In a recent reply to a question about pricing, Conor White-Sullivan, the co-founder of Roam, tweeted the following:
So:
- An annual plan equivalent to $12-15 a month.
- Free for dabblers. Conor has also previously suggested there might be a free plan for people under a certain income level.
- The ability to access and export notes even once you stop paying.
- Publicly readable databases made free.
As Conor had previously mooted a possible cost of $30/month, a much cheaper level is going to be a big relief to lots of people. A level of that amount was clearly scaring some potential users like @Moctu off.
Also critical to Roam’s future success, I think, is the decision to allow the accessing and exporting of notes even once someone has stopped paying.
It would be a severe blow to put hundreds or even thousands of hours into connecting knowledge in your Roam brain and then not to be able to access it because of inability to pay. (Of course, the ability to export your Roam database to JSON or Markdown already exists. However neither options provide the opportunity to access your content in an easily viewable way.)
Finally, part of Conor’s rationale for creating Roam is to speed up the generation and inter-connecting of knowledge in society. So it makes perfect sense for Roam to make publicly-readable Roam databases free.