C9.io Requiring a Credit Card to Sign Up Now - WTF?

Y	Hacker News new \| ask \| show \| jobs

4 points by RawData 3501 days ago

I teach Ruby on Rails video courses online, and I use c9 as the cloud development environment in all my courses. It's great because it's free, it's online, everyone has access, and everyone's screen looks the same (great for teaching purposes). Plus C9 works really well...

I don't think they used to, but now it appears that C9 requires a credit card to sign up for their free accounts. I'm guessing this is the first bone headed move Amazon is making since acquiring c9 a couple months ago?

My students are pissed. They don't want to give a credit card...some don't have one (they can buy my courses with paypal).

Come on C9! Don't be that guy!

4 comments

Lordarminius 3501 days ago

I think this is one of those instances where a management decision consciously wrecks a company, but then we'll see.

Asking for a credit card for a service which is ostensibly free and risking a breach of my data (as C9 suffered a while ago) is a poor move and has been widely criticized by the c9 community. The management has so far failed to take user feedback into consideration. Lets see how that works out for them.

They should stick to a freemium model. Personally I am looking for an alternative.

link

detaro 3501 days ago

They even have a plan specifically for your scenario, that doesn't require credit cards, and it is damn cheap...

and remember that the alternative to "free plan with credit card as slight security against abuse" likely would have been "no free plan at all".

link

ivan_burazin 3500 days ago

Hi all, as the founder of codeanywhere.com I belive I may be able to offer a solution.

Our cloud IDE offers free plans and no CC required. So have a try and let me know your thoughts.

Kind regards

link

Lordarminius 3499 days ago

great. will do

link

willstepp 3501 days ago

So you charge for your courses but expect others to provide services for free? Don't be that guy.

link

RawData 3501 days ago

You miss the point...

C9 still offers their service for free...they're just asking for a credit card to verify identity or some such nonsensical thing...

And no, I don't just expect them to offer it for free...if they want to charge, that's perfectly fine. But don't say that it's free and then require a credit card...

link