LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone/iPad and Android pricing explained. [ Edited ]

[Erik_E]

Hello LogMeIn Community,

As a LogMeIn support representative, I have recently noticed several of our customers asking how the structure of LogMeIn Ignition's pricing works in relation to our other products offered.

For your benefit and clarification, I wanted to take a moment to help clarify this and explain just how this works.

Keep in mind, the following is only related to LogMeIn Ignition for Apple and Android devices and does not include LogMeIn Ignition for Windows.

With LogMeIn, there will always be the requirement of having to have computers added to your LogMeIn account in order to remotely access them from other computers or devices. This is true whether you are using Ignition for your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or even while simply using another computer.

When you first add computers to your account, they are automatically given a trial period of a LogMeIn Pro2 subscription. When this trial period has expired, you will be asked if you wish to purchase Pro2 to continue using its features, or whether you would like to simply continue using LogMeIn Free as your computer's subscription type.

Keep in mind, LogMeIn Ignition is a one-time purchase and is completely separate from the subscription type on your computers (Free or Pro2). Ignition will never expire and you will be able to access all computers on your account whether they are Free or Pro2.

Also, all features available with LogMeIn Free subscriptions on your computers are 100% compatible with all features available in LogMeIn Ignition, with the one exception of Remote Sound (a Pro2 feature which is only available on the Android version of Ignition).

All that being said, you may rest assured- all that is required to access your computers using LogMeIn Ignition on your iPhone, iPad or Android device is the one-time purchase of LogMeIn Ignition from their respective application stores.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to leave comments or replies here and I will always answer you to the best of my ability.

[dlcrouch]

This is exactly the information I was looking for. This is a lot of FUD in the app store about Ignition requiring a monthly subscription.

[Tivinlewyadjini]

Indeed; as I just wrote Erik privately, LMI really needs to clarify their licensing terms on the iTunes Store.

Everything in the description makes it sounds like normal purchased software, but then in the comments you find people ranting about a bait-and-switch scam in which your $30 only gets you a 30-day trial after which a paid subscription is required for continued use of the app. And this is totally understandable, since a worried visit to this website leads one to statements like, "LogMeIn Ignition is a paid add-on service, which has a 30-day free trial available on our website. When the trial expires, you may either purchase a subscription to LogMeIn Ignition to continue using it, or you may continue to access your LogMeIn Pro² and LogMeIn Free computers from your account at LogMeIn.com." (http://help.logmein.com/SelfServiceKnowledgeRenderer?type=FAQ&id=kA030000000DGHkCAO)

I just installed the free server on my Mac and purchased the iPhone app for "phoning home", but then I started seeing those consumer warnings and spent much more time than I should have had to spend hunting down the truth in this thread. This "FUD" has to be costing LMI money — $30 is, of course, a relatively high price for an iPhone app, and for a while I was really kicking myself for not being more careful, wondering how much trouble it was going to be to get my money back from Apple.

Nice software, to be sure, but my “customer delight” took a definite hit from the effort of determining that I had not in fact been ripped off! 

So, a suggestion to the LMI marketeers, offered in a spirit of post-frustration helpfulness: don’t leave it to anonymous customers to explain the actual situation on iTunes; with all the remote-control alternatives available, they can be sure there are people abandoning potential "conversions" when they can’t figure out who's telling the truth about whether or not LMI is trying to rob them.

"Tivinlewyadjini", Anonymous Customer

[iamcoop]

Is there any possibility of getting a trial version of Ignition for the iPad?  I would like to try it out before dumping $30 into it.

[Granny]

Did you ever receive a reply to your question regarding a trial for your iPad?  I too would be interested, since I already use and pay for a 5 user Pro licence, and would really like to try it out on my new toy. 

[duckboxxer]

Did you ever get a reply?  Is there a trial for Android (now that the iPhone app is free....)

[dennlai]

I have an iphone and 2 android phones and a Windows phone 7 phone. I rotate between them depending on what I am doing.. Do I need to purchase ignition separately for each device?

[loox]

Yes, but here is what is confusing me....

Because Ignition now costs 129.99 USD in the iOS app store, and touts features like HD, wake sleeping computer, etc... AND because those features are only available in the LogmeinPRO version on your computers, it is totally unclear whether the PRO only features like HD and wake computer will work on computers with only a FREE logmein installation.

