If you don’t plan to grow, scale, or increase traffic to your website, this AppSumo deal might work for you. But if you do plan to grow, you will eventually be forced into their subscription plan.

We made the decision to purchase this lifetime deal based on the information provided to questions on AppSumo, by the VanChat team:

1. Nov 30, 2025: “Currently, the price for each response beyond the plan limit is $0.09.”
- Ref: https://appsumo.com/products/vanchat/questions/cost-when-exceed-monthly-limits-1446588/

2. Oct 3, 2024: “Don't worry if the estimate is not accurate. We will soon launch an add - on. After the add - on is launched, even if the GPT response limit is reached, the responses will not stop. Excess GPT responses will be charged separately.”
- Ref: https://appsumo.com/products/vanchat/questions/what-counts-as-a-reply-1209749/

These statements strongly implied that exceeding the reply limit would simply result in overage charges, not a hard stop, and not a forced subscription upgrade.

However, after contacting support, we were told:
“Currently, we do not have an option to increase the reply quota specifically for lifetime plans.”

Instead, we were directed to their subscription plan. When I asked about the discrepancy between the AppSumo answers and the currently provided information, their response was:

“His response came prior to our development of the add-on. Once the feature was finalized, we discovered that it could not be made available for AppSumo's lifetime plans.” - another discrepancy.

The Nov 30, 2025 answer on AppSumo clearly says "Currently," meaning after development. That wording indicates an active, existing pricing structure, not a pre-development assumption.

I understand that business models and product functionality can change. However, publicly stated information that directly influences purchasing decisions must be updated when policies change. Changing the terms in practice while the original statements remain publicly visible creates confusion and undermines trust.