June 30, 2023. This is the date that Apollo, ReddPlanet, and Sync will shut down. These are three third-party applications for Reddit that, in addition to the date on which they will stop working, have another point in common: their developers claim that they cannot cope with the new pricing scheme of the social platform.
At the end of last month we echoed the statements of the creator of Apollo. Christian Selig claimed that after the changes to Reddit’s API, he would have to pay $20 million a year to keep his app running. An amount of money impossible to assume for an independent developer.
Other apps follow the path of Apollo
This week, Selig announced a drastic decision. After eight years, Apollo ends up closing due to the impossibility of assuming the costs of using the API, which establishes the payment of $12,500 for every 50 million requests. Apollo makes about 7,000 requests a year, which is equivalent to the aforementioned 20 million dollars.
The truth is that the movements with the applications continued. As The Verge recounts, other apps followed a similar path. “The obstacles that Reddit places on third-party applications are simply not a feasible obstacle to overcome,” wrote the ReddPlanet developer, who even went further and assured that “Reddit has shown that its intention is to extinguish all third parties.”
The Sync manager, for his part, said he came to the conclusion that it was best to shut down Sync before the new API changes go live. “To be absolutely clear, I really don’t want to shut down Sync,” he added, though he confirmed that it will stop working on the aforementioned date. “The way things are, I don’t see any other way.”
Images: Reddit | pch.vector | Apollo
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