Linode Longview Pricing Scheme Improvement
Not really a question, more of a sales strategy change request?
TLDR: Please make smaller packs of longview available for purchase.
I have a ton of servers on both Linode and other providers, of course I've already maxed out my free Longview clients, and so have several of the other Linode accounts I manage. So I've spent maybe 15 hours installing different server monitoring programs both open source/free and premium ranging from Zabbix/Nagios types to Anturis/etc… So far none have really given me what I really like about Longview: quick install, automatic services discovery/config, simple charts/data. I mostly use Longview for debugging and getting a quick 'birds eye view' of how all servers are running, so it's perfect for what I need (I use the server settings config to get warnings for high cpu/network/io, and also 3rd party apps like Uptimerobot for additional notifications for monitor/notifs).
Today I had a random idea to see if Longview would work on a server not-hosted-at-linode, AND IT DID! Wowowow, this is a great discovery! Not only that, but also managed to get it working on a Cloudlinux/cPanel server (had problems with that before)… Sooooo, I'm pretty much settled on using Longview for all my servers both at Linode and elsewhere, same for my clients that have a ton of servers at Linode/elsewhere.
My only problem now is pricing, the 10 free clients is awesome and much appreciated, and I always thought adding more clients would be as easy as selecting the radio icon to buy a 3-pack or 10-pack (like buying those would just add-to my free clients). So it was a bit of a shocker a few weeks ago when I tried buying more clients and found that a 3pack or 10pack only upgrades the free clients, doesn't add-to total # of clients, so having 10 free clients means I minimally have to buy 10-pack of pro clients, and that doesn't even get me any additional clients, it just upgrades the 10 free clients… I would have been tempted to test buying a 10-pack, then buy a 3-pack to see if that would leave me with 13 clients, but somehow I don't think it works that way(?). So now I'm stuck at 10 free clients and to add more I have to go from 10-free clients to 40-paid clients at $100? That's a huge jump.
Can we get some friendlier pricing? Even if adding options to buy more limited clients would be awesome, a lot of people don't need unlimited data retention, and it's even worse to go from 10 free clients to 40 clients at $100, huggggge jump… Even if the same pricing scheme was left, it would be a LOT easier to absorb the cost in smaller steps, a 20-pack at $50 would be much more reasonable to handle.
Plzzzzzzz consider this change, it's such a simple change and would be so helpful for your Longview users :D
10 Replies
Hello,
I don't work for Linode, just another customer / user, but..
Also a big fan of Linode Longview, also love how it's so very easy to set up without additional configuration and it just works. Zero customization but then it's perfect already and you don't have to waste your time tweaking and adjusting countless settings.
Anyway….
I've been seeing some data "gaps" where I think Longview loses data sometimes. I'm also not a fan of Perl (speaking about the "agent" / "client" app).
And so I've been making my own monitoring system, as similar to Linode Longview as I can make it, but hopefully more reliable and hopefully with all the things that we love about Longview.
This is my demo page for now:
https://demo.clearview.rocks/web/charts-overview.html
And this is the main web site not much there at the moment:
I'd love to get some feedback maybe you'd even be interested in becoming my first customer. That'd be awesome.
Yes I'll be trying to make this a commercial service, think I can price it lower than Longview and I'm definitely going to think about your suggestion above (directed at Linode but it's a good point).
The "agent" / "client" part which runs on your server(s):
1 - Will be released open source. Anyone could check that it doesn't collect or send any "telemetry" or "analytics" from your servers.
2 - Is written in Go so it's a single executable with no dependencies, will run on any Linux distro. I will have .dep and .rpm packages available.
PS
"ClearView" or "TopView" which sounds better for a LongView work-alike monitoring service?
I would love the option to pay per host for a longer retention period.
As a hobbyist developer, $20/month for pro nearly doubles my hosting costs, but I’d only need it for 1 Linode currently.
I’d happily pay like $5/month for 1 host on LongView Pro.
Also if/when I’d this likely to be supported in the Cloud Manager? As far I can tell, this is the only thing keeping the old manager around - that and possibly Managed.
I would love the option to pay per host for a longer retention period.
How long? A year at full rez (1 minute) enough?
Say to compare how the server is doing "this" Christmas season vs. last year's? Or some other idea?
@kmansoft I’ve had a look at your demo, pretty nice.
Thanks! I'll keep at it.
How long? A year at full rez (1 minute) enough?
For me personally, not even that long - maybe a month. If someone had difficulty with one of my apps, I need the data to go back and check if the server was busy at the time.
12 hours just isn’t long enough - even if someone reported a fault immediately, it could be nearly 24 hours before I get chance to look at it.
Maybe reducing averages as the time goes on - a minute resolution for a week, 5 minutes for a month, hourly for 12/24 months?
I’m intrigued and look forward to hearing more about your project.
@kmansoft from what I’ve just read about Longview in another thread I’m even more interested in your project.
Note: Longview is ultimately going to be deprecated and not make its way over to the new Cloud Manager. So if you are looking for a monitoring service that you'll be able to continue to use after the Classic Manager is deprecated, we'd suggest using an alternative, such a Prometheus.
12 hours just isn’t long enough - even if someone reported a fault immediately, it could be nearly 24 hours before I get chance to look at it.
Yes it definitely is not long enough :)
Understood about a month or two being enough for you, also like the idea about more coarse rez as you move back in time.
Note: Longview is ultimately going to be deprecated and not make its way over to the new Cloud Manager. … we'd suggest using an alternative, such a Prometheus
Yes seen that, was a part of my motivation.
I did look at Prometheus and it's 1000-'s of times more powerful than Longview (or my project) - but it's not "Zero Config" when getting started.
And "zero config" - just install and jump in - is something I find very valuable about Longview.
@kmansoft I'm excited to see how your project pans out, sounds like you have a firm grasp of what the community needs/wants, you know the server monitoring world is pretty huge and really after testing dozens of services there's a huge open space for a good app that has minimal config like Longview and decent non-enterprise pricing (literally 75% of apps out there are ridiculously priced to be "enterprise").
I'd love to test your app when you have a beta available :D
Note: Longview is ultimately going to be deprecated and not make its way over to the new Cloud Manager. … we'd suggest using an alternative, such a Prometheus.
Yeahhh that's not going to be good. Longview is one of the great "somewhat hidden gems" of Linode, that's going to be such a huge debacle if they get rid of it and leave all its users out in the cold. I foresee such a uproar if it goes away, how many users will ditch Linode and head over to Vultr or DO when they get alienated by deprecation of such a vital service? I hoped to get Longview improved, not find learn its going away UGHHHH!
@thanewest , @andysh
So I'm finally ready to show my work.
You can register / log in for a real (not demo) account over here:
Once you've logged in, create a "server node" - you'll see it - and click the (i) icon for help on installing and configuring an "agent" on your server.
Agent downloads are over here, both .deb's and .rpm's:
https://clearview.rocks/install.html
Your charts should start populating in about 3-5 minutes after you configure and start the agent(s).
PS - I also wrote an Android app for on-the-go access:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.clearview
PPS - early adopter accounts will remain free forever.