If my computers have logmein FREE subscriptions, I totally get that accessing one computer from another computer will not provide you with the PRO features.  But if you access those same computers from the Ignition app, will you have access to PRO features? 

The description in APPLE's App Store say that Ignition includes HD, wake sleeping computer, etc... but makes no mention whatsoever if you need the PRO version installed on each and every computer you want to access from Ignition.  Thus, the advertising makes it seem like Ignition is all you need to access those features.

In other words, the failure to mention the need to also purchase a 69.99 Pro subscription for any computer you want to use PRO features on, plus the 129.99 cost for Ignition implies to me that you can get these PRO features when using the Ignition app even if you only have the Free (non-Pro) version of Logmein on the computer.

It makes sense that since competing products (of which there are several free versions that offer the same features as LogmeinPRO, and a couple even for free) that you guys would not charge 130.00 USD (one time) for an app PLUS 70.00 USD for each of your computers annually.  At a minimum that would be 200 dollars a year (for one computer) to do what other apps do for free (which I won't mention to be polite).  The price disparity is just too great.

Thus, many of us are assuming the one time cost of 129.99 (a HUGE amount for an iOS app) will allow you to access all  of Ignition's features (including the PRO-type features like HD and wake from sleep) *without regard* to which version of Logmein (Free or Pro) is installed on the computer being accessed from Ignition.  Is this correct?

[loox]

"Also, all features available with LogMeIn Free subscriptions on your computers are 100% compatible with all features available in LogMeIn Ignition, with the one exception of Remote Sound (a Pro2 feature which is only available on the Android version of Ignition)."

This is the confusing part of your explanation... you say that all features with LogmeIn Free subscriptions are accessible via Ignition, leading me to believe that Pro2 features are NOT (unless you have Pro2 installed), but then in a parenthetical you mention a Pro2 feature in the same sentence wherein you are talking about LogmeIn Free.  It makes no sense.

That, in addition to the App Store description of Ignition mentioning *nothing* about needing Pro2 makes all this very confusing.

Because, as you say, you can access Logmein Free subscriptions via Ignition (a 129.99 dollar app), great... but you also have the Logmein app that does that... and that is FREE.  So what's the point of payiing for and using Ignition to access a computer with a Free Logmein installation when you can get that functionality from the free app.

It is extremely confusing.  And unless I am going senile, your post does not answer that question at all.  Because it is the cost of the logmeinPro subscription on the computer that people are complaining about after spending all the money for Ignition to learn that you dont get the features in the App description without also paying the 69.99 per year per computer you want to use those features with. 

If you do get those features from Ignition regardless of the version installed on the computer, you should say that to avoid all the negative reviews.  Likewise, if Ignition requires a Pro2 account on all computers to access the features in the App description (like HD, etc...) then you should come out and say that, too... otherwise people will be needlessly be paying 129.99 for an app with HD (for example) without any notice that they also need to buy a Pro2 subscription to use that feature.

Does that make sense? We all know you need a Pro2 subscription to access Pro features from a computer or device witout Ignition.  We just cant figure out if you need a pro2 subscription to get pro features when accessing the remote computer *from within Ignition*. 

You see, the iOS App Store *description* of the Ignition app is the problem.  It needs to have a star next to each feature that also requires a Pro2 subscription so people dont waste one hundred and thirty dollars!  And if you don't need a Pro2 subscription to use that feature from Ignition, you should say that, too... in order to increase sales.

[samebrian]

loox - It may help you to know that when the original post was made LMI Ignition for iPad was $30 and there was no free alternative. Now the LMI staff have released a no-doubt more "full-featured" version of LMI Ignition for $130, offering the "dumbed down" (most likely just the older version) edition of LMI.

You are absolutely correct that if you are only accessing LMI free accounts, there is little reason to purchase LMI Ignition. However, if you are using Pro2 accounts, then it may be up your alley. I do believe there are some other features in LMI Ignition that LMI doesn't have that will still work with LMI Free installations (eg. you cannot have multiple connections open in LMI, but I bet in LMI Ignition you do).

Also, someone mentioned needing to purchase a copy of LMI Ignition for each iOS/Android device you own. I could be wrong, but I think that your iOS purchases will go on all devices you own and have synced to your iTunes account, and similarly with the Androids/Google account.

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Brian Burleigh

ITnorth.ca