Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
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Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
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Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#2To me this article is a convoluted way of saying don't sell useless stuff. I agree. But also feels shallow.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#3To me this article is a convoluted way of saying don't sell useless stuff. I agree. But also feels shallow.
Kind of ironic that it’s posted to medium, a site whose business model is to consolidate personal blogs in one place and charge a subscription fee to read them.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#4Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#5Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.
This is how I feel as a happy customer of Fantastical calendar. The hate is just unwarranted.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#6Evernote is worth mentioning. There was a time when everyone used it but really it wasn't that special. I wonder if they had any buyout offers they rejected and now regret?
I'm with the authoro on most of this. It's gym memberships, basically. The ideal customer is one who never uses the facilities but auto-renews forever. But software is an interesting exception.
IMHO subscription is the best monetization model for software. Why? Because it aligns incentives between the consumer and the seller. Many people would rather pay $5/month than $150 upfront. It means the company (generally) is constantly updating and fixing it. With shrinkwrap software, there's a direct incentive to declare a new major version, sell an upgrade and stop fixing/updating the old version.
Adobe used to do this with the RAW camera plugin for Photoshop. New camera came out? It was only added to a new version of the RAW plugin. That RAW plugin for no reason whatsoever required the latest version of Photoshop.
The negatives about software subscriptions here are really negatives about Adobe. Adobe does use dark patterns to get renewals, only offers annual subscriptions and probably charges too much. The price here is off. You can get Photoshop/Lightroom for (IIRC) $10/month. The complete collection is $50/month.
The standard counterexample here is Jetbrains. Monthly or annual billing, lots of notifications about upcoming renewals, decreasing pricing for long-term customers, reasonably priced personal licenses and you get to keep the version you had when you stop paying indefinitely.
My point is that software subscriptions aren't inherently bad. Adboe is bad.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#7I have half a mind to start a database SaaS so apps can connect to it. So, you buy your Amazing Notes phone app for $9.95 or whatever, connect it to my paid service, and you have all your syncing/backend needs on one service, paid once, instead of for every app you buy.
Probably wouldn't be very popular with apps, because now they can't sell a subscription, but it's an idea.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#8Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.
> So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them.
Are there enough of them? Many services seems like they can only exist because many people forget to cancel their subscription.
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#9I have half a mind to start a database SaaS so apps can connect to it. So, you buy your Amazing Notes phone app for $9.95 or whatever, connect it to my paid service, and you have all your syncing/backend needs on one service, paid once, instead of for every app you buy. Probably wouldn't be very popular with apps, because now they can't sell a subscription, but it's an idea.
iCloud does that on iOS right now.
Some, like Bear, still sell a subscription while using iCloud for syncing (not to bash on Bear, the price is reasonable).
Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)
#10Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.
> But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models.
Doesn't explain businesses that had been per-purchase for a long time and are now still switching to subscriptions though. (E.g. photoshop, jetbrains...)