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New "upgrade" killing off the Developers?

Reed Copsey, Jr. By 
September 23, 2015

According to http://nationbuilder.com/feature_comparison , it looks like the Developer API is only going to be available on plans starting at a thousand dollars a month now?  This effectively kills off the developer market entirely.

Was this intended?  The Developer API was one of the main reasons I came to NationBuilder, and I keep my community hosted here.  It's also been a huge reason for me to promote NationBuilder as an option amongst other non-profits, but the new pricing effectively destroys the potential of usage by most non-profits... 

Is there any form of the API being left in the lower tiered plans?

 

-Reed

 

Official response from

It is true that nations on the Leader and Organization package will not have access to the API. Nations on any package can still install apps and hire a certified developer from our developer directory to build an integration with other systems using our API. The only restriction for nations on the Leader and Organization package is for them accessing the API to build a custom integration using non-certified developers.

Becoming a certified developer or publishing an app in our app directory will allow you to work with any customer regardless of the pricing package they are on. To become a certified developer please fill out this form and we'll be in touch shortly. To publish an app to our app directory please contact me directly at [email protected].

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  • Rand Wrobel
    commented
    Killing the API for us (a small nonprofit) is another nail in the coffin. Sorry, closing off the only avenue to fill NB gaps is the wrong direction.
    posted 2015-10-31 00:21:18 -0700
  • Rand Wrobel
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-10-31 00:21:17 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    commented
    Reed – Apologies for the delay on our end. The email blast is going out this week. We will clarify the points you raised in your messages in that email.
    posted 2015-10-05 14:20:16 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    Farz – This is still extremely unclear. You had promised an email with clarifications last week, which didn’t go out. How would the API be restricted from a technical standpoint? It doesn’t matter who is creating the application – if you’re exposing the API, that’s going to need to be in the Nation’s account… Whether the person creating the app is a developer or not doesn’t change how the org needs to expose the API to the app.
    posted 2015-10-05 13:37:45 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    Farz – “week of Sept. 28th” is now almost over… What is the status on this update?
    posted 2015-10-02 11:08:03 -0700
  • Collin Jensen
    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-09-30 20:48:50 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    commented
    We want to make sure all of your questions and concerns are addressed and it seems like a lot of the questions are splintering off into different comment sections on nationbuilder.com. We’re going to send out an email to certified developers the week of Sept. 28th with a followup video conference call where we can dig into this fully.
    posted 2015-09-25 13:05:52 -0700
  • Chris Houghton
    Certified Architect
    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Architect Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    Would be great to get clarified whether non-enterprise nations, if using a certified developer, will have access to the API explorer, webhooks and API tokens, and whether they will be able to install shared private apps or just public ones.
    posted 2015-09-24 16:23:51 -0700
  • Chris Houghton
    Certified Architect
    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Architect Certified NationBuilder Developer
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-09-24 16:23:49 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    Farz,

    Still not sure it makes much sense. Can the organization, even if it’s not Enterprise, expose end points? I know I could still write an integration, but without being able to expose the API from the dashboard, how is the organization going to use my work? There’s no (technical) mechanism to differentiate by who writes the code – it has to be managed based on the end point to which you’re connecting, right?

    Reed
    posted 2015-09-23 16:30:07 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    commented
    Not quite. If you’re a certified developer that has been hired by an organization and that organization does not fall within the Enterprise or Network package, there is no penalty for you to work on their integration. The new pricing only applies to organizations with an in-house team of developers, or to organizations who hire a third party developer who is not NationBuilder certified.

    So if a non-profit that falls within the Organization package and they hire you to build out an integration, you and the organization will have full access to the API.
    posted 2015-09-23 15:06:51 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-09-23 15:06:49 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    From what I can tell, that basically takes the market for us, as Developers, from all Nations down to only extremely large organizations that can afford 12k / year.
    posted 2015-09-23 14:59:14 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-09-23 14:59:13 -0700
  • Reed Copsey, Jr.

    Certified Developer
    Certified NationBuilder Developer
    commented
    Farz: I’m not sure that’s any better – It basically means “normal” organizations have any way to integrate with the API, right? If I want to help out with some non-profit in a way that requires usage of their Nation via the API, they’d still have to pay this huge penalty now, right?
    posted 2015-09-23 14:57:08 -0700
  • Alexandre Schmitt
    NationBuilder employee
    tagged this with Important
    posted 2015-09-23 14:49:13 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    responded with completed
    posted 2015-09-23 14:48:20 -0700
  • Farz Sokhansanj
    NationBuilder employee
    responded
    posted 2015-09-23 14:47:46 -0700