Any.do goes freemium with a slew of new features, costing $5/month or $45/year

We’ve covered Israel-based startup Any.do for a number of years, and today the popular productivity-focused task-management app has received a huge cross-platform update.

With 11 million users in the bag, Any.do has done a good job of building a solid user base in what is a competitive space. But there comes a day when a company must translate user numbers into paying customers, especially with investors to appease.

With that in mind, Any.do is unveiling a new premium subscription model, which brings a host of new features into the mix for a monthly or annual fee.

In ‘Settings,’ you’ll see a new ‘Premium’ option which will set you back $3 per month or $27 per year for the next 14 days, after which this will rise to $5 and $45 respectively.

So what do you get for your money? Good question.

Any.do quietly introduced a feature last month that lets you attach files to your to-do list items, but now you can unlock unlimited file-sizes with an upgrade. Without an upgrade, you’ll only be able to add 5MB files to any task.

This update also includes Dropbox integration and support for multimedia attachments (e.g. video and audio), though with a 5MB limit, you don’t have too much room to play with on the free plan.

All-singing

With the latest incarnation, Any.do is striving to create an all-encompassing app for every scenario – business, leisure, family and friends.

For example, Any.do is making it easier for families to share lists and communicate around tasks such as domestic to-dos, but for the first time you can also create teams for project-related discussions.

But there are limitations within the free version – there can only be two people in any one task (including yourself). This will be fine for couples, of course.

You can see a breakdown here of what you get gratis vs. what you get for coughing up.

Other key features available in Premium include customizable reminders and backgrounds – yes, you can choose from a range of colors.

Now, you can have long streams of conversation around tasks with work colleagues, while simultaneously sharing videos of your dinner with loved ones.

However, it’s worth looking at the pricing model here. With subscription fatigue a genuine problem, will people really be willing to pay $5 each month, or $45 a year, to access these features?

In some ways, it’s a moot question. Existing free users can still pretty much access the same service as before – all this means is that power-users now have access to more features. For which they have to pay.

Nobody would argue that developers and companies that build products need to monetize, but a regular, rolling payment? Some things just feel better suited to one-off in-app payments for specific features, especially when you consider that a Netflix subscription only costs around 8 bucks a month.

Back in May, Pocket introduced a new Premium subscription to its read-it-later service, more than five years after launch. Again, that felt like it was better suited to one-off purchases than regular payments.

That all said, $3.75 per month (when paying annually) isn’t a lot of money, and those already invested in the Any.do way of doing things may well see this as value-for-money.

➤ Any.do: [Android | iOS | Web | Chrome]