Re:Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
by princevegeta89 on Sunday December 18, 2022 @10:20PM
(#34047996)
Note-taking apps are really simple, and I can't wrap my head around why I have to ever "subscribe" to use them. I would actually self-host the hell out of a ton of beautiful open-source ones on the cloud instance I own. It may be a thing to pay monthly in the enterprise world, but no way I am paying every month for simple note-taking apps. The growth of data stored is negligible - remember it's mostly text.
Password manager is a good example, but I would love to have something as affordable as Bitwarden. One good example of a bad password manager that went in the wrong direction if you ask me is 1Password. Their licensing was such a mess and as someone who bought into their "permanent license" a long time ago I've been screwed real hard because they wouldn't let me use it on Linux at all. The prices became "subscription based" and then steadily went up ever since then.
Which is a very serious problem. Apps like that shouldn't be services. The only reason to make them that way is so the companies can continue to soak you over time.
Break out the services separately. If the user wants cloud storage, sell that service as an option. But if the user doesn't, they shouldn't have to pay for it.
> it would mean the companies go bankrupt, as little new revenue comes in.
This is just not true, as the history of software sales reveals. Sell upgrades. Sell more than one product.