Looking over IRCCloud's subscription plans, why would I want to pay for features that have been offered free forever? Is the idea that since I can't run an IRC client on my iPhone that I'd pay for this? I don't get it.

We're essentially a nicely designed web-based irc interface with integrated hosted bouncer.

You don't usually get that for free afaik, you'd have to run a bouncer yourself on a vps or something, or attach to screen and use irssi.

Plenty of our users are former screen+irssi users, and many of them are perfectly capable of running a vps+bouncer+whatever themselves, but choose to use us because it's less hassle / more convenient.

I like the look of it but imho the Gold plan is too expensive - €12 of VPS could get persistant IRC and a lot more.

Not having to configure & admin a VPS is one of the reasons to use irccloud.

That, and the fact we are building a really slick web interface you can access from multiple machines easily. You'd be paying for an integrated server/bouncer/client package.

Also, for many people the €3 and €5 plans are ample; so the €12 represents our most expensive option.

Where are the prices mentioned? I couldn't find it anywhere on irccloud.com

Under "More info" on the homepage.

Looks really cool. Love the fluidity with the animations