Hey guys I want to clear this up. I am in a stage in development with my team where the PROFILER on the pro version of unity could really help us polish and clean performance issues. I’m afraid to try unity pro though because I don’t know if the watermark will remain on my builds after the trial is complete.
If I use the trial of pro to build a project and then I transfer that project to a free version will it still work?
Also once the trial ends will there be a watermark on my builds?
Will the trial version of unity pro put me in a position where I will have to redo any of the work I did during the pro version on a new clean build??
These questions are very important. It’s my belief that I can safely use the trial of pro and once it ends there will be no strings attached and I can continue compiling that build I’ve been working on for months. God willing this game will produce enough money to buy pro. Anyway let me know your thoughts thanks !
Using Pro trial won’t “damage” your project in any way. Once you’ve done some profiling, ended the trial, and switched back to free, you’ll be able to make builds that have the splash screen but not any kind of watermark, which is what I think you want.
However, and it’s a big however, trials are provided to allow people to evaluate Pro features prior to making a purchase. It sounds like you know you need/want Pro, in which case you’re not evaluating. Your use of a Pro trial will be just a way avoid buying the product. If you need/want the profiler, then you should be purchasing Pro. Unity has made this easy by adding a subscription option to avoid indy studios having to find $1500 up front. With subscription you pay $75/month for 12 months.
Note that if you do decide to switch to Pro the entire team will need to use Pro. You cannot simply buy one Pro seat.
You may also be able to use 3rd party Mono profilers. Granted, the Unity one is going to be better suited to profiling a Unity project. Having not used it yet, I can only make conjectures, but I’d assume that it leaves out engine-specific profiling…i.e. it only profiles your code (which is a good thing), whereas the 3rd party might include data for everything going on under-the-hood (the stuff you can’t change and have no influence over, and thus don’t really need to know).
Also, don’t get me wrong, I think Pro is a great value. But, I’m a hobbyist, so I don’t have the disposable income to drop on a Pro license (much as I would like to).
Which, again, is great 
And not to derail much, but my personal situation doesn’t quite have the disposable income for that, and the free version does everything I need it to…for now
Were I seriously developing a product, I would be seriously considering a Pro license of some sort. But I am but a humble hobbyist, with nary enough free time to devote to said hobby.
yeah you know it’s not just 75 dollars a month I would also need licensing too for android / ios and the pro version licenses are much more expensive. I’d end up spending hundreds a month per team member. The goal of our team is to make a game that is popular enough to pay for pro though so our goal is to spend thousands on unity so dont worry your team will get its money 