More of a service than an app, but I am always happy to renew my yearly donation to Wikipedia whenever that comes around. I use it almost daily, and think it is a worthy cause to help keep information available, updated, free from ads and (hopefully) as factually correct and unbiased as possible.
That said, having once written software for a living, I have no issues with paying for good software with committed developer support on any platform. I do prefer the traditional