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Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#471

Post by layer8 »

Gigachad wrote: post #262
amarant wrote: post #259

I don't think subscriptions per se is that much of a problem, but for certain products I feel like there needs to be some kind of regulation mandating companies to enable some kind of self-hosted solution on the event they take their cloud down for whatever reason (including bankruptcy). If the product requires online servers, and the company is not willing/able to keep those servers online, anyone who has paid for t…

This isn't true for most things you "subscribe" to. If the gym closes down, they aren't required to provide a new location near you. If your office building gets demolished, there is no recourse. You just have to deal with it and sort out your own alternative.

Gyms are compatible which each other in the sense that you can train your body in any of them. If your office building collapses, you can move to another one offering basically the same facilities. The same is often not true for your data that you manage using some SaaS product. For example, should Trello shut down, then even if you can export all your data in some JSON or XML format, there would be no other software where you can continue to use that data in a fashion remotely equal to Trello. Or should GitHub shut down, you'd still have the contents your Git repository, but you couldn't just move your GitHub Actions (and whatever else they provide) to some other service.

Services are heavily incentivised to lock in their users with proprietary features, so that users can't easily migrate to a competitor. And that's what comes back to bite you when a service shuts down.

Of course, a regulation like the GP proposes would be difficult due to IP rights and third-party licensing. It's more that users should avoid services that lock them in.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#472

Post by closeparen »

throwoutway wrote: post #431
closeparen wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are funny. The automakers pretend they are simply selling an object for a pile of money, but in the real world of the dealership & lending ecosystem it's all 60-72 month loans and service contracts and warranties. And it's all pretty smarmy compared to what people would accept from a reputable national brand. If cars are subscription products anyway, then having the automakers internalize & centralize that part…

Not accurate exactly. The bank finances the loan, the dealership gets the money right away. The dealership gets a small commission from the bank for being the sole proprietor of the financing. The warranties are the dealership though

If you look in the fine print, the warranties are often third party insurance companies. And the financing bank is often the OEM! And the dealer also has its inventory on credit, and the creditor is also often the OEM. Yes, there's a web of entities and transactions going on, but at some level that's accounting. You pay a monthly fee in exchange for use of the car. Making this deal with a whole ecosystem may or may not be better than making it directly with the OEM.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#473

Post by layer8 »

nvln wrote: post #409

I'm tired of it and everything (analytics, growth hacking, conversion metrics, ad-tech) that comes along with it. It has sapped my desire to make good products. I've decided to abandon all VC wisdom and go retro. I'm experimenting with an extremely liberal pricing model and business ethos for my upcoming products and hoping against hope that it succeeds. https://koodpad.com/notes/why-pay/

I mostly agree, but for the love of god please replace that Comic Sans. :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#474

Post by celestialcheese »

In the niche of Laravel PHP, a dev shop out of Belgium, Spatie, has been doing the opposite with a email marketing platform [1]1.

Flat license fee for source code that I can customize and run in my existing app. Running it at scale and just annually renewing licenses to keep updates and bugfixes coming. It's wonderful.

But that's the only exception to a long list of annual and monthly contracts. One bright spot. Thanks Spatie.

1 - https://mailcoach.app/

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#475

Post by chillfox »

solardev wrote: post #139
gernb wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can go both ways. Upgrades: Plus: Must be compelling so they must come up with new features Minus: Sometimes those new features are bad. Subscriptions: Plus: Keep it working on new OS versions Minus: No compelling reason to add anything.

I've never really seen a subscription program stagnate in practice. In fact I find that subscriptions allow companies to detach revenue from feature planning and deliver useful features rather than shiny new UIs.

Evernote, all they did for several years was scrambling the UI.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#476

Post by vel0city »

paultopia wrote: post #437
phrom wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you mention Windows and Office. Office is getting worse while moving to a subscription model, while Windows is getting worse by moving towards ads.

Although TBF office and windows have gotten worse with every version at least since the 1990s.

Yeah Excel 3.0 had much better cloud multi-user editing support. It really only went downhill after Excel 5.0 came out with this whole VBA nonsense in '93. Unnecessary bloat, really just showcasing the fact Microst doesn't know what it's users actually want.

Excel today is way better than the Excel I used in the 90s. I wouldn't trade it for a moment.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#477

Post by torgian »

I've _very_ tired of it. If I do develop an app, it'll be a one-item purchase.

Hell, subscription model is making its way into CARS. It's so stupid. Mercedes is doing that... 1200 USD a year to "unlock" power. I mean, for fuck sake. You're spending a hundred grand on a luxury car and you still need to pay?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#478

Post by torgian »

crazygringo wrote: post #40

Not really, because I saw too many software companies go out of business because not enough people wound up upgrading to the next major version -- the ownership model of software can be awfully feast-or-famine for developers' income, it's a very tough/risky business model. Generally speaking, I'm happy to pay a subscription because this way I get a steady stream of all the updates, and it's much more likely the compa…

You must be young.

I would much rather own the software, books, and music I buy in a hard copy form than a "digital" form that can be removed without my consent.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#480

Post by vonseel »

thecoppinger wrote: post #414
coldtea wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've mixed subscription based services (Google storage space) and content (Spotify) with subscription based software. For services, it might make sense. Even so, what exactly is "getting better all the time" about Spotify the software? It's been the same for like 5 years now. As for the rest: 1Password declined (turned to Electron shit), Creative Cloud keeps adding bloat while not adressing decades standing issues,…

Claiming 1Password has declined is unfair at best. They release a steady stream of updates, and when I discovered a UX issue earlier this year their team were on it like a rash.

Yea I don't understand all the recent hate over their new version. I installed the new version on my devices, and while the keyboard shortcuts seemed to change, once I looked them up it worked better than before. I just use the cmd+ shift+space shortcut for everything now.
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