I’m in the hobbyist group, only started using Shapr early this year for the hard surface work after years of playing with ZBrush, which I also love. Already my Shapr3D hobby projects have gotten the attention of managers where I work (in a totally unrelated job) and some other small and medium sized business owners I know who have asked me to do a few paying projects. No pressure on me, I can say no if I think a project is too big for me and I have my day job to keep me going anyway.
Shapr has proved to be so easy to learn that I am finding it has opened up new possibilities for me for when I retire in a few years. For now, €29.99 per month isn’t a lot for the immense satisfaction and huge improvement in my skills in less than a year.
That’s just my view and I can understand others may struggle with another bill each month in these turbulent times.
I think you’re right on per design, per export however you’d only do it once you had tested using the free low res option.
I don’t understand the gripes about pricing. The limits on the free version are a bit heavy-handed compared to DesignSpark but getting drawings and step/iges export is a lot more expensive than Shapr3d. There are a lot of flaws in Shapr3d but not price. A perpetual option or rent-to-own would be appreciated just from an ethical perspective.
Finally, the is a big gap between platforms in regards to functionality. The Windows version is way behind!
I was just looking at how to arrange an educational license for my son now he’s in high school and it seems like the Shapr3D pricing has gone up to $350 per year, which makes this thread even more relevant I think.
I understand @Istvan 's suggestion to simply pay for a month whenever we want to use Shapr, but I think the problem with that is that it makes every thought of “I want to design a quick $thing to 3d print” a “$thing is going to cost me £30” decision.
I was previously very happy to budget for a decent annual subscription for Shapr - I want to support the app, I love using the app. Fusion360 makes me furious every time I use it, while Shapr makes me happy every time I use it.
However, I think this apparent price rise moves me into the group of people asking for another option here for hobbyists.
If we hobbyists are a small part of shapr revenues then there’s no reason not to throw us a bone - a middle tier pricing level with no technical support and reduced import/export options.
If we hobbyists are a large part of the shapr revenues then increasing the price by almost 50% seems like a disaster waiting to happen when our renewals come up.
Only one of those scenarios can be true, but both strongly imply something needs to change.
Edit: It seems like maybe existing $250/year subscribers get to keep their pricing, so I guess it just sucks to be new hobbyists?
Hi @cmsj, in the last few years we never changed the price for existing customers, this time is no different. I understand that our pricing does not work for your use case. We are always looking for ways to make Shapr3D more accessible, but so far we could not find a way to introduce a lower price tier.
I genuinely appreciate that you take the time to respond to this every time it comes up.
Is the money we are dumping into this going into salaries, facilities, parasolid licensing, some reasonable corporate profit, or is there some venture capitalist going “yes, yes, squeeze more money, yes yes!”
If its the former, I’ll just kinda suck it up and keep paying (especially if I have to jump tiers for new features) if the latter, thats… not great.
Edit: In case my americanisms are not making it clear, you guys are great and I want to continue dumping money on the people who are making this incredible product. I am not interested in buying a venture capitalist a mini yacht for his big yacht.
Hi @JohnL2112 thanks for asking. Shapr3D just like every other CAD company (except maybe McNeel?) has many shareholders, including employees and investors. Due to the exceptionally high barrier of entry I’d say that it’s impossible to build a CAD company without external financing. Shapr3D is not profitable at the moment, and probably it won’t be profitable for a long time, because we are reinvesting every cent into R&D to deliver new features every two weeks to our customers. While our company is a for profit company, I hope that our revenues will be always proportional to the value that we deliver to our customers. We strongly believe that financial success is not the goal, but it is the byproduct of our actual goal: making our customers successful. We are fully aligned with our investors in this philosophy.
Ok… well then I’ll keep paying as long as I can afford to. Thank you for responding!
We really appreciate that, thank you!
Yeah… 
Philip
I just let me Shapr3D Pro trial lapse into a Pro subscription.
I have used a ton of apps in a professional setting since 1992; Revit, Solidworks, 3DSmax, Inventor and I still use AutoCAD, Sketchup, and Fusion on a weekly basis for work. I bought Shapr3D to use with my 3D printer at home for it’s simplicity and the iPad, and to hopefully replace Fusion at work. Fusion is way too complex for what I want to 3D print. Sketchup is the worst for 3D printing and frustrates me (even though I use it daily for architecture pre-viz), and AutoCAD…perfect for architects, but not for 3D printers. I pay $299 a year for Sketchup and work takes care of the Autodesk subscription, thankfully.
Shapr3D is like a vacation from the confines (and pricing) of Autodesk products and the polygon mesh modeling nightmare in Sketchup. If it comes down to it, I’ll stop paying for Sketchup and cut back on the adult beverages to afford Shapr3D.
…and the amount of times I see Shapr3D reps in this forum answering questions and offering to help is astounding!
Have you seen Shapr3d’s financials, and their business plan along with long and short term market penetration ?