If you're selling your software with a subscription price, I will immediately click off your site. I'm not exaggerating that the moment you start trying to edge in on rent collection for marginal utility, my eyes glaze over and I stop caring about your product. You could be selling a magic wand that fixes my life and fulfills my every desire, but I'd have no idea because there's a $2/month subscription cost attached.
The reason why is principle. Build a good product, price it appropriately and people will come. I payed an exorbitant amount for a Bitwig license, but that was because they provided a product that made me happy and was a fair deal. No dark UX practices, no contract or perpetual payment obligation, just a transaction of money and software. I regret it less than my Netflix subscription, honestly.
- some software requires constant maintenance. Subscriptions are the only way to make it possible.
- some software may cost damn lot to create so no feasible single payment exist to even cover the costs of creation (especially on the early stages of sw lifecycle [and/or] when marketing is poor, but the devs still need funds to proceed). Subscriptions are the only way to make the price bearable for the general public. Example: market of games for Android. Google has tought the public that many sw for Android is very cheap or even free - try to stay afloat on that premise without subscriptions.
- etc etc etc
I'm sorry that I have to tell you what to do (and nobody likes to hear such unasked advices) but you really should try to build your own product and make it successful. This is the only way to validate the viability of your "principle".
You basically stated one argument split into two bullet points, and then listed 'etc etc etc'. It's not even an argument I disagree with as someone who writes software for money, most of our infrastructure requires constant maintenance. However, you know as well as I do that nobody is really 'disrupting' anything in the business space anymore. I've seen entire companies built around the idea that someone has a hard-to-get CSV file with vehicle/networking/government/personal info, and they provision it to you piecemeal. That's an insult to my intelligence, and they know what they're doing. Same thing goes for any other company that's exclusively providing a fancy frontend to some worthless database, it's just a different permutation of the same scam.
> you really should try to build your own product and make it successful
I have no desire to make a product. I'm a programmer and a server technician, not a product manager. The tools of my trade are free and openly developed, no amount of CI Pipeline startups will change that.
> You basically stated one argument split into two bullet points, and then listed 'etc etc etc'.
Well, no, actually. It's really a two separate not connected cases. I've already provided an example for the second bullet and here's an example for the first one: sw/service that integrates with a number of third party external network interfaces. The cost comes from ever-changing external endpoints.
> I've seen entire companies built around the idea that someone has a hard-to-get CSV file...
Sure, almost anyone encountered such companies. That's just another side of a coin. Not a reason for me to dismiss subscription model for some sw as a "principle".
On what I certainly do agree with you is a notion that companies should state very clearly why I should pay them a subscription instead of a single payment. "We just want more money" is indeed close to a kind of an insult.
> I have no desire to make a product.
That's an issue ;) So you don't give yourself an opportunity to review your decision and your principle just comes unchallenged.
> That's an issue ;) So you don't give yourself an opportunity to review your decision and your principle just comes unchallenged.
I didn't say that I don't think about it. I actually give it a lot of thought, which is probably why I despise the idea so much. I'd rather die an asshole who was a decent programmer than Yet Another Startup Baron who lost their life savings to a nothingburger served in gold foil.
> Build a good product, price it appropriately and people will come.
Unfortunately, much as I would like that to be the case, that's just not true. People won't come simply because you build it, in fact that's a common refrain heard in the startup world. People, however, will pay for subscriptions if they materially help them. And subscriptions are often the best for developers because software development is not static, there are always bugs to fix and features to add.
The reason why is principle. Build a good product, price it appropriately and people will come. I payed an exorbitant amount for a Bitwig license, but that was because they provided a product that made me happy and was a fair deal. No dark UX practices, no contract or perpetual payment obligation, just a transaction of money and software. I regret it less than my Netflix subscription, honestly.