When we introduced Indigo Up-to-Date subscriptions in 2016 with the release of Indigo 7, the primary goal was to release features faster via more frequent releases. In that respect, it's been an incredible success: in our first 13 years, we shipped one feature release about every 2 years. Since the release of Indigo 7, we've shipped a feature release on average every 8 months. Up-to-Date subscriptions have allowed us to "smooth out" our upgrade/maintenance revenue, which is our primary source of income, and deliver more features and enhancements, more frequently. This has worked out well for both our users and for our business.
However, due in no small part to astronomical rise in inflation over the past year, we are having to increase our Up-to-Date subscription cost. Starting on August 1, 2023, we are increasing the yearly Up-to-Date subscription cost by $5 USD, from $59.95 USD to $64.95 USD for all subscriptions (existing and new). This is the first price change since we introduced Indigo Up-to-Date subscriptions in 2016 and represents about an 8% increase.
We did not take this change lightly. To give some perspective, the cumulative inflation rate since 2016 is about 27%. Nobody likes price increases (especially us as witnessed by this being the first increase in almost 7 years), but we believe that this modest increase will help to offset a portion of cost increases our business has incurred and help us to continue to develop and deliver great features and enhancements moving forward.