LogMeIn is canceling its free service, asking users to upgrade to Pro

[sincity]

LogMeIn has begun notifying users of its free service that they have one week to upgrade to LogMeIn Pro before they're no longer able to access their remote desktops.

LogMeIn Free users will see the message when they log in to the service, and will have seven days starting from the next time they log in to upgrade.

Users are also being notified via email, but the seven day countdown doesn't start until they log in.

Pro users get many benefits over Free users, including integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and other cloud services, remote printing, and more. But they'll have to pay for it, obviously.

So how much does it cost?

For some reason LogMeIn is being somewhat cagey about pricing information, recommending existing Free users log in so they can review their options.

We had to create two separate accounts to see information regarding LogMeIn Pro and LogMeIn Central subscription pricing.

It turns out LogMeIn Pro costs $79 (about £50, AU$90) per year for two computers and two mobile devices, $199 (about £120, AU$226) per year for five computers and five mobiles, and $359 (about £220, AU$408) a year for ten computers and ten mobiles.

Existing LogMeIn Central users won't be affected by this change, but we checked anyway, and for Central users to upgrade to Pro actually costs more: $249 (about £157, AU$295) a year for five computers, $449 (about £272, AU$510) a year for ten, and $999 (about £606, AU$1,135) for 25 computers.

Opting out

Interestingly LogMeIn is also merging its LogMeIn-branded and Ignition-branded services as part of this change.

No doubt this news overall won't sit well with many existing LogMeIn Free users, but unfortunately there is no readily apparent way to delete one's account, as highlight by this and other ongoing LogMeIn community forum threads.

It seems the best you can easily do is remove your devices and billing information from your account, and navigate to account settings, then to email notifications, and uncheck as many boxes as possible.

We've asked LogMeIn to clarify a few points, and we'll update this article if we hear back. In the mean time the company has posted a FAQ to its help site where users can go for more information.

• Looks like Google's Chrome remote desktop app will come to iOS, too

[JoeDirt]

I am surprised that it took them this long to do so. Well I guess its time to start the deathwatch countdown. There are other free alternatives out there so I don't think they will be missed.