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0 pointsJedd4y ago0 comments

Not parent, but ...

> I see this comment or some variation of it every time a new product is shared here that has such a model.

I observe something similar, but we seem to have drawn different conclusions.

> What I rarely if ever see is a proposal for how the developer should make money instead of a subscription.

At the risk of sounding trite, I think people who find subscriptions unpalatable would be happy with anything that isn't a subscription. These could be offered in parallel, so subscription-averse consumers have an alternative to evaluate.

A one-off payment is the obvious and most simple choice -- wrap some limits or caveats around data / transit usage if needed. Freemium option may work in some cases (I think there's sufficient successful examples to validate this as viable). (Only) enterprise users pay. Tier the offerings to protect yourself from the heavy eaters.

I don't think expressing fatigue at the relentlessness of subscription-ONLY services is invalid.

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haswell4y ago

I think a one time payment is great when you’re selling a standalone app, but for online services, I don’t think there are many options beyond a subscription or possibly some kind of pay-as-you-go model, the latter of which has a whole host of other issues.

I don’t think it’s invalid to express fatigue at the model, but as feedback on a specific app/service here, it’s a bit tired without at least some kind of suggested alternative.

And truly I get it - I too have far too many subscriptions to things, but putting myself into the devs shoes, I get why it’s a prevailing approach these days.

vertis4y ago

One-time payments for Apps are a lie we tell ourselves anyway. There will always be another version, and the new version with have that feature we need (or support for new hardware).

Like you, I find the attitude about subscriptions frustrating. "Wants to be paid but doesn't want to pay". And yes, it's possible that the person objecting lives outside capitalist society and contributes an enormous volume to open source (or other volunteering), but statistically less likely.

I can see the benefit of bundling (e.g. Setapp), so that you're not killed by a million tiny subscriptions, but people need to be paid for their work, so one way or another money needs to flow to the creator.

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