Show HN: Non SaaS – Directory of Non SaaS Apps

Show HN: Non SaaS – Directory of Non SaaS Apps
nonsaas.com

But the customer should not have to pay for your SaaS because you don't want to work 9 to 5.

When I started programming I costed projects like this. Now I price things based on their value to the customer.

There were a number of reasons for the switch;

Firstly in the earlier model all I'm selling is my time. All time I don't have work is lost, and I can't make it back. This resulted in years of being underpaid because a month of no work was lost forever.

There are lots of things you need to do running a business test are not "billable". Finding new eork is one of them. So costing just the time you spent on the app is naive.

Pricing based on effort also allows no opportunity to grow. If I hire an employee I now need to find work for her as well. And so on.

Lastly, when making products (to sell over and over) you can't base price on cost because we don't know up-front how many copies we'll sell.

So we look at the value to the customer. Things that offer them higher value cost more. Sometimes there's a surplus, and that allows new, less certain, products to be developed. Sometimes it takes years for a product to return the investment.

We moved some (not all) products to a subscription when it became obvious that it was not possible to support all existing clients from only new-sales revenue. We needed to hire full-time supporters and since they add value to existing customers they need to be paid for by customers.

This means that if sales dried up tomorrow , existing customers could still get support ad infinitum. This is -much- more valuable to them than some small subscription amount.

So here's my suggestion. If a service is costing you more than the value you are getting, just stop using it. By definition you will be ahead. You don't need yo feel aggrieved at how other people price their stuff. That's on rhem, not you.