In an old blog post I shared different ways to save data on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux and Android)

On Mac in particular, I had recommended TripMode 2. An application for less than $10 that can filter which application can connect to the internet.

With macOS Big Sur, many things changed under the hood and the old filtering technique had to be updated to work with Big Sur.

Now, TripMode could have decided to release a free update to add support for Big Sur. I mean, macOS Big Sur, an entire operating system, was a free upgrade too.

Instead, TripMode decided to release a new version, TripMode 3, which has to be purchased again. Not only that, but now they’re asking for $15, which is a 50% increase. For existing customers, this is like being flipped off.

Now, if you do a bit of research, you can request an “upgrade offer” by email that will give you a 50% discount, but that’s still $7.50 and almost the price you already paid. Furthermore, that upgrade offer needs to be requested until the end of November (Big Sur came out yesterday, on the 12th of November). So, they are trying to use time pressure to get users to pay again.

Most people will likely not upgrade to macOS Big Sur immediately, as it’s advised to wait for about a month until critical bugs could be fixed and the system gets more stable. So for most users, they’d simply be surprised in December, with a request for an upgrade at full price.

I should note that on the TripMode upgrade site they claim people should have gotten an upgrade offer by email automatically. I never got such an email.

On another note, we’re in the midst of a pandemic. People are mostly staying home instead of traveling. Asking for money again, and at a 50% increase of what customers already paid, is perhaps not the best timing. On top of that, TripMode can no longer filter system traffic (this means that updates and other heavy traffic by Apple will still pass). While admittedly this is because of how Apple controls the filtering API, this still does reduce the overall worth of this application.

I don’t mind paying for good software, but they really put you into a corner here and are forcing you to pay again for the product to continue working which is not a fair practice by any means.

In conclusion, I would not trust this company with my money again. I regret having supported them in the past.

I will not upgrade. Have a good day.