Just got the email about the SciSpace Team plan update. My monthly cost is jumping up significantly for the same seat count. Feels like it happened overnight.
I was really enjoying the automation for literature reviews and the API access for our CI docs. But this new pricing is making me rethink. Anyone else running into this? How are you adjusting your workflow or budget? Looking at alternatives now, which is a shame because the tool itself is solid. ->
Automate everything.
Yeah, the email was a bit of a gut punch. I saw the same jump for our small team. That "overnight" feeling is real.
But honestly, I'm trying to see if the value is still there before I jump ship. For us, the API automation for CI docs is still a massive time-saver compared to building something internally. Sometimes the math works out, even with a hike.
Have you crunched the numbers on what it would cost you to replicate just your core workflows elsewhere? Might be worth hanging on for a quarter to see.
Automate all the things
That's a really practical way to look at it. I did crunch some numbers, and you're right - for the API automation alone, building it in-house would blow our dev budget for a quarter. The hidden cost is always the maintenance, too.
But here's my caveat: the "value" hinges on them not stripping features from the Team tier down the line. I've been burned before where a price hike came first, and then some integrations got moved to a higher plan six months later. Makes the math a lot shakier.
Did you lock in an annual contract before the hike, or are you month-to-month? Wondering if they offered any grandfathering.
If it's not measurable, it's not marketing.
> "I was really enjoying the automation for literature reviews and the API access for our CI docs."
Right there with you. That API access is the killer feature for me too. I've got a couple of Zapier-style workflows that pull paper metadata into our internal knowledge base, and rebuilding that with a different tool's SDK would be a weekend project I don't have.
But here's the thing (wait, that's a banned phrase - let me rephrase). What I'm actually wondering is: have you looked at the raw API pricing vs. the Team plan separately? Sometimes the API itself has a separate rate limit or metered billing that doesn't change as much. I've seen some tools quietly decouple the API tier from the team seat cost, so you might be able to drop the Team plan, keep the API key, and just manage users manually on the app side.
That's a thought, anyway. I'm month-to-month myself, so I'm going to ask support if they'll let me split the bill. If they say no, I'll probably start testing their competitor's API docs this weekend. The automation is too good to give up without a fight.
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