We currently charge $50/mo for access to all UNA PowerApps installation and updates. UNA core and CoreApps can be used for free, but often we hear from people asking for a trial for PowerApps, as it may be difficult to assess which ones you may need, how they work, and if they’d be used by you site users.

So, we were thinking about a way to offer a trial, but we don’t want to uninstall, deactivate or  limit modules post-trial if they’re not paid for. This would mean that we’d have to add a way to remotely force client sites to downgrade or lose functionality in some way. We don‘t want to even consider making such a tool. The only way we want UNA sites to communicate with UNA.IO is by requesting available apps and updates, and installing them if authorised by site operator.

Now, the idea is to allow free download and installation of all PowerApps, but limit updates to licensed ones only. For example, if you want to try the Messenger, you’d be able to download, install and use it for free, but if a new version becomes available you would have to buy the app or sign up for a monthly plan that includes all powerapps updates (Pro or Cloud). If you haven’t been using it much, or your community is still in pre-production, you’d be able to simply uninstall and install the new version for free. If, however, the module is used actively and there is user data in it, uninstalling would wipe all the data, so a paid update is the only option. Simply using an outdated module is also not likely to work, as it may break compatibility with the rest of the system. Therefore, webmasters need to decide if they have to delete the app (to keep other modules up to date), or reinstall it (and lose user data), or pay for updates.

What do you think? Would that be a good change?