use plug-ins with a revenue share, and nothing up-front, that’s great. Give those who want to pay a monthly fee without the 5% being taken out the option to purchase the plug-in at the same rates.
Makes total sense to do it this way, otherwise we will just stick with admob for the time being until more options become available.
We will defo not be integrating with Applovin until we can keep 100% of our revenue.
So I, as a “little developer” that uses adMob and maybe grossing $2,000 / year now must pay the same as a company grossing over $500,000. I see now…
@lessmsios: Admob is one of those plug-ins that they can’t take a % of revenue from.
So it’s only 2 scenarios for them to make money:
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Charge an annual fee for the engine
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Or charge an annual fee for the plug-in.
Since Corona SDK is free, it makes more sense to open the engine up to all devs, and give them options to use plug-ins that don’t charge an annual fee but take a % of revenue, OR charge the dev up front for use of the plug-in via an annual fee, & the dev keeps 100% of revenue.
In your case, if you are not wanting to pay for Admob, then you could use Applovin or some of the other plug-ins offered with no up front fees.
Been out of the loop for a few days but this is great news! Thank you corona!
A small note on Unity Ads for the feint of heart. It usually takes over 5K impressions before you see any money. They have a fancy name for it, but I call it a tax.