Why I introduced
UnTrap Pro

I've seen the reviews and emails since Pro launched. A lot of people are asking a fair question:

Why take features that were free for years and put them behind a subscription?

I should have explained this properly before I launched Pro. I didn't.

So here's the full explanation. No marketing page, no sales pitch — just why I made the decision.

UnTrap isn't a side project

UnTrap and my other digital wellbeing projects are my full-time work. They aren't side projects I work on occasionally. They take essentially all of my available working time.

From the outside, a browser extension can look like something that was built once and now just needs an occasional update. In reality, I've worked on UnTrap almost every day for more than three years. YouTube changes, features break, browsers and their APIs change, and bugs need investigation. User reports and requests come in, existing functionality needs improvement, and I keep developing new features across multiple platforms.

The extension you install is one part of that work. Keeping it useful and reliable is an ongoing job.

How free UnTrap was actually funded

UnTrap wasn't built as an entirely free project. From the beginning, the App Store version was a paid product.

For more than three years, revenue from those one-time purchases allowed me to keep UnTrap completely free on Chrome, Firefox and other browsers — without ads or subscriptions.

In other words, the browser versions were free for their users, but the development behind them wasn't unfunded.

For more than three years, App Store customers effectively funded free access to UnTrap on Chrome and other browsers.

I'm grateful to everyone who bought UnTrap during that time. Their purchases made it possible for many more people to use it without paying.

What changed

Revenue from one-time App Store purchases fell significantly. The trend has continued to weaken, and based on what I'm seeing, I expect it to keep weakening.

At the same time, the work required to maintain and develop UnTrap hasn't gone away.

The product didn't become cheaper to maintain just because one-time-purchase revenue declined.

The model that had allowed one group of users to effectively fund free access for everyone else was no longer producing enough revenue to support the work behind the project.

Why a subscription instead of another one-time purchase?

Here's the simplest example.

If 500 people buy Pro once, I get revenue from those 500 purchases. That can fund development for some period of time.

But the work doesn't stop when the 500th purchase happens.

Those customers may use UnTrap for years. I still need to fix things, adapt to changes and maintain the product throughout that time, even though the revenue from their purchases has ended.

To keep that model going, I have to continuously find enough new customers to fund work for everyone who already bought the product.

After several years of relying on App Store purchases, I no longer see that as a sufficiently stable foundation for my full-time work on UnTrap.

That doesn't mean subscriptions are the right answer for every product. It's what running UnTrap has taught me.

The work continues after the purchase, so I need a revenue model that can continue as well.

Why not donations or Patreon?

I tried that direction.

Voluntary support didn't come anywhere near covering the ongoing work on UnTrap and my other projects. I'm grateful to everyone who contributed, but I couldn't plan continued development around hoping enough people would donate each month.

The old model made almost everything free

For more than three years, Chrome, Firefox and other browser users had access to almost everything UnTrap offered without paying for it.

That was possible because paying App Store customers were funding the development behind those features.

Those features were free to use on those browsers, but they were never free to build or maintain.

When that funding model stopped being sustainable, I couldn't simply draw a line around everything that already existed and treat it as permanently free while trying to fund the project's future only with features I hadn't built yet.

Existing features still require work. YouTube changes, browsers change, bugs appear, and functionality built years ago still needs to be maintained today.

There is also a practical reality: Pro has to contain enough of UnTrap's real value for people to have a reason to buy it.

If nearly everything people already valued remained permanently free and only future additions became paid, I would have introduced a subscription without solving the problem that made a new business model necessary in the first place.

The goal isn't to take as much as possible away from Free. It's to keep Free genuinely useful while making Pro capable of funding the project that Free depends on too.

That's why Pro includes some features that existed before Pro did.

Why can't I just leave UnTrap as it is?

Stopping new development wouldn't stop YouTube and browsers from changing.

I would still need to maintain compatibility, investigate breakages and update existing functionality.

A frozen UnTrap wouldn't remain today's UnTrap forever. It would slowly stop being today's UnTrap.

The decision I eventually had to make

I have a finite amount of working time.

If UnTrap can't economically support continued full-time development, that time eventually has to move to other projects that can.

This isn't a threat, and it isn't an attempt to guilt anyone into subscribing. It's simply the practical reality of doing this as my full-time work.

The decision I eventually faced was:

build a sustainable business around UnTrap, or reduce or stop active development and move that time elsewhere.

I chose to try to make UnTrap sustainable.

What still stays free

I still want someone to be able to install UnTrap and meaningfully improve YouTube without paying.

Free still includes core controls for reducing distractions — including hiding Shorts, home-page recommendations, related videos and comments — along with other free functionality.

I want the free version to remain useful on its own.

What Pro makes possible

Recurring revenue gives me a stable foundation for the work that keeps coming: maintaining existing features, adapting to YouTube and browser changes, supporting multiple platforms, building new functionality, and maintaining the infrastructure behind connected features.

Pro is meant to give continued work on UnTrap a sustainable foundation.

What I should have explained better

I don't think I explained any of this well enough when Pro launched.

I introduced the new model, but I didn't give users enough context about what had funded UnTrap before, what had changed, how much ongoing work the project requires, or what the alternative looked like from my side.

Without that context, I understand why the change can look like I simply took a free extension and put existing features behind a paywall.

I should have explained the full picture from the beginning.

You don't have to agree

I don't expect this explanation to make everyone agree with the decision.

If a subscription makes UnTrap no longer worth using for you, I respect that.

My goal with this page isn't to convince everyone to buy Pro. It's to explain why I made the decision.

For more than three years, I was fortunate to be able to offer almost everything for free outside the App Store. I'm glad I was able to keep it that way for as long as I did.

Pro is my attempt to make sure I can keep building UnTrap for the years ahead.

Thanks for reading.

YevhenCreator of UnTrap