I purchased RanksPro primarily for its unlimited rank tracking feature, which was the core of the Lifetime Deal offer and the main reason thousands of us chose to invest in this project.
I fully understand that running a business comes with risks, that Google’s changes can upend everything overnight, and that API costs became unsustainable for an unfunded startup. I also get the team’s frustration with a few users who abused AppSumo’s trial policy.

What I cannot accept, however, is that the very feature we paid for (the heart of the product) has simply been removed, with no real protection or compensation for those who believed in the “lifetime” promise.
There has been no refund, not even a partial one.
No coupon or credit from AppSumo.
No middle-ground solution that acknowledges the loss suffered by honest buyers.
After this experience (my second major disappointment on AppSumo in just a few months), I’ve completely stopped buying Lifetime Deals on the platform. I no longer trust it, and I know many others feel the same.
RanksPro could have been a great bootstrapped success story. Instead, it has become yet another painful example of how damaging it is, for those who genuinely believed, to be left with a promise that was never kept.

I sincerely hope AppSumo will finally revise its policies and introduce real buyer-protection mechanisms when an LTD loses its core functionality. Only then can some trust be restored.
For now, I sadly join the long list of deeply disappointed users.