People are still debating app subscriptions in 2023?
💀
The people who complain about subs are always disproportionately louder than those who have zero problem paying a fair price for something they enjoy using.
I know this, because I see it in my sales vs reviews!
You can say you’ve got the price wrong — that’s fine! — but if you’re taking an ideological position that all subscriptions are inherently wrong (and subsequently review bomb any dev who has the audacity of creating a viable business), well, you’re not a serious person.
@phill I personally really dislike subscriptions, but I absolutely agree that it shouldn't be a reason to review bomb (nothing is).
I just like when I can pay something upfront and “own” it and get updates for it, at least until the next major version comes out, and keep using it without if there's no reason for me to upgrade. 🤷
But I also get how hard pricing is, especially with running costs of infrastructure and so on. 😅
@amxmln I get it, and I think there are certain software categories where it still makes sense. But the reality is most apps have gotten more complicated, and more interconnected than they’ve ever been. People expect things to run on all of their devices, all of the time. That requires a very different business model from even 10 years ago. The alternative, sadly, is that they don’t exist at all.
@amxmln @phill Imagine being able to buy a car with free maintainenance and parts forever. You might as well be free at that point unless you don’t want to make a living from it. Nothing else we buy outright is expected to last but we want our software to somehow magically make it through every OS change, every UI fad without paying anything. How’s it possible that physical goods have become so enshittified that nobody expects anything from Amazon to last but we want software to last forever?
@phill yeah I think it would be good if people could realise that the “magic” that makes their apps synchronise has a cost and it should much rather be money than data. 😅 Transparency really matters in this regard.
I'm actually considering a hybrid model for future projects, where users can “permanently” get a base version, but would have to pay a subscription for features that generate a lot of costs like distributed storage and so on, unless they bring their own. 🤔
It's tough. 😅