Bumping the Store Prices for Krita 5.0
We started selling Krita in the Steam Store in 2014. In 2017, the Windows Store followed, then in 2021 the Epic Store. With the recent improvements on macOS, we intend to put Krita in the macOS store as well (though not in the ipadOS store!) and we want to put the macOS version of Krita in the Epic and Steam stores.
Originally, we were planning to make every new major version a new purchase, but with Krita 3 being quickly replaced by Krita 4, that didn't seem fair.
Krita 5 will still be an automatic upgrade for everyone who has once bought Krita in any of the stores.
We've maintained a base price of $9,95 or €9,95 since 2014. But since then, inflation has started creeping back into our lives, especially over the past year, and store sales still are the main source of income for sponsoring development.
From Krita 5 on, which is a huge upgrade in functionality, we will maintain a base price in all stores of $19,95 or €19,95, except for the macOS Apple Store, where we will start with $24,95 or €24,95.
That's because developing on macOS costs real money. We need to get expensive hardware, both for building the releases as well as for development. We need to get the people who work on macOS Apple Developer IDs, at €99,00 a year. And developing for macOS just takes a lot of extra effort, too.
Of course, Krita will still be free and open source software, and all versions of Krita will be available for free from https://krita.org/download. The best way to support Krita development is to join the development fund -- all stores take their pound of flesh. But if you want automatic updates, support development or want to have the benefits of managing your software library on all your systems, don't hesitate to get Krita from your favourite app store!
NOTE: to be really clear:
- we don't know yet when we will release Krita 5.0, since we're still fixing bugs like crazy.
- The price increase will coincide with the release of Krita 5.
- Krita 5 will be an automatic upgrade for everyone who has purchased Krita 4 in any of the stores that currently carry Krita.
- Buying Krita in one store does not give you access to Krita in another store: you cannot buy Krita for Windows on Steam and then get it as an update in the Apple store for macOS, for instance.