Limiting the amount of fields you can add on one table in non-premium accounts
Today we are announcing that non-premium accounts will no longer be able to add more than 30 fields per table. Additionally, starting September 1st, 2017 these users will no longer be able to build components with more than 30 fields.
Why this limit?
During our migration to the new design we discovered that a large portion of our users is adding too many fields to their tables. In some cases, users have added as many as 200 fields to one table. We have decided to prevent this from happening from now on for several reasons.
Not how our free plan was intended
95% of the users who create tables with more than 30 fields are found among our free users. This does not seem to be a coincidence; on the contrary, we are convinced that the majority of these users are squeezing too many fields into one table in order to build the code, and then manually split it up into several models, views, and controllers later (or some other manual workaround).
Our free version has always been intended to show the power of Component Creator, and hopefully convince its users that the small monthly fee for the premium subscription is well worth the investment. As of right now, some users have been abusing the free version's original purpose, and therefore should be paying for the service we provide. The more people who help pay for Component Creator, the more cool new features we can add to it. The changes we are implementing are in everybody’s interest.
Strain on the system
Adding up to 200 fields adds a strain on our server. Just rendering the field list can take several seconds on these types of components. This does not only create a bad user experience for the user in question, but it could also potentially slow down the server response time for all users.
Design Flaw
In the vast majority of cases adding more than 30 fields to one table represents a design flaw in the core of the system being developed as these fields should be separated into several tables. That said, we will continue to allow premium subscribers to add more than 30 fields.
Become Premium
We realize that this limit will affect many free users, but we hope that these users will take some time to consider if it is the right time to sign up for a premium account, and support the system from which they have already benefited. Although we want as much functionality as possible to remain free, we also rely heavily on our premium users to continue the development and support for what we believe is a truly great money saving service. We hope you agree.
