Show HN: Monito, a browser extension for software testers
getmonito.com
getmonito.com
If a customer reports a problem we can’t reproduce, it would be handy to just direct them to a plugin they can download to generate a report.
But the up-front pricing model doesn’t work for that kind of scenario because customers wouldn’t pay for it. It would be better to have the customer download it for free and enter a one-time code that allows them to use it under my subscription.
I do recognize that this tool seems like it's oriented toward logic bugs whereas Sentry really shines in the unforseen outcomes case, but I'd bet a well placed "send feedback" link could still capture the browser details and breadcrumbs without requiring a formal error per se
Would be quite powerful to do 90% of the work of transforming that recording to a puppeteer script to add to one’s test suite.
Speaking of which, what is the state of the art right now for browser automation scripts?
Also, generating Cypress/Puppeteer/Playwright tests is on my to-do list. It should be fairly easy because all the data, including selectors, is already there. I wrote more about my plans here: https://jarocki.me/blog/monito
Regarding state of the art for browser automation scripts, I think the most popular tools are Cypress and Puppeteer. I'd like to get some feedback from QA folks, though.
At the same time, you're targeting this product towards customers who are already developer-oriented — a crowd that is familiar with, or can easily recognize, the same technologies you've used to build Monito. Tweaking the designs to have a more custom flair so it doesn't seem so copy and paste, avoiding the same icons for multiple figures, and especially lowering your price are all things that would probably help with early and continued adoption IMO.
As for things you could include to justify the existing price, I really don't know. There's a heavy difference between paying for a desktop-application license vs a browser extension.
We'll see about the price. So far, it sells ok. I'd rather focus on improving the quality and adding useful features.
Regarding the icons, I've just noticed and fixed that, thank you!
Different pricing scheme, at least in the beginning. While $39 (or even $59) is acceptable as one time payment, I am not sure if I am willing to pay this for a product that's been on the market for only 3 weeks and whose future is unknown. Charging something like $1-$2 per month will earn you more in the long term and will provide a safer option for the customers (they won't loose too much if you disappear in a couple of months).
BTW, at the organization where I work, we can only make payments to established entities, i.e. someone who has address, account number and can issue an invoice. I guess Gumroad, as a middle party, can provide all of these, still it would add to your credibility if you had an "About" page with the necessary data. Oh and a Privacy Policy would be nice too - some organizations won't allow installing any extensions that are not reviewed by a security team and such reviews often involve checking privacy policies.
About pricing, I don't think that model would be better. As a solo developer, it's better to charge more and provide better support to fewer customers. I'm not saying no, but it seems to be working well for now. Thank you for the suggestions!
Would the Brave add-on work in Firefox?
When you are extracting logs, it creates a single archive with all the items you selected. Usually, it'll be: 1. Combined logs - everything in a single file 2. Network logs 3. Console logs 4. User interactions 5. Navigation events
One user already suggested it'd be nice to include generated HTML with more human-readable logs. I thought about having a web-based log reader, but this seems to be an even better idea.