Why do people make such a fuss about changes in something that is free? In this case the changes did not apply to pre-existing free set-ups - just new ones.
You are entitled to complain about contract changes when you are a party to that contract - and there is an exchange of money (or some similar negotiable item).
"I would also like to point out that we have not disabled custom domains for any existing apps, we have merely prevented new apps on the free plan from mapping a custom domain. I understand that this is an inconvenience for some, but it was a necessary measure that was needed in order to implement a vital architectural change that allows us to provide a BETTER service for our existing customers."
So if you'd made use of the feature, you're ok, but if you're an existing free user who hasn't mapped a domain then you can't enable the domain feature. However they didn't tell their existing free users of this change.
Personally, as a free user (with nothing live) I was always surprised at what they did offer without charge, but it comes back to one simple motto "Don't be a free user".
It depends on how you define "retrospective." Reading the thread, people with pre-existing accounts that did not use the domain feature found they could not start using it, and others that did use it found they could not change it.
While some people may feel entitled, I think it's more a lesson on what not to do. People will always complain when you make something they are using worse (even if you have a good excuse like abuse). That's not the issue. The issue is that when you are a platform company, people get really nervous when you're not open about changes you're making to the thing they're building their business on. Of course it's their right to change their service. Of course they're allowed to do it silently. But it damages trust.
Personally, I just make a mental note to keep that in mind when running my own business.
People using the free service should not kid themself. It will have less and less features with time , and it is 100% normal since people always abuse what's free.
But between the FREE and the 50$ offer there should be a place for a 5$/10$ offer. I dont understand why these SaaS never offer an entry level paid offer.
50$/month is too much for students or freelancers who wants to test a project but need a contractual agreement between them and the provider. I ended up with a cheap VPN , used a cloudfoundry image, less expensive than these so called Saas.
Furthermore i had hard time uploading big projects on their servers ... did not work at all.
I assume you mean 'VPS' right? Anyway I'm curious as to what you use, I've heard good things about RamNode and Digital Ocean, but I've not yet tested, the only VPS provider I have experience with is Linode (two 512MB Linodes for a few years now)
I'm a linode fan too and recently tried digital ocean. It's very similar. The digital ocean machine is: a bit faster for disk access, cheaper! The Linode machine is: much faster network, much better management tools.
You are entitled to complain about contract changes when you are a party to that contract - and there is an exchange of money (or some similar negotiable item).
Some people's sense of entitlement astonishes me.