undefined | Better HN

0 pointsnewaccount743y ago0 comments

> the vast majority (>90%) of devs would rather exit out of that pop-up

Converting just 5% of users to paying customers is considered pretty good for shareware/freemium, so just because you saw a lot of people using the trial does not mean it is unsustainable. I have no idea how much the developer of Sublime Text makes, but considering that they have been around since 2008 I would assume it's definitely sustainable.

0 comments

oblio3y ago

Yeah, but it's generally the kind of money that only allows having a mom-and-pop store. 1-2-5 employees, that's it. If you have a bigger initiative, you can't do it.

Instead, Mega Corp just buys you out when you burn out after many years of development, we see this happening regularly.

newaccount74OP3y ago

In general I think you are probably right. Many developer tools are small projects that can be developed by a single person, and it seems they often struggle to grow into to a bigger company. (I've experienced this struggle myself. For me, the problem was not lack of money)

On the other hand, I think Jetbrains shows that it is absolutely possible to build a huge company that sells nothing but developer tools.

There are also a bunch of mid-size companies that sell developer tools. I'm pretty sure there's more than 5 people at Navicat, Hex-Rays, or Panic, but I'm not sure how big these companies actually are.

oblio3y ago

Jetbrains is probably the exception, out of the dev tools devs actually like to use.

ActiveState used to be another, back in the day. They're still around but with minor mindshare.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

oblio3y ago

Yeah, but it's generally the kind of money that only allows having a mom-and-pop store. 1-2-5 employees, that's it. If you have a bigger initiative, you can't do it.

Instead, Mega Corp just buys you out when you burn out after many years of development, we see this happening regularly.

newaccount74OP3y ago

On the other hand, I think Jetbrains shows that it is absolutely possible to build a huge company that sells nothing but developer tools.

oblio3y ago

Jetbrains is probably the exception, out of the dev tools devs actually like to use.

ActiveState used to be another, back in the day. They're still around but with minor mindshare.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse