Astro Pixel Processor (APP)

Question:
Has anyone here used APP for image processing?
If so, is it any good?
What licensing did you purchase, One time or Rental (annual fee)?
What are you using to run it?, my laptop is a Core i5 with just 8GB so PixInsight would probably push the limits of this machine.
I'm thinking of pushing the button on this soon, as reviews seem to be pretty good, but there is nothing like getting users reviews, so I would appreciate a quick answer - thanks.

Hi John,
I did not jump in last night when I first saw your post - just incase anybody else could give a more comprehensive reply. I have APP and use it on my home computer (i7 with 16GB Ram). Since I started out with PixInsight withen I got started with astro-photography I have stuck with that for all my final processing BUT for the past year or more, I have utilised APP for my initial steps.

In PI, I never got into the habit of batch processing.....I did everything step by step However, when APP came along, following on from some advice from a colleague here in Spain, I started doing some things in APP.
Now it is part of my routine and wouldn't be without it. I do all the pre-processing (Stacking and calibration (flats & darks) with APPO and bring the unstretched Master Sub into PI to continue as I have always done.
One job that I found APP to be far easier for (& perhaps yielded better results than PI), was doing a Mosaic. For sure, it is a very comprehensive and very good software - the fact that I don't use it all the way through to final image is purely historical (having always used PI) and perhaps a tad of lazyness.....not wanting to spend the time learning new tricks. From what I see (and do) - I would definitely recommend it .... I think you will find it money well spent. On that score - I bought a one time license.
I had a look thoughgt your photos (via the supplied link) - some lovely stuff there....including those of Cartagena.....just down the road from me.    

@Kinch
Thanks for info, it seems to be getting pretty good reviews from almost all APs. I downloaded a Trial license last night and will test with some old data to get a better understanding of it. I'll probably purchase an Owners license and pay for any major upgrade going forward. Not sure I like the new SaaS licensing model, I'm still using Lightroom 5.4 for most post processing and haven't moved to adobe cloud yet.
Cartagena is a wonderful town,I must get back there again, I just spent an evening there last time. A friend owned a bar up the coast in Los Alcazares and thats where we were based. Murcia is a great area, I envy you living there  

@Kinch - Something is broken in your flickr link. I'm getting a "410 It appears the photostream you seek no longer exists" Error. Also I couldn't find Kinch-Astro on any of the searches there. 

Hi John......I did not realise there was a Flickr link here - must look for it to delete it.

I am retracting into my shell.....I closed down my Flickr account last year sometime. Even my posts on FaceBook have now been deleted......just leaving my Web Site up and running. There I can concentrate on the info that should go with my astro images and put up a bit more  detail than was possible on Flickr or FaceBook.

Now that I have invested in a decent monitor - I will start putting up much higher resolution images - when they are good enough, that is

Anyway - hope you can look in on the site sometime....


www.KinchAstro.com

 

Already checked out your website - lots of good info there and IMHO great images and an inspiration to us lesser mortals. Now if only we could get a few clear nights here we might get to practice more and maybe stand a small chance of coming up to your expertise - Keep on shooting!