So write your own software for your needs and sell it for a one off price?
But you presumably won't because the incentive isn't great enough. Which is exactly why people milk subs. And if you're not willing to do it for the incentive of a one off price, why should anyone else be?
> So write your own software for your needs and sell it for a one off price?
Should he tailor his tshirt too? It is totaly fine to whine about something without fixing the industry by yourself.
I for one don't like the movement of commercial software to forced cloud integration. Big or small business. What would have been shareware or naggware would today be SaaS and be gone the day the server shuts down.
No, because t-shirts are already available for one-off prices. He's already willing to pay enough to motivate people to make them for him. He and/or wider society are not willing to pay enough to motivate people to make him one-time-purchase software, apparently.
And the end result of this whole thing is too-expensive software that no one is willing to pay for and doesn't get used, and no one's problem is actually solved. And then when the "startup" fails, the code is of course not turned into a library, and it all starts again.
If you think an $x one-time payment is a great reward for making y, then make y and charge $x. Seems like a free opportunity to me. If it's really so simple, you can easily undercut those doing the subscription model.
Unless, of course, $x is not actually that motivating a fee for the work. In which case, it's a bit entitled to expect others to work for a fee that doesn't spur you into action either.
Fells like the reason one off pricing is less common is because the model has felt broken since the time of Kazaa (file sharing app from way back), Napster etc. For some reason software is almost exclusively sold through app stores. I don't remember the last time I bought software that wasn't subscription based for a non mobile device. Ok, maybe one app.
Well that and probably the pricing psychology of paying what would be your LTV as a subscriber up front.
That’s also why I don’t agree subscription software is categorically detrimental but more of a trade off. The benefit is there for both parties: for the seller it’s easier to convert people because you’re only asking for the one month or one year price, for the buyer you’re at most out that same reduced price if the service doesn’t work out.
The negative is of course that you don’t own it outright, but it seems a lot of people are happy with the trade off. Apart from HN.
But you presumably won't because the incentive isn't great enough. Which is exactly why people milk subs. And if you're not willing to do it for the incentive of a one off price, why should anyone else be?