Blynk for individual

FAQ
1

Hello !!
Today i was going through https://blynk.io/pricing To see if there are any new PLANS released.
And under plans there are 3 Diff plans:
Startup
Business
Enterprise.
These way to much cost for my use.

And as i came down the page i found Questions? We’ve got answers.
Under this
There was a question :point_down:
Can I use Blynk App commercially?

And the answer was :point_down:
NO. Blynk apps for iOS and Android can’t be used commercially .

Blynk takes automated measures to track and detect such activity. Any account that is suspected for commercial use can be deactivated immediately without a prior notice. We provide no warranty and no liability for any losses caused by stopping of your account and associated business or commercial use.

To use Blynk commercially, you need an active subscription to any plan listed on this page.

Any other commercial use is considered as violation of Terms And Conditions

So now my situation right now is, there are 3 pumps in my farm (located 250kms away from my home). So that is being controlled with schedules (i had asked for help previously on this forum). and 4 relays are being controlled by our Amazing Blynk …

My fear now is this line :point_down:
Blynk takes automated measures to track and detect such activity.

So as i am running ,multiple devices does this fall under commercial sector or not ?? Cuz i dont want to get into any sought of trouble !! As i am using cloud server i am purchasing energy from Blynk. So is this fine to operate ? Because one fine morning if Blynk manages to stop all my devices, then all my investment made on the devices as well Blynk energy will go waste… So is this something to worry about ? I am planning to as another 3 devices. So before proceeding i want to make sure nothing bad happens !!!

And i also came across :point_down:
Do you have cheaper plans?

Unfortunately not.

We don’t have any other prices other than the ones listed on this page. But we are working on creating more affordable plans for individual use in future.

Now i am wondering when will be the affordable plans for individuals be released ??? Because i will be happy to PAY because Blynk is an amazing thing ever !! And it would be nice if we have to pay at one shot \ pay yearly… but recurring costs for individuals be kind of heavy on pockets… So please consider this suggestion.

Now i just want to know 2 things

  1. Will i be in trouble for using multiple devices under developer app ? (All my devices are running under the same email id [login] )

  2. When will be the NEW affordable plan for individuals be released ?? (We need this the MOST)

Please have a quick thought on NEW plans and one time payment for individuals !!
And please consider my request @Pavel .

Thanking You !!

2

IMO, since you are using it for

and not selling your device to others, it would not be considered commercial use.

I personally have multiple devices running, for different purposes. i.e. a garage door opener/monitor, a garden/dog water controller, and an environment monitor (temp, humidity. light level, etc.). As all of these device are for my person use, therefore I feel they do not fall under commercial terms and conditions.

If one was to use BLYNK for a product they plan to sell, then that is where you would need to pay for a plan. If you are making money from a product, and it incorporates BLYNK, you should probably be paying for a plan.

Although, I have seen some people develop products that incorporate BLYNK, but require the end user to purchase energy to use it. This seems like a grey area to me, and am not sure how the BLYNK staff views this. (for example THIS)

3

Ok.! I was tensed because i read the line blynk used automated service to suspect activity. So if my devices falls under this category, then all my devices will come a halt.

And the link you have provided grey area !! I am having 2 of those similar devices. So will it be commercial? But i have paid for the energy. And one device is running on local server.

This is kind of confusing until we individuals get a plan. Or it would be cool even if we are allowed to pay for the energy and use it lifetime.

4

I can’t answer the second question, but as far as the first one, I assume that Blynk looks for lots of people using the same project on many different devices and lots of different IP addresses.
What you describe is the thing that many people are doing (multiple devices, one or two phones on the same project) and isn’t at all suspicious.

Having said that, using the developer version of Blynk for any mission-critical function isn’t recommended, as there’s no guaranteed service for the cloud servers and no support other than via this forum.
Blynk commercial plans give you a different server that’s managed to different standards, plus enhanced support. That’s why the service costs more, and there are probably very few ways in which these costs can be significantly reduced.

Pete.

5

Building and using devices like these is not the issue. And I suspect Buying and using them isn’t either. To me this may not be too different than buying a SONOFF type device, and reloading it with BLYNK. There are even a few topics about this, with QR codes for the project set-up, and the required code.

Building and SELLING devices like these is where i see things getting murky.

But I have also seen something similar to the link I posted above on this forum, and the developers commenting on it. So, maybe it is OK after all.

6

Exactly !!! But reading that suspicious activities will be terminated !! I was tensed for my devices !!

Does this mean the cloud servers may be stopped in near future ? If so what will be the status of our current running devices ?

What are the ways to get the cost reduced for an individual ??

I guess this whole thing can be neutralized by running our own server and Port forwarding it !! But still we will be using Blynk app and thats again a problem…

OFF TOPIC
Have anyone ever tried to access the local server over the internet by port forwarding or any other means ?? If yes please share the link this will be much appreciated !!

7

As said earlier i had ordered for pcb’s online… and my friends are behind that and they want that at any cost(but i am not at all giving free of cost, i have paid a lot and waited 20days to get it) :sweat_smile: and i am refusing !! As it will be illegal !! And at the same time i was wondering how will one know that i have given them :crazy_face:

8

Firstly, I am just an individual Forum Volunteer… Not affiliated with Blynk, thus my opinions (and I have strong ones at times :innocent: :stuck_out_tongue: ) are my own…

Blynk seems to be a changing with the times…

Basically your farm is clearly not a backyard hobby environment environment… and you must be making a profit of some sort off of it. So my guess it is up to Blynk’s “legal beagles” as to whether using Blynk to control an essential aspect of such a private business is allowed or not… only time will tell.

