There is absolutely nothing "obscene" about $40/year ($3.33/mo) for a premium upgrade on a freemium app that has had thousands of hours and plenty of blood, sweat and tears invested into it.

Frankly, I find your comments bordering on disrespectful to the developers and probably depressing to anyone who tries to earn a living developing software.

The "thousands of hours and plenty of blood" sadly doesn't factor into whether you should pay $40/year for it. It's about the value it provides and OP thinks it's not worth that much to him.

Don't try to make this into a moral argument.

> The "thousands of hours and plenty of blood" sadly doesn't factor into whether you should pay $40/year for it.

It speaks to the breadth and quality of the app. The investment of time matters. I pay for Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud and the huge investment of time to create the products within those suites is the basis of the whole product. It's what I'm paying for.

It goes without saying that if you do not use this product or have no use for this product, you would not pay anything for it, much less $40 a year. But if you are an actual user of this product and it provides value to you, it is simply ludicrous to say that a $3/mo. commitment to it is "obscene".

They might make more $ if they had some sort of a tiered pricing model, $40 is "too much" for me to spend on a TODO list as well.

Perhaps you're right. From my perspective, $3/month just seems fairly inconsequential to me if it's a good app and I use it frequently.

You're talking about a service which is theoretically used every day to help you run your life, and you think $40/year is expensive? In my experience, even my poorer friends routinely spend that at a bar or a restaurant.

I've spent lots on various GTD apps, but lately settled on facilethings.com which is focused on the GTD workflow. I pay around $100/year.

That would be a great point if it wasn't competing in a marketplace with other products. None of those pro features make me go "wow, this saves me so much time" compared to other offerings.

My argument isn't that paying $40 for software a year is obscene, it's that this particular feature set in the competitive space is not worth $40 to me. And correct me if I'm wrong, but if I actually wanted to use these features with my girlfriend, would we not have to both spend $40?

>My argument isn't that paying $40 for software a year is obscene, it's that this particular feature set in the competitive space is not worth $40 to me.

That's not what you said, though. It was your argument, then you realized you were overstating your case. Why not just say so?

It literally is what I said. I'm unsure what you're reading.

"$40 a year is obscene for what they offer IMO". Please feel free to show me the exact time I said "Paying $40 a year for any type of software is ridiculous".

Todoist is half of that price and basically can be used daily without notifications and comments for free.

Task warrior costs nothing. And does a whole lot too.

It's a shinier version of a tasks function available in every phone for $0.

I'm pretty sure last time I renewed it was $24/yr. Sad to see it's gone up. I was on the fence at $24, for how much I use it. At $40 I'll probably look for something else.

Looks like I use so few features of RTM that I can use Google Keep. I know, however, right after I start using it that Google will kill the project. My Tracks, my favorite Android app, is going away on 4/30/16. Maybe I should just pay the $40/yr. <frustrated>

$40 yearly is around the paid tier of other like apps, such as Todoist ($30 yearly) or Wunderlist ($50 yearly). While the price may be high, saying it's obscene is an exaggeration of the strength of your case.

$40 per year is OBSCENE???

Speaking personally, it isn't something I would be willing to spend. It's within my budget, but I've never liked the thought of software as a service for something that doesn't feel like a service. No ill will to the developer, of course. I'll continue to use the original app.

The "service" would be continuous product improvements, technical support, hosting of the app and your hosting of your data. I think it's erroneous to seize on the "service" aspect of SaaS. In many cases you are effectively paying a monthly licensing fee for additional functionality within the app.