Subscriptions aren't enough for SaaS companies, we're now moving towards credits

6 pointsaosaigh9mo ago4 comments

I just got an email from Netlify talking about their upcoming shift from fixed-priced subscriptions to a credit-based subscription.

You now pay for credits. When your credits run out, your website stops.

What counts towards credits?

- Deploys

- Compute hours

- Form submission

- Bandwidth

- Requests

Is this the next greedy evolution of subscription-based pricing?

4 comments

4 comments · 4 top-level

warrenm9mo ago

So ... they are moving to a more-accurate pricing model, and you are upset?

Some things cost less than others

AWS (and every other cloud provider I can think of) does this with their pricing - bandwidth (fully-internal, cross region, external...), compute (EC2, Lambda...), storage (S3, EBS, local NVMe...), and more

Sounds like you have now gotten a clearer mechanism to understanding usage, so you can maximize your utilization, and you want to have an opaque view instead

msali9mo ago

Yes. And, guess what - now any refunds will also be in "credits" or coupons, not cash!

crypto_is_king9mo ago

You can always vote with your wallet and choose a competitor that is not doing that.

mystraline9mo ago

Yep, end-stage enshittification.

A subscription is basically an 'all you can eat buffet', and people are hungry.

Only way to get more money is to go 'sushi conveyer plate' model. And surprise, we won't tell you how many plates you eat till we tell you "pay more".

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