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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?

#271

Post by cweill »

Having been on both sides as a customer and foundee, I love subscriptions.

Every business needs a business model. Subscribers is a very clear one. I'm untrusting of any service that's free and doesn't rely on ad-revenue, because they have incentive to make money in other shady ways like selling your data to third-parties who will use it against your best interests.

Subscriptions are a nice business model because they are predictable costs/revenue to both customers and the business.

What I don't like are subscriptions that don't grandfather you into higher pricing, and pay-as-you-go plans, because it's so easy to forget about then and their rules and get charged a nasty bill later.

As a customer IMO subscriptions are the lesser of all the evils, and the best alternative to ads, eg YouTube Premium.

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

#272

Post by FpUser »

solardev wrote: post #126
thot_experiment wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the heck subscription models are you using? In my experience the software gets broken over time and you can't do anything about it, including RUN THE OLD VERSION WHICH WORKED. There's no longer as much incentive for companies to improve because they'll get paid anyway instead of payment being contingent on actually delivering something useful. Yes subscription models are good for developers, no this doesn't make…

Not the OP, but I have to disagree too. Creative Cloud, IntelliJ, Figma, Google Workspace, Postman, Spotify, Vercel, Adguard, Google storage space, Alltrails, 1password.. They're all subscriptions and getting better all the time. Meanwhile it's the old purchased software like Windows and Office that get worse with every version.

Out of the products you listed I use 2:

IntelliJ - JetBrains actually offers perpetual model along with subscription. That is the reason I use their product.

Postman - I use free version to play with the APIs. It costs me nothing and if it disappears tomorrow my development is not going to get disrupted at all as for anything serious I just use plain old scripts that are free.

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

#273

Post by alwayslikethis »

massysett wrote: post #260

No: not if the subscription bundles useful continuing services, such as cloud sync or software updates. You mentioned password managers. 1Password’s subscription bundles in updates along with a cloud sync that works across the 4 devices I routinely use. I once said “1Password subscription is nonsense, I can do everything it does myself, and for free,” so I cancelled it. After about six months of trying to use my own…

You can just combine different software to have it work as you like.

- KeepassXC as password manager

- Syncthing to synchronize your db (no server is required on your part)

In general security software should be stable. I'm not sure why updates are needed other than for vulnerabilities (which should be exceedingly rare). The security is guaranteed as long as the software performs up to spec (the crypto implementation being free of errors)

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

#274

Post by arsome »

f1refly wrote: post #128
itake wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why a password manager should be a SaaS While I fully agree with you, how do you sync passwords across my 3 laptops and 3 phones without a SaaS offering? While I don't use this feature, but it is common for ppl to share an account. How can I securely share credentials with family members?

> how do you sync passwords across my 3 laptops and 3 phones without a SaaS offering? Syncthing. Set up once, runs reliably forever. > How can I securely share credentials with family members? I don't do this either (and don't know anyone who does) but I imagine it'd be easy to just create a different shared database for the family for that? With password store, it's also possible to set multiple different gpg keys f…

Syncthing is really key, no need to pay for photo sync services, just send it to your Nas or desktop, no need to pay for password managers, just sync it, no need to pay for notetaking apps or todo apps, just sync Obsidian or Joplin.

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

#275

Post by tibbon »

For certain types of software, like audit editing, I am definitely tired of subscription models. I'm looking at you Avid - I just want to be able to buy a version and have reasonable support for 3-5 years, and then a small paid upgrade fee for the next major version.

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

#276

Post by falcolas »

cweill wrote: post #271

Having been on both sides as a customer and foundee, I love subscriptions. Every business needs a business model. Subscribers is a very clear one. I'm untrusting of any service that's free and doesn't rely on ad-revenue, because they have incentive to make money in other shady ways like selling your data to third-parties who will use it against your best interests. Subscriptions are a nice business model because they…

Here's the problem with that - there's not enough room for every company and their subscription model. So where you have a chance to get money from someone with a one time purchase, you're going to have to fight to get another piece of their subscription budget.

And more and more - you're not going get that piece.

Customers only have so much money and so much time. Expecting them to make a long term commitment is going to be a worse and worse business model in the coming years.

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

#277

Post by mnming »

Not really, like others said, in many cases subscription is well justified.It normally brings consistent updates, data hosting and backup on top of typical purchase.

In addition, for me most importantly, it forces a continuous relationship between business entities that brings trust and continuity.

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

#279

Post by CatWChainsaw »

Quite honestly, how annoying a subscription is depends on how easily it is to obtain whatever the product/service is another way, plus how critical it is to my personal metric for quality of life. This could be impacted by nostalgia. Rents and mortgages have been around for a long time. but if Toyota was suddenly only renting cars as opposed to selling them, I can't see being happy about that. They can alter the agreement any time, and tow "my" car if they don't want to rent it to me anymore. If it breaks down, am I still responsible for repairs? Will I be reimbursed? Will a replacement be provided in the meantime? I'm picturing this coming to large household appliances and the plumbing and getting a fine for taking a dump when I'm behind on my monthly lavatory subscription bill.

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

#280

Post by falcolas »

rincebrain wrote: post #197
37 wrote: post #59

>So yeah, why is that? And is anyone else tired of the constant barrage of subscriptions for things that should be one off purchases? It's extremely tiresome. And surely the only motives are profit and control. It's gotten so bad that now auto manufacturers are charging monthly subscriptions to use features that are built into the car that you have already purchased.[0] It's a disturbing trend that will eventually ha…

Charging a sub for things like heated seats is obviously broken, but I also don't know if people have an appetite for what the upfront costs would be for many pieces of software that are currently subscription based, in order to provide support for any length of time. Look at the pricing for IDA, which tries to balance having an astonishingly good product, but very limited market, for how this can end up distorted wi…

> The same logic holds for things like recurring subscriptions or ad-supported content - much smaller amounts, but many more sources, adding up to mitigate this problem.

And at some point your customers are saturated. How many subscriptions before they can't afford another subscription? After all, if they're subscribed to the max, it's not as if their budget will have room for another one next month, or even next year. It's fully allocated, and will likely remain so.

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