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Yes, simular has been mentioned many times in this forum… but it is not a one step fits all, depends on your router and ISP type.

I have cable internet with an effectively static public IP (WAN) and simply setup my port forwarding to my Server. And for simplicity with using my App in and out of my personal network, I also use noip.com instead of my Public (WAN) IP

Trade secret… if they tell us, we may have to be “‘disconnected’… for our own safety” :laughing:

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Basically I think it comes down to this… the “development / prototyping” aspect is free… and in a home environment, that can be shoehorned into that category.

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But if it becomes essential to your survival or income, then it is not allowed.

9

I don’t think so, when I said “no guaranteed service for the cloud servers” I meant that there’s no Service Level Agreement about guaranteed up-time, guaranteed fix time etc.
Obviously the cloud servers are very reliable (I use them myself 100%), but a paid plan would give you a different server that has better guarantees

As @Gunner said, NoIP is a great free service. There are some situations where ISPs use a Double NAT system which means that port forwarding to a dynamic public IP address wont work, but provided your ISP doesn’t do that then NoIP will be fine.
You have to run an updater service on one of your network devices which keeps NoIP updated with your public IP address if/when it changes, but that’s very simple to do.

Pete.

1 Like
10

Oops !! Sorry i meant to say Farm house !! The only profit i am having is that am saving labour !! I don’t have to name a person to keep the plants green. Its just a small area !!

11

Seems very complicated. Because I cannot get proper info from ISP .
How about google platform? I saw someone running blynk on google server and accessing it via internet.

This reduces stress on blynk cloud server as well i have to say this because we are using free of cost.

But there is subscription for the server. But not as much as the Blynk’s startup plan…

So what’s one’s opinion on this ?
Is it a YES or NO ??

12

Ah, sounds like renting space for a personal garden? But what a commute at 250km for some fresh veggies :astonished:

Anyhow, as stated, it is not up to my opinion/interpretation… so time will tell.

If your use is as minimal as mentioned, then stick with the Cloud Server as you “cover” some of its cost via energy purchase, which again for minimal personal use is … well… minimal :slight_smile:

13

You don’t need any information from your ISP to keep NoIP updated. There are NoIP clients for a wide variety of devices. Many routers can be configured to keep NoIP updated. I personally use an ESP8266 as a dedicated NoIP updater and I could give you the code for that if you decided to godown that route.

Pete.

14

No way !!! There are approx 30 Mango trees and 20 coconut trees !! To keep them alive i use blynk !

And they give yield once in a year ! So i am not commuting there often. That is why i am thinking of incorporating Blynk in my small farm house and garden ?

15

I would love to see how that works !!! I kindly request you to share the code. And can you tell me which is the router you are using? So that i can buy the same and start working on setting up. And can I use a portable wifi router with sim ? Nowadays these are becoming more popular. So will this work the same as Fibernet or any changes ( regarding the ip address )

16

I think you misunderstood what I was saying.
You need a device somewhere on your network which can be configured as a NoIP update client.
This could be a router, Windows PC, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 or any number of other devices.

My router is bespoke to my ISP, and although it has the option to act as a DDNS update client I choose not to use that method as it’s generally not as reliable/configurable as other methods. This is what the DDNS config screen looks like in my router:
image

Many other routers have a similar functionality available.

I use an ESP8266/NodeMCU running this code:

Some people have had problems using 3G connections, because the service provider blocks the Blynk protocol:

Pete.

17

Great discussion here. Thank you everyone who participated.

Overall, personal vs commercial use is very straightforward. If you make money using Blynk in any way - it’s a commercial use. If you sell mangos that are monitored by Blynk - it’s a commercial use.

But we are not monitoring tiny businesses, as we understand that our pricing model simply doesn’t work for them. On the other hand we are aware of folks who are abusing Blynk free version for commercial use. And we take measures against it.

It all started a few years ago after we got an email from someone who was blaming Blynk for an app update that stopped working for “hundreds of his clients”. These clients were dispersed across a huge territory and this “businessman” had no means to update hardware and local servers. His operation was shut down in a day, he lost all of his clients. Should he have been subscribed, this would never happen.

This is just one example of how an individual can shoot himself in the leg by not getting into any business relationships with a service provider you rely on.

This case led us to investigating similar cases and now we are very strict about such system abuse. We have automation + manual check to find violators.

In case of Open Sprinkler and Garage Opener - owner have contacted us and we made an agreement. Since his project is open-source we decided to allow him to distribute his devices with Blynk app. We don’t guarantee any SLA, but his clients are capable of updating the devices in case smth breaks. Again, the owner contacted us and didn’t ask for a free app or smth, was very open about his goals. This is why we encourage contacting us when you are unsure how to run a commercial project.

By the way, we are cooking smth interesting in the new version of the platform for small business and one-person operations. So stay tuned.

4 Likes
18

Even if i sell i will not even get what i am investing on internet charges :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

Please work on getting new plans for individuals as well as very very small business people. Many are interested to get into blynk !! But as of now the pricing is way to high for individual.

So if anyone is interested to stay with blynk and get any discounts for their tiny business by contacting Blynk ?? Is this possible?

19

They Are.

2 Likes
20

I support, the version of the package for very small business use Blynk is very necessary.