Sadly, Sprout Builder Drops Free Service

Web widget creation service Sprout Builder has announced that as of March 1 it will be dropping its free service.

It’s sad news for fans; it’s long been my favorite widget building site, and we’ve covered building widgets with Sprout a couple of times in the past.

The following email went out to Sprout Builder members this morning. Mashable also has more here. As much as I love it, and our widgets are built on it, I won’t be paying for the upgrade given there’s still a number of free alternatives out there, even if they aren’t quite as nice and flexible to use. If you’re running or using an Inquisitr widget built on Sprout, stay tuned as we’ll be creating some new ones.

Dear Sprout Builder Users,

Over the last year Sprout has provided you with a free solution for creating interactive Flash content and widgets. Like many technology companies, we offered our service for free while we worked on our products, spoke with customers and developed our go-to-market strategy. Now that we have developed a solution worthy of creative professionals at the best agencies in the world, it is time for us to monetize. Starting in early February, we will begin charging for our service. We hope that you have found value from Sprout Builder and will continue to use our services.

Please see this chart for more information about our pricing tiers. To thank you, we would like to extend a special offer only to existing users. We will provide a one time 20% discount off either 1 month or 1 year of service for Individual or Professional accounts if you pay before March 1st, 2009. Or, if you reduce your projects to three or fewer, you can select Basic at $13.95 a month, or $139.50 a year. Note – You will NOT see the Basic level advertised on our public Web site because the offer is only for existing users.

Payment will be built into the Sprout Builder system in early February. We will notify you when the PayPal system is in place. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments please review our FAQ or email: pricing@sproutbuilder.com.

While this news may come as a disappointment for those that have enjoyed using Sprout Builder for free, all companies must make money to grow and we thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you in the new year.

Carnet Williams
CEO