Important changes to your AppFurnace account and exciting news for teachers

Quite soon we will make AppFurnace a subscription only service with a month’s free trial for new customers. Instead of the Basic and Plus accounts there will be a single “Pro” subscription only account. The good news is that Pro will include the iPad layout.

We value our customers and hope that you will take up the change to upgrade to the Pro membership, which we have priced at a competitive rate to ensure that you get a fantastic service for a fair price. This will allow us to continue growing and improving the service.

We will ease the transition for existing users by giving you an extended free period of three months after which we will email you an invitation to subscribe. Existing AppFurnace Plus account subscribers will continue unchanged.

And now a preview of some very exciting news for teachers! With our partner KudlianSoftware we will soon be announcing a new AppFurnace Education product designed for classroom use. It will mean that your pupils can enjoy using AppFurnace, but will come with a new front end for easier pupil management, and regular resources to support the new curriculum. Prices are available for both Primary and Secondary schools by emailing [e-mail].

Sign up for the Pro account will be by credit card with a monthly fee of £20 (plus VAT if applicable). If you decline the invitation to subscribe we will be sorry to see you go but we will assume that you no longer need your account and close it down.

We have included some of the questions you may have below. We will also add them to a FAQ page on our website and on the forums. If you have any further questions please can you post them to the forums and we will pick them up there.

Best wishes

The AppFurnace Team

 

FAQ

When will this happen?

We will email you again later on in October with the date for the switchover. Until then nothing will change. However schools may want to find out more about AppFurnace Education by emailing [e-mail].

Will I still be able to use all of the AppFurnace tools?

Yes and more!  The AppFurnace Pro edition will include the iPad layout.

What happens if I stop subscribing?

We will close your account after a month. Unfortunately it will not be possible to reinstate your account if you come back again, you will need to start a new account.

We will however archive any apps that you have paid to have published free for a year. Should you wish to update or restore your archived apps we will give you a quote for getting it working again. The cost will depend on how big a job it is. If its been a few years and the AppFurnace platform has moved on then it may be as much work as getting us to make a new app! If its a simple restore we will charge £100 plus VAT.

What will happen to my published apps if I stop subscribing?

Apps you have published yourself on the app store will stay up as long as you keep your Apple developer account and Google play accounts open. However once your AppFurnace account has been deleted you won’t be able to make updates or changes anymore.

Apps published by Calvium will stay on the stores at Calvium’s discretion. We will keep the apps on the store for at least 6 months and then contact you.

How do I do an update to a published app if I don’t subscribe?

You would have to set up a new account and ask us to restore your app from our archives. If we still have your app archived then we will give you a quote for getting it working again. The cost will depend on how big a job it is. If its been a few years and the AppFurnace platform has moved on then it may be as much work as getting us to make a new app! If its a simple restore we will charge £100 plus VAT.

Can I pay by invoice?

If paying monthly on a credit card is not possible get in touch via [e-mail] and we can raise an invoice for you to pay for six months or a year.

What happens if I am a Plus subscriber?

Nothing except your service will now be called AppFurnace Pro

What happens if I am a Basic user?

Your account will continue with a free trial of AppFurnace Pro for three months after we make the switch to subscription only. At that time, you will need to subscribe to AppFurnace Pro or your account will be closed.

Why are you doing this again?

Only receiving payment when we published an app was not paying for itself so we needed to make a change. We hope that by moving to a single Pro account that includes iPad will provide a more regular income stream so that we can invest more of our time and update the tools more regularly.

We also wanted to support our educational users better by creating services to support classroom use and to provide teaching materials. Partnering with educational specialists Kudlian should allow us to provide a far better service for this sector. Teachers can find out more about AppFurnace Education by emailing [e-mail].