Goodbye LogMeIn, maybe Chrome can help?

LogMeIn are stopping their free product dead, effective now. As a user of the free version I’m affected, was unaware it was coming, but I’m not surprised. There are snarky posts and comments starting up all over, but on this choice I kind of agree with LogMeIn.

They’ve given away a reasonable product for free to a very large user base for around 10 years, and now they wish to be paid. There is a kind of grace period for the cutoff too, but that grace period is very short so won’t do much to dissuade the “freeloading” masses. As a freeloader I say meh. My usage was low and irregular enough that I’ll not be paying for the service, and that also means I am certainly not the type of user that LogMeIn wishes to continue to support for free. I’ve had a great run and it is time to cash up or leave.

It is a pity that the base cost is very high.  Superficially I think there is a lost opportunity for a pay-for-use option between the full yearly subscription and nothing. If it were more like a cup of coffee to use, and could be billed adhoc I’d give that some serious thought.

SO yeah – the “important changes” are that its no longer there. Surprise. I’m uninstalling as I type.

As an alternative I’m first going to look at what Google Chrome Remote Desktop can do, and perhaps even think about a VNC type solution. And there is also TeamViewer which a lot of the LMI ex-users are talking about.

The regular rate of subscription is discounted for now, perhaps as a gesture of encouragement.

They’ve not really informed anyone in advance, and perhaps that was the strategy. There was never going to be a good reaction from the free users on taking away the product. So perhaps they cut them off quickly in the hope that their need for the product is urgent enough that they are kind of forced to pay for the product even if it is just until they get a replacement. But then the subscription is annual, so they’re locking in for a while.