Hacker News Reader

Comment by jpomykala | Hacker News Reader

I’m running a super simple translation management system where people can manage, host, auto-translate their translation files. How I supposed to run my app without subscriptions?

In last 30 days, I transferred over 280 GB of translation data from my service to end-users around the word. Should I tell DeepL, Google and AWS that they should offer me their services for free or what?

EDIT:

I apologize if this sounds too passive-aggressive, but I'm tired of hearing that subscriptions are bad. Thanks to subscription model, we can have many smaller service providers who simply have fun from working on something (like me). If you think that giving someone $5/mo for a cool app is too much, then okay. You don't have to do it, no deal. ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯

PS Great example of solo-developer is the InkDrop creator. He is working on this note-taking app since ~2016. https://www.inkdrop.app

View on HN

Not sure to what extent this applies to you?

To my mind, paying for an ongoing service (e.g. translation, or video streaming, or Strava, or whatever) is a reasonable use case for a subscription – if that’s something that suits your end user. (it could also be paid for by individual small payments – or tokens – as suggested elsewhere.)

I think the frustration is predominately in companies shifting payment for a piece of software from a single payment to a subscription, which over the previous typical lifespan of a single software purchase then costs significantly more. Sure, they bolt on superfluous ‘cloud solutions’, but fundamentally it just feels like an MBA somewhere figured out that they can make more money with a repeating subscription than a single one-off payment – and now they’ve all jumped into it.

Of course, it also has the benefit of protecting better against piracy – though I suspect this isn’t the primary driver for the change.

Many end users do not understand the difference between "standalone piece of software" and something that has an ongoing cost for the developer.

I absolutely see your point. So here is a suggestion that might make it less annoying for users. I don't know if it will help you but for some businesses it should be a great idea (and I will prefer those who follow this model):

Use tokens instead of subscriptions.

Even if I end up paying the same on average this feels a whole lot better.

There are just too many services out there that wants me to subscribe, and everytime it feels like they are trying to fleece me.

I am old enough to understand that not everything can be free (even if many of my most used tools are), but in way to many cases the thinking seems to be to get me to try a subscription and hope that I forget it.

(I've never ever had anyone pop a notification to tell me that I haven't used my subscription lately, maybe I'd like to puse it? If that was the norm I'd maybe be less annoyed at subscriptions.)

I’d bet that you are the exception that prefers token or metered pricing.

Almost every time I’ve seen someone try that pricing model customers end up hating it and want a flat fee subscription.

I do think making it easy to pause and restart subscriptions is an underused model but would also bet lots of price smart SaaS companies have looked at that.

I'm not against subscriptions per se. I subscribe to a number of things.

It just happens to be abused badly, from subscriptions for things that never need to update (I'd almost bet a dollar there is or has been a flashlight app with a subscription somewhere), to subscriptions for things you use a week and then are finished with to a certain alarm clock app that both charges multiple dollars a month and then has the guts to try to track me on top of that.

That sounds very useful. Mind sharing the link to your service? Thanks.

https://simplelocalize.io

I'm not OP, but I use https://translationhut.com to manage my translations and it works really well. It can also automatically translate the assets for you, although I don't use that myself.

(Full disclosure: I know the guy that makes that service, but am not involved with that project)

"I need to increase my prices" /s

Or start charging in Euro :D

I wonder what charging in Euro does on the psychological price front. Does €79 look less than $85?

It works, because a few times I was surprised that paid in euro instead dollars.

I'd love to check out your service if you care to share the name here?

https://simplelocalize.io

Nice landing page - clean design and clear layout. I also like that you include a brief blurb about you and why you created it right on the homepage. So many software companies these days hide who is behind it and/or don’t have an “about us” page, which makes it hard to “invest” in the product as a potential customer…

Bookmarking for a future project!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com