Updated: BetaBooks database problem

Update: Dec 19, 2024

We believe we've found a solution for the BetaBooks database problem that should make the app responsive again. We've deployed and tested the changes and they seem to be working, so we've restored all functionality. If you're continuing to have trouble please email us and let us know.

We sincerely apologize for the duration and extent of degradation on the app, and thank you for your patience with us as we worked to figure this out.

Previous update: Dec 9, 2024

For the last several weeks BetaBooks has been experiencing significant database issues that are making it difficult to use the app. We sincerely apologize for the frustration this is causing.

We're working to investigate and find a solution, but so far we have not found any straightforward solution. Since don't have a path to resolve this issue quickly, we are disabling new signups and new subscriptions.

We'll update this page with more information as we have it.

A bit of context on BetaBooks

BetaBooks is a very part-time hobby project for the three of us (Pam, Paul, and Andrew). The project is now 8 years old, and while in the early days we hoped that this might be able to grow into something that at least one of us could do as a job, it turned out not to be viable. Most people who use BetaBooks are hobbyists, and less than 10% of our users have ever paid for a subscription. So our goal has just been to use the small amount of revenue we generate from subscriptions to keep the server running for as long as possible, and try to answer support emails when we get them.

Over the last year the server has been having issues more frequently. At this point it looks like the issue is the amount of data in the database is much larger than we expected it to be when we wrote the app years ago, and there isn't a simple way for us to redesign and rebuild the app to handle this. As the issues have become more severe in the last month, we ultimately decided that we need to suspend any new business and stop accepting subscriptions until (and unless) we can find a path forward.

We're investigating options as time allows, but we also all have demanding day jobs, and two of the three of us are in the middle of moving, so progress is slow. We'll provide updates as we're able to.