Popular third-party Reddit app Apollo will shut down as of June 30, Apollo developer Christian Selig announced on Thursday. Selig decided to shut down the app after Reddit announced that it would start requiring developers to pay a large amount of money to access its API.
Selig has previously said that Reddit is charging $12,000 for 50 million requests, and due to the large number of people that use Apollo, Selig would be forced to pay a $20 million per year charge to Reddit that Selig says is unfeasible for him to pay.
Despite protests from users and Reddit moderators that use third-party apps, Reddit has not dropped its plans to begin charging for access to its API. “Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days,” Selig wrote.
Apollo is the most popular third-party Reddit app, primarily because Selig regularly adds new features and updates, and communicates with users, getting feedback on new functionality. While a first-party Reddit app is available, it doesn’t have the same level of features as Apollo.
Although Selig has attempted to negotiate with Reddit, the social network has not agreed to offer more reasonable API pricing. For its part, Reddit has claimed that Selig tried to extort money from the company and is operating Apollo inefficiently, but has not provided Selig with more information on how the app can be improved to further cut down on API usage.
While Selig says he could eventually rewrite Apollo’s code to make it more efficient, Reddit has given him a 30-day deadline to implement any code changes, switch to a subscription model, and make other updates.
Selig has provided full details on why he is shutting down Apollo, plus he includes transcripts and audio of his discussions with Reddit.
(Via MacRumors)