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Comment by tummler | Hacker News Reader

Side note, but does anyone else have this thought process when faced with yearly subscription vs lifetime purchase?

1. If I buy a subscription and end up not using it, I've wasted money. 2. If I buy a subscription and end up using it, that means I should have just bought the lifetime purchase. So now I've wasted money. 3. If I buy a lifetime purchase and end up not using it, I've wasted money. 4. I don't want to waste money. I'll find a free alternative or build my own. 5. Exit app store, no sub or purchase made.

Talk about loss aversion...

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Thats why I like Rent-To-Own. Splice (a software for virtual instruments, music samples etc) supports this a lot and I've used it a lot. 150€ for a VST upfront is hard but if I can pay 10x15€ instalments and pause / cancel them anytime before, I have no risk if I never really use the instrument. If I otherwise use it the supplier gets their full price and I get to own the product because at the tenth instalment you get a lifetime product key.

I’ve found most “lifetime” subscriptions are actually just a couple of years. The standard way to cut them off, is deprecate the app, and come out with a new one, with a different bundle ID.

I usually hand-wave reduce this problem to the "Ski Renting Problem", so in the worst case I pay twice the price of the lifetime purchase.

It's another version of how gym memberships get you. Everyone errs on the side of over-committment and they get to make more money.

I've found I'm better off paying extra for a shorter duration until I've validated that I'll be using my subscription in 3/6/12 months from now. E.g. recently with Duolingo I ended up only paying for it on a monthly rate for about 4 months, and that wasn't even because I'd quit learning, I'd just found a much better app.

What’s the better app? Would love one that’s actually teaching the rules, not just learning through pattern recognition

I would group that kind of pricing with dark patterns, and I tend not no but anything when I see that. It's like designing the free shipping threshold to be a couple of dollars short of common purchases, buy 1 get the second for $5, etc. They all apply fake pressure hoping to upsell. I want a far exchange of money for goods/services, not a trick and if I feel I'm being tricked I leave.

While I agree with you almost universally, I think in this case, the pricing is meant to be part of the loss aversion technique the creator is employing.

My problem is there is no such thing as a lifetime subscription anymore. More like "until the company gets acquired and the new parent company gets bored or until I get bored, whichever comes first".

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