Tweetdeck is the latest part of Twitter to be limited to those who are willing to pay.
The dashboard, which allows people to manage multiple feeds and searches, is now only accessible to verified Twitter users.
Earlier this month, TweetDeck was renamed XPro as part of Twitter’s rebrand to X. The site now automatically redirects non-paying users to the X Premium subscription page.
As a result, X Pro users will now need to pay £9.60 per month or £100.80 per year for access to the platform.
If you’re wondering why you’ve suddenly been cut off from using TweetDeck, here’s what you need to know.
Why has TweetDeck changed to paid?
Free access to TweetDeck has ended because of Twitter’s drive to monetise its service following a drop in advertising revenue.
Twitter acquired the dashboard in 2011 for a reported $50 million after it became the go-to tool for power users. It continued to operate free of charge while Twitter was struggling to make a profit.
After acquiring the platform in a fraught takeover process, Elon Musk has slashed jobs and locked more features behind a subscription. The entrepreneur has described the extreme measures as a last-ditch effort to keep the company afloat.
welp tweetdeck finally went bye-bye for me and this popped up and lmao no. pic.twitter.com/z2sWXz18nx
— russ bengtson (@russbengtson) August 15, 2023
The old TweetDeck is the latest casualty of Musk’s self-professed survival strategy. In July, Twitter announced that the service would be restricted to verified users in 30 days’ time. As of Tuesday, the dashboard is tied to an X Premium subscription – the new name for Twitter Blue – which offers customers perks such as verification, amplified reach and the ability to edit tweets.
Are there any TweetDeck alternatives?
The good news is there are a raft of TweetDeck alternatives but the bad news is that none of them is free.
Rivals such as HootSuite, Sprout Social, Buffer and SocialPilot offer some similar features, including analytics, curation and tweet scheduling. However, they all come with their own pricing plans, which is why so many people flocked to TweetDeck in the first place.
To make matters worse, Twitter implemented a paywall for its data, forcing some third-party Twitter clients to shut up shop altogether.
