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A comment on Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for?.

Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by kqr on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @02:18AM (#44656194)
- FastMail for email, calendar, and contact book.

- Kagi for search and translation.

- rsync.net for backup (although I took their lifetime subscription offer so I no longer actively pay them).

- Self-hosting related costs (rented servers and domain names).

- Buttondown for sending out blog updates. (I was generously gifted a lifetime subscription, but had I not been I would likely have paid for it eventually anyway.)

- The Economist for moderately-biased news spanning the entire world.

I also pay for Spotify, though I increasingly doubt whether it is giving me more value than purchasing the music I want directly. I suppose I do it out of convenience rather than economic gain.

This feels like a very HN set of subscriptions...

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Things I don't pay for:

- Excalidraw: I didn't even know that was possible.

- Google Photos: it keeps bugging me to, and I keep intending to exchange it for Immich.

- YouTube: I'm not a heavy YouTube user, but NewPipe and adblocker goes a long way.

- LLMs: I find API credits to be better value.

- VPN: I run OpenVPN on the closet server. That said, I have moved and I don't trust the new home ISP as much so this might change.

- Password manager: KeePassXC and SyncThing is sufficient.

- Notes: Org and Orzly and SyncThing is sufficient.

- Cloud storage: SyncThing and a closet server is sufficient.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by theshrike79 on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @03:20AM (#44656573)
> - LLMs: I find API credits to be better value.

I've spent $260 worth of API credits on my $20 Claude Code Pro subscription so far.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by techjamie on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @08:39AM (#44658537)
Agentic stuff is probably the exemption to this because it chews tokens like nobody's business. For average prompting, API is the way to go. I've spent an average of around $7.50/mo between OAI and Claude, and that's using o3 and Opus for most queries.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by rhubarbtree on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @02:48AM (#44656387)
YouTube subscription is great but very overpriced. Streaming services are much cheaper and they produce original content. I just can’t justify double the price of Apple TV so I can watch content Google hasn’t produced.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by ElCapitanMarkla on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @03:15AM (#44656537)
Yeah I begrudgingly paid increase when it went from $19 to $29 NZD a month. My friend in Aus just got an email saying they were putting his up to $39 from $29 a month… it’s not worth that to me. If anything it’s a great excuse to watch less on there.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by rhubarbtree on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @01:06PM (#44661486)
It’s not so much paying the cost, so much as the fact that Google charges double for content it didn’t create. It isn’t adding a lot of value.

It’d make a lot more sense if it were Google maps, which adds tremendous value.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by swarnie on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @03:11AM (#44656518)
YouTube subscription - Ever since they tied play/pause to the screen lock a subscription is essential if you want to use it as an audio only app.

I hate it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by kqr on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @03:17AM (#44656550)
NewPipe.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by microsoftedging on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @08:16AM (#44658350)
If you're using a Samsung device then you can use Screen Curtain within Samsung's Good Guardians application on the Galaxy Store, which allows you to play media with the screen turned off.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by rpdillon on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @10:06AM (#44659384)
Brave fixes this.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by rich_sasha on Wednesday July 23, 2025 @08:58AM (#44658716)
Re Spotify: I think the greatest value is easy discovery. I wouldn't find 90% of the stuff I listen to in CD shops.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by ejdanderson on Friday August 01, 2025 @03:21PM (#44761208)
Agreed - There certainly are other apps that provide better discovery, but nothing that is as seamlessly integrated to where I'm already listening to music.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by southernplaces7 on Thursday July 24, 2025 @12:58PM (#44673082)
>Cloud storage: SyncThing and a closet server is sufficient.

And if your house should be robbed or burned in a fire?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by southernplaces7 on Thursday July 24, 2025 @03:29PM (#44674984)
>- Self-hosting related costs (rented servers and domain names).

Who do you use, or recommend for server rental.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for? by sloaken on Friday August 01, 2025 @09:02AM (#44756167)
Nice list, I am going to start using SyncThing. My goal is to link my brother and myself as offsite backups.

Is the reference to org, orgorg.com or something else?

[ Parent | on HN ]