6Wunderkinder is set to launch a premium product in order to generate revenue, with the extra functionalities of Wunderlist Pro costing $4.99 (€3.82) a month or $44.99 (€34.47) a year. The upgrade is designed to make working in teams of all sizes a simpler and more productive experience with an Assigning feature as well as unlimited subtasks and new backgrounds.
The product is still in private beta, with previous testers sent an email this week asking them to try it out – they had to pay for themselves but were given an extra month free for their services. But the email did promise: “By generating income we’ll be able to give you bigger and better updates.”
It’s a widely-anticipated (and for some, slightly delayed) move from 6WK, which last year turned its back on previous product Wunderkit to focus on Wunderlist 2, a new version of its initial offering. The Berlin-based startup will hope the premium accounts will provide some much-needed funds as it looks to boost its growth.
So what’s in it for premium users? The headline Assigning feature will allow you to assign tasks to your team and will give you an immediate overview of who is doing what in your shared lists. An Action Bar enables you to more easily sort, share, email and print. Unlimited subtasks means any to-do, no matter how complex, can be broken down into manageable tasks. And finally, there are eight new backgrounds only available on the Pro version.
The iPhone, iPad and Mac apps were submitted to Apple earlier this week and it will be initially launched on those three platforms and on web, to be followed by Android and Windows. There are also plans to add more features to Wunderlist Pro in the future.
Whether the move to a freemium model is successful isn’t guaranteed – and could well be harder when you have a very established product that has always been completely free to use – but it is a proven way to get some money flowing into the company, one of the better-known Berlin startups internationally, which is hoping to close its Series B funding round later this year.
Wunderlist 2 has enjoyed good growth since its launch last December – there are now four million users, with daily active users doubling and monthly active users up 50 percent – and the question now is how many of them will take the step up to becoming premium customers.
In a post on his blog on Wednesday, 6WK CEO Christian Reber wrote that the move “finally marks the launch of our business model. Our goal of building a sustainable, lasting and highly profitable business is coming closer.”