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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?

#81

Post by barefeg »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #52

A heuristic for somewhat ethical subscriptions it's probably to decouple subscriptions from the calendar. Instead of $X/month, which must be paid even if using intensively, barely, or not at all the service, to have $X for Y amount of "no expiration date" minutes of service. Just want to try the service, pay $0.X for 10 minutes. Really like the service, pay $X++ for 1,000 minutes and not worry about it. Of course, th…

My mobile provider charges a ridiculous amount per mb while the price in a subscription is much cheaper, if you don’t use more nor less of the allocated amount. So even though they provide both options you mentioned, neither feels ethical to me.

Edit: 1 eur per 10mb in the prepaid version vs 13.50 eur per month for 2gb plus other stuff like calls and sms. So I either have to waste money on stuff I don’t use every month or pay 15 times more for the same service

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

#82

Post by phrom »

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 don't have to agonize over paying for major upgrades because you're being made to always pay, whether you get an upgrade or not.

It's a nice bonus when you get an upgrade for your payments. But other times you're an Adobe subscriber and lose access to your colors, because turns out you should also be subscribing to Pantone for those. And who knows what you'll have to pay for next.

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

#83

Post by brightball »

I think it’s the business response to piracy of desktop software that we saw a decade ago.

When I was in college, everybody seemed to have free music, windows, office, photoshop, etc. Subscriptions are probably the easiest way for companies to avoid it.

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

#84

Post by Kuinox »

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…

Except as a user, the next version had to be better, or I wouldn't pay for it. Now they can just downgrade my product, and I have to continue paying for it.

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

#88

Post by outcoldman »

I just wish subscription model would be more friendly for the individual entrepreneurs. Have an hourly/daily renting model.

For example, I pay for IntelliJ, which is my primary tool, and I see the value of what I am paying for. Right now, the price is ~200/year, and will be ok actually paying 10x of that as well. On other hand, I also used to pay for Sketch, Adobe Suite, Parallels, which I used only 1-2 months a year (used it for a week, and maybe another week about 6 months later). So I switched to Affinity products (which also great, just require some learning) for design.

I also really like the SetApp model, marketplace with 250+ apps, for which you pay a monthly/yearly subscription. If you use a few apps, it kind of already can qualify the subscription. If you are using 10+ apps, might be even abusing it.

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

#89

Post by dheera »

> I generally refuse to rent anything in life

It depends. I like that my rented apartment is housing-as-a-service because if any plumbing breaks it's not my problem. If it collapses in an earthquake it's also not my problem, I can run away and rent another one.

Sofware-as-a-service, on the other hand, I'm largely against. I much prefer one license for life with free updates for a set period of time.

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

#90

Post by pjmlp »

No, because as software developer I want that the authors of the products I use for my work also get their well deserved payments.

Unfortunately subscriptions seem to be the only way to force people to pay for their tooling, contrary to other professionals.

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