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Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#61

Post by m-i-l »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #18

I've built a small tool that I distributed as "free for personal use, contact me for a commercial license", without technical enforcement, not even a nag screen. I made one (1) sale, despite receiving e-mails from several people thanking me that they're happily using it at work, and that sale was to a company who wanted customization, and only ended up actually paying the invoice when they asked for another round of…

> Donationware does not work for companies, I think - the bureaucracy required to make money move from the company to you will keep people from doing it even if they think you deserve it.

This is a really important point. Small companies I've worked at generally have had sensible and manageable procurement processes, but big companies have sometimes had mind bogglingly labyrinthine processes even for small purchases. There was once I had to raise an "Approval To Spend" and "on-board" a new vendor, and as far as I could tell the process changed 3 times while I was going through the "process", although I'm not completely sure because while everyone was telling me I had to go through "the process" no-one seemed completely sure what the process was, including those responsible for "the process". All very Kafkaesque. Anyway, it all comes down to your target market - if it is individuals you won't face this problem, but if it is businesses you will face the problem on a scale according to the size of business.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#62

Post by rwmj »

eigenvector wrote: post #47
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #18

I've built a small tool that I distributed as "free for personal use, contact me for a commercial license", without technical enforcement, not even a nag screen. I made one (1) sale, despite receiving e-mails from several people thanking me that they're happily using it at work, and that sale was to a company who wanted customization, and only ended up actually paying the invoice when they asked for another round of…

Companies have successfully convinced themselves that anything software is some form of black magic that can only be procured by the IT department and through a small army of Business Development Managers. In my job I have fairly broad discretion to purchase things, generally up to $100,000 I need only write a one-paragraph justification of what I'm doing as long as I'm working within an approved budget. Except 'IT'.…

Considering that software will be running on the internal network of your company, they probably at least want someone they can hold responsible when it interferes with operations / deletes intranet files / opens holes in the firewall / exfiltrates their secrets / etc.

(And yes I know that's because of terrible design decisions in the intranet itself, but has anyone seriously worked at a large company where that wasn't the case?)

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#63

Post by TangoTrotFox »

Look at sites/software/etc that is offered for free that you believe offer very high value. There's a recurring trend. In spite of the value offered, the developers invariably end up short of revenue. This tends to result in ever more visible requests for donations or alternatives (such as swag) to try to spur revenue. And even with these appeals, the revenue tends to rarely correspond in any meaningful way to the value of what's offered.

As an example Lichess (www.lichess.org) is an amazing service for playing chess. It supplanted services like ICC (internet chess club) and now competes against services such as chess.com and really stands head and shoulders above the rest of the sites. Now let's consider compensation. ICC had on the order of tens of thousands of users and charged around $50/year for what would have required extremely little overhead. They were undoubtedly making millions. Chess.com today is heavily ad-driven and works hard to push their users into a premium access model. No idea about their revenue, but they happily spend 5 figures a year in contracts just to get various players/streamers to exclusively play/stream on their site, and have an extensive paid staff. In contrast to these two sites, the founder of Lichess is able to gives himself a salary of $22,218, about $2k above the French minimum wage. It's not like he's then getting loads in options each year - that's it, that's what he gets for building software that beats out other sites making countless millions offering arguably inferior services.

It sucks, because I wish this model worked, but I think it simply does not. There are exceptions, but they are definitely the exception.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#64

Post by jobigoud »

jolmg wrote: post #32
john_moscow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's one big catch there - once you reach a "fair" income level, many people will think that you are already getting enough and won't bother to sponsor you. Look at the statistics [0]: unless you are in the top 100 creators, you'll get far less than your regular FAANG pay. [0]: https://graphtreon.com/patreon-creators

Huh. I didn't know Patreon published info on what creators are earning. Wouldn't that be a design flaw? What's the benefit to anybody? It seems to only deter potential sponsors.

The way Patreon works is that you can set "achievements" levels and people coming on the page can see how far you are from the next goal. You have to publish the earnings for that feature. It entice people to contribute towards the goal so it's not a design flaw.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#66

Post by tonyedgecombe »

mherrmann wrote: post #31

I've been developing a cross-platform file manager [1] for the past 2.5 years. It is shareware with a nag screen. It currently makes ~$500 per month. Generally, I would say yes, shareware still works. But it is hard a) to write desktop software [2] and b) to convince people to pay for it. I would not give people the sources. It would make them feel even more like "I don't need to pay for this". What works for me is t…

This is not sustainable. If you like the project and want it to continue, buy a license

Do you just nag or actually disable the product after a period? I was always surprised by the Sublime model, my experience indicates that if people can avoid paying then they will, even business customers.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#67

Post by tonyedgecombe »

john_moscow wrote: post #27
Applejinx wrote: post #9

It's called Patreon. You've got to be established, though: can't come out of nowhere with a thing and expect to see much traction. I literally went from using Kagi for ten years, to using Patreon. At first it's a decimating change because you're going from 'sale of a product' to 'literally giving product away free and telling people they can support you if they like'. However, if your cashflow isn't too tough, one be…

There's one big catch there - once you reach a "fair" income level, many people will think that you are already getting enough and won't bother to sponsor you. Look at the statistics [0]: unless you are in the top 100 creators, you'll get far less than your regular FAANG pay. [0]: https://graphtreon.com/patreon-creators

Looking at that list it seems to be all podcasts and porn, no developers.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#68

Post by imgabe »

Why would you need investors to distribute a licensed product? I've used a number of programs at work that seem like they're developed by a very small shop or possibly a single person. They perform a small but important function that companies are often willing to pay a reasonable price to figure out.

To be specific, it's importing tables from Excel to AutoCAD and Revit. It seems like this is something that AutoCAD and Revit should be able to do, but they handle it very poorly.

http://www.cadig.com/products/

http://dotsoft.com/xl2cad.htm

Licenses are ~$30-50 each and every company I've worked at has happily paid it rather than let employees waste time fiddling with the terrible native functionality.

I don't know how much the creators are actually making, but it seems to be enough to keep them going for the past 10 years or so.

Re: Ask HN: Does Shareware still work in 2018?

#70

Post by ahje »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #39
wizardofmysore wrote: post #24

Have a trial for a period you think is enough for the company to know they'll get value out of using your product and post that ask for a licence fee. To start with I suggest you give the MVP product for free. The users will be paying you with their feedback.

Feedback from people who don't pay anything is useless if you want to build a business.

Even if the feedback may result in improvements that would result in a product they _want_ to pay for?
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