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Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

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31–40 of 47 posts

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#31

I just had the realization that I can’t remember ever paying for a console application (at least not since the 1980s and I can’t remember any in particular) and I can’t think of any that are currently for sale. Every command line tool I use, and I use a lot of them, is free software. Maybe I’m just drawing a blank. I’d be curious to know if anyone pays for command line tools.

Indirectly sure, I’ve certainly racked up costs from using the AWS cli

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#34
Desktop one off purchases: Clients for MySQL and SQLite (prettier and easier to use than free alternatives). Snagit for screenshots

Desktop subscription based: Devexpress Winforms and ASP.net component suite (best Windows component suite on the market - leaves free alternatives in the dust). Add in Express components for building office add-ins (could not build my core product without it)

Both of these combined cost me about €1,000 a year. Well worth it too as they make my software far superior to all the competition that use free components.

SaaS: Hotjar for website heatmaps and session cams (HUGELY VALUABLE!). Linkedin Premium for help contacting potential partners (HUGELY VALUABLE!). Feedbin, RSS reader. Mailchimp

[All of my own products are desktop apps that consumers pay $60-$150 for. Sales are up.]

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#36
post #18

I paid for 1password last year and still use it. Very convenient. Paid for sublime text around 3-4 years ago, used it for 1-2 solid years, now a days am on VIM + TMUX but don't regret having paid. Paid for PyCharm, used less than 1 month, regretted paying for. And that's about it.

I have used 1password for years, until they started pushing their cloud subscription for android app. Switched to KeePass, don't need wine for linux anymore, and regret not doing this earlier.

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#38

I pay for pushbullet, so I can text from my computer and get notifications mirrored to my laptop.

I use whatsapp web for that. Just created a group with only myself (add 2 people and remove one after) and pinned it on whatsapp. Now I can easily send files, notifications, etc from phone to laptop and vice versa. Plus it has an advantage that I get google drive backup of everything done everyday!

I prefer to use SMS. I don't want to use whatsapp, because I don't fully trust it, and I think it will kill my battery life.

The backup feature does sound nice. I back my messages up to google drive, though.

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#39
MacOS (kinda, it’s free, but the hardware isn’t...)

IntelliJ IDEA

Sublime Text 3

Microsoft Office

JProfiler

VMWare Workstation

Postbox Email

Little Snitch

1Password

Dropbox

I’m happy to pay for good software and support. Especially for things I rely on like IntelliJ. Not only has it been better than Eclipse for years but it keeps getting better because there’s a whole company full of people whose business it is to make it better.

If there’s a bug I can report it and reasonably expect a fix. With pure OSS software you often just get some fuck head telling you “PRs welcome”. I get it. I have my own open source projects in addition to my day job. Sometimes I just want to be able to expect support for the things I need and not try to learn every codebase of every piece of software I use so I can fix a bug.

Re: Ask HN: What software do you actually pay for?

#40
Fman (2 pane file manager by solo dev)

Email provider

Standard Notes

Sublime Text 3

Password Manager

Games

kanbanflow

Balsamiq

movies / TV / Audio subscription and purchases (sort of counts these days)

used to pay for GitHub

used to pay for Windows (linux now)

I donate to a bunch of foss projects too, but those don't really count since its not a 'purchase'

Fman and Standard Notes are really great products btw, solo devs too.

edit - formatting

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