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Reviews for Spaywall - spay your paywall

Spaywall - spay your paywall by Spaywall

3.4 Stars out of 5
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Review by Laughingthrush
by Laughingthrush, a year ago
20 reviews
  • by Firefox user 13748433, 3 months ago
    great extension, really helps route around the paywalled content...
  • by stebo02, 5 months ago
  • by JG, 8 months ago
    This used to be an excellent addon that did what it claimed.

    It still does. Mostly. Sometimes.

    Since going to the "freemium" model it's gotten more and more restrictive. To the point of time of day blackouts if you aren't a paid subscriber for the addon.

    So it'll usually work, but expect ever increasing frustration unless you're willing to pay for a browser addon.

    Developer response

    posted 7 months ago
    Hi JG, thanks for your review. I get the frustration, especially if you are one of our users who used it for free for five years. We couldn't sustain operations anymore under that model. Totally get the negative feelings, but it's not free to operate. We tried to run only on donations but you can probably guess that nobody in this crowd donates. Please reach out to us at hey@spaywall.com and I'll see what we can do to help you out.
  • by Firefox user 18178498, 8 months ago
  • by CapoFantasma97, 8 months ago
    It's a "pay a monthly subscription to access pirated news articles" kind of deal with a poor user experience on top.

    Developer response

    posted 7 months ago
    Nothing we offer is pirated, please try again. We point you to existing archives, but the trick is pointing to the right ones. Have a great day.
  • by Duwangtastic, 9 months ago
    "Don't pay for their paywall and get the article legally, pay us for a chance to get the article you're looking for!"

    Developer response

    posted 9 months ago
    Yeah, kinda. Don't pay them $14.99/mo for a single news outlet, pay us a fraction of that for a fairly good chance of getting the article (80-90% with premium) across ALL the outlets instead. It's a great deal if you read more than just one media source. We've always said if there's just one site you really like, please subscribe to them instead. Sounds like you're just not our target customer. (p.s. our redirection to a link is legal too)
  • by StuckInTheTARDIS, 9 months ago
  • by Firefox user 18229416, 10 months ago
    Used to be a fuctioning Paywall remover, now it's a vehicle for money. With versions prior to 1.0.0 you could get remove paywalls and access a google archive of the site if that didn't work, but the Dev decided this worked too well and preceeded to remove this additional function. On top of all that, he's now forcibly changed the UI of older versions so you can't get access to that function even if you downgrade. Congratulations, this is a 101 on how you ruin a perfectly good extension and lose users in the process. Heavy recommendations to avoid.

    Developer response

    posted 10 months ago
    Donation model was broken, users never donate. The site and three extensions take time and money to maintain. After 5 years of this model, the options were to shut down the site, or seek another financially sustainable business model. We have pivoted to a Freemium model, and the basic functionality of the site is still free, with premium features for those who choose to upgrade.
  • by Firefox user 16021297, 10 months ago
    WAS mostly good, now coerces payment. Ideally dont update to v1

    Developer response

    posted 10 months ago
    Hello, there is still a completely free plan available, though like anything else in this world, there are limitations to the free plan. We have added some new optional features and only those premium features require a paid plan. This Freemium model allows you to try it free before upgrading, or use it for free as long as you like, but still allows us to be financially sustainable. We used to have a donations-based business model but donations never amounted to much and so we either were going to have to shut it down, or try to find a better business model. Hope you understand it costs time and money to maintain a site like this. Please reach out to hey@spaywall.com if there's anything else we can assist with.
  • by claire, a year ago
    So far it hasn't shown me through any articles I wanted to see, I would appreciate sites like the Atlantic, New York Times, and other news sites to be available for this app if possible. Thank you!
    Edit: This works now for me too. I either forgot to click on the add on to make it work or this was for a previous update.

    Developer response

    posted 10 months ago
    Hi Claire, we've seen many Atlantic or NYT articles work. Can you give me an example article link? Thanks.
  • by Firefox user 18175061, a year ago
    Works most of the time, writing this in Dec 2023
  • by phazec, a year ago
  • by Firefox user 17141374, a year ago
  • by Firefox user 16399158, a year ago
  • by len, a year ago
  • by Firefox user 16441288, a year ago
  • by Firefox user 17872558, 2 years ago
    It works, unlike most of the the others I've tried. It has to be turned on manually for each site you visit, which is... different, but it works.

    Developer response

    posted a year ago
    I'm sorry, but I can't duplicate this behavior. Please try pinning the extension and see if that fixes it, thanks.
  • by Firefox user 17832617, 2 years ago
    I tested loading a well known article from 2020, and it did not remove the paywall.

    Developer response

    posted a year ago
    As stated in the description, it doesn't work on every article. About 70% might work, closer to the 90s % with our Premium archives. Would you mind sharing the article so we can dig in more? Please email us at hey@spaywall.com, thanks.
  • by Firefox user 16076587, 2 years ago