Subscription-based pricing is dead | Hacker News Reader

Subscription-based pricing is dead

techcrunch.com

8 pointsuserium4 comments

I am not a fan of those trendy payment models. I do not want to worry about how much I regularly pay where and constantly receive payment confirmations in my inbox. I already have enough stuff floating in my head.

I use a really nice graphics application that's missing out on my money because it expects me to pay $50 a year for the unrestricted Pro version. But I'm not a professional, I'm an occasional user who just likes the intuitive interface. I would gladly pay that amount once to get the non-pro version forever but without the constant nagging or the requirement to login to use it. This "you're either a professional who pays the bills with this software or you deserve to get spammed with popups and other annoyances" stance is a pain.

I think I know the application and feel the same way. I wish I could easily pay / donate when I'm actually producing paid work with it (I'm freelance, so pattern is irregular). I donate to Blender when I'm using it for work, again, just wish I could from within application. QLab [1] a Mac show control app for theatre, has a really nice rental model. You can use it - fully-featured - for free, but need to rent licences to send video and audio signals to physical outs. But, you can rent by the day for ~$5, and each rental goes towards purchasing a full license some day. I wish all paid creative software offered this model.

[1] https://qlab.app/

For desktop software, I really like the Jetbrains model. They reward loyalty by giving you a discount for continued usage. ($149 for first year, $119 for second, and $89 from third year onwards)[1]

And if you have paid for one year and then decide to stop paying, you can download a perpetual license for the version you were currently using.[2]

[1] https://www.jetbrains.com/store/#personal?billing=yearly

[2] https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What...

I think the way to go is a mix of the two. It is covenient for companies to get guaranteed money in advance. As for customer it's way cheaper to start with usage based model. This is because a lot of users are underusing their services.

This at least is the case in hosting industry where overscheduling is a big thing.

So best scenario for customer would be a pay per usage for low usage and subscription for moderate to high usage. At least this is what AWS is doing and I believe this is fair for both bussiness and customer

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