Illuminated Bits:

We love beautiful planners and iOS apps, so about three years ago we started a project to build beautiful planners on iOS. We call it Capsicum. It’s a robust and feature-rich daily planning app, designed to help with planning your day, tracking your habits, and telling your story.

We are thrilled to announce that Capsicum has been approved for sale on the App Store. The App Review team is on holiday from Dec 23–27 and we’ll be launching when they return on Dec 28th.

Not only that but, we’re also being allowed (at least for now) to offer the kind free trial that I’ve always wanted to be able to offer.

I’m not a “daily planner” kind of guy but I wanted to post this, not only for the information but to talk about their model. While it’s subscription-based ($2/month), they are doing something really interesting.

Apps with subscriptions are allowed to offer trials, but you’re billed at the end of the trial automatically if you don’t cancel.

I really don’t like this model in general. As the devs say, “It likely leads to more subscriptions, but It feels like you’re being tricked.” and I agree. But they are going a different route.

Capsicum offers a 14-day free trial that doesn’t automatically bill you when the trial expires.

That’s fantastic and guarantees I’ll sign up. But wait, there’s more.

Sound fair? Well, we’ll do you one better. Those 14 days don’t have to be consecutive. So, if you try Capsicum for the first time on a Friday, and then don’t use it again until the following Wednesday, you’ll still have 12-trial days left. We love our customers and we want you to have an actual trial that doesn’t feel pressured.

That is amazing. I often run out of free trials because I don’t use the app every day. I hope this is a model that wroks well for the folks at Illuminated Bits and catches on with other developers.