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Comment by skyhook_mockups | Hacker News Reader

The marketing site looks great and I like the sound of the idea, however I was surprised to see this as a paid-for service.

This is not because it is data not worth paying for but rather because I usually start thinking about new tech at the start of a new project, and I only start a new project once every year or two. An ongoing fee for this type of aggregator seems hard to justify.

A possible alternative would be to open up the data for free and supply affiliate links to related books, tools etc.

Maybe it's just not aimed at a user like me.

All the best :)

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Hi. Thanks for the feedback.

Opening up the tool for free is actually one of the options that I consider. Of course, only if there's a good reason to believe that this is the right way to go.

I know of some free alternatives, like http://www.ohloh.net/ but on the other hand there are also pricey reports on technology trends, such as: http://w3techs.com/ This shows that there are companies willing to pay a lot of money for technology insights.

BTW, is there any specific kind of data/insights you would be particularly interested in?

One idea might be to charge per usage rather than on a monthly basis. So let's say I'm starting a project I pay a one-time fee to use the application for a certain amount of queries, days or weeks. Like skyhook_mockups said it's not something I'd use everyday but rather a couple of times a year when I start a new project or pivot.

I'd have to agree here. It's a cool concept, but I just couldn't justify paying for it. It's possible that if there was a free limited version that I could play with, I'd get hooked and then be willing to pay the monthly rate. But then, I am a Senior Developer... maybe this is meant more for Project Managers. The project managers that I work with though, wouldn't be nearly technical enough to understand most of what comes through on Stack Overflow: "MVC what?" :)

Hi, the tool is aimed primarily at:

- developer-focused marketers (What are developers interested in, so we can build better products for them?)

- developer evangelists/advocates (Are developers adapting the tools we're evangelising about?)

- IT industry analysts (What are the industry trends? What will be popular next year?)

And from the discussions with those groups, I know they would be willing to pay for this kind of tool. Obviously, my goal is to build a critical mass of users and customers. And the dilemma is whether leave it a SaaS tool and earn from subscription or open it up for everyone and make profit in some other way...

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