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Comment by sabat | Hacker News Reader

I like it already, and am already working on the xcode badge. Curious: what's the business model?

That's exactly the first question that came to my mind. When I don't see a "plans and pricing" link, I always start wondering where's the catch.

https://teamtreehouse.com/subscribe/plans

When you click the "Sign Up" link it takes you there. Either $25/month or $40/month. The cheapest you can get away with is $300/year.

Believe it or not I am actually glad they are charging subscriptions. For me businesses that charge are a sign of quality (within reason of course).

I know I am getting tired of using "free" services that actually aren't free at all when you factor in the time I have to use to really extract value from them.

I am just hoping Treehouse actually provides a service that makes a difference, i.e. someone can learn faster and more efficiently with Treehouse than some other way.

So far this looks good. Can't wait to try it out later tonight.

Thanks. We think it's important to be profitable so the service can be stable and long-lasting.

Good to know. It could have been clearer, though :)

Based on this competition [1] it seems that their business model is different subscription packages. The Gold package, for example, is supposedly $588 per year.

[1] http://thinkvitamin.com/asides/guess-this-badge-and-win-a-fr...

+1 - Very curious how they plan on turning this around, with a good amount of employees, hired teachers, and 6 investors.

Either way, a great idea looking forward to seeing more material soon!

Treehouse has been around under the name Think Vitamin Membership for about a year and a half. We charge a subscription (from day one), and reached profitability before we took on our investors.

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