They didn't actually launch anything though. And self-hosting is also a real pain. There can be reasons but I seriously doubt many IT departments yearn deeply for the on-premise deployment days of yore.
37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
41–50 of 219 posts
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#42Sounds good, but I mean, it's just pros and cons with the SaaS model, or with the pay-once... Before SaaS there used to be a massive pool of native apps, doing all kinds of different things... You indeed paid your license and lived with the product until the next major version, but there was little chance to just use something for a month or two, so the prices were higher. With SaaS you do end up renting stuff all ov…
This doesn’t address a major gripe with the subscription model - taking away the option to purchase software outright. Were both to exist, we would not be having this discussion. In reality, corporations are driven by greed and greed pushed the subscription model. For some situations, subscriptions work well - music is one. For others, it is terrible. CAD software is a great example especially at larger orgs. Why sho…
I agree with the majority of what you wrote, but I'm utterly confused by this statement
> For some situations, subscriptions work well - music is one.
I've only ever purchased albums. Why in the world would I pay a monthly fee for something I presumably want to listen for for the rest of my life? 10-15$ for a one time purchase is far preferable to a monthly fee of nearly the same. I'm also weary of the idea of the services that have the right to stream music from labels X, Y, and Z suddenly pulling out, cutting off my access to the albums from artists I want to listen to at any given time.
I hope none of that comes off sounding "snobby" or whatever, I just don't understand how subscribing to listen to music is adventitious. Is it just not having to transfer music from the computer to your devices? Or is there something deeper I'm not getting?
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#43Let's go back to wax cylinders, horses & buggies, and the old crank phone while we're at it!
Jokes aside: What kind of new features and tangible improvements are coming?
I get that "owning" a piece of software can have tangible value; but it depends on the purpose of the software and how it's used. I don't see a sudden revolution where all companies decide they want to run their own email servers and and host their own copies of Office 365. Instead, there needs to be use cases where the old-style purchase model and host-it-yourself model makes sense.
And these use cases are...?
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#44I don't buy into this. I'd rather pay monthly, and have them charge monthly to all the users so they sustain in the long-term and not keep going out of business. I hated AppSumo LTD for this same reason.
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#45The Ruby on Rails stack may shine with this. Every cloud provider has hosting instructions. With the gem ecosystem, you can eliminate 3rd party SaaS dependencies that most startups rely on. That's why tools like Gitlab, Github Enterprise, etc. are so easy to self-host. I'm most excited to buy Once software so that I can study the source code as an educational resource. This reminds me of TailwindUI, but for SaaS.
> The Ruby on Rails stack may shine with this.
I would guess they just give you a Docker container, otherwise supporting different configurations and host machines sounds like too much of a hassle. Even some libraries shipping with the OS could influence the behaviour outside of pinned gems.
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#46Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#47The reality is that most software isn't designed like a car is. Especially with most organizations using some iterative+incremental development approach.
As a result, the development of software nowadays doesn't really lend itself to one-time purchases.
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#48I mean sure I am happy buying stuff once and only pay one time. Like a car, house, pants.
With that kind of stuff I don’t expect updates and bug fixes, improved usability and the kind every week.
But when I’m am renting a house… I expect my landlord to care of it. These are the different deals I guess.
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#49They're realling upping their expensive domain name game with hey.com and once.com.
Re: 37signals Introduces "Once" - Buy software one time
#50Man, talk about a ship that has sailed. I was 100% anti-subscription pricing for a very long time. Eventually I realized, it's better for the software vendor and the customer. Final Cut Pro used to cost $999 upfront, now a teenager can use Final Cut on their iPad for $7/month, and subscribe only when they need it.
Meanwhile, my mother uses photoshop and illustrator, she can't afford the ever increasing price of subscription services. She's in her 70's.
It a distraught for her to think of losing access to her creatively outlet if she was to unable to afford the current subscription model.
Subscriptions should be followed up with a perpetual license. She's just glad she forked out on CS2 when it was DVD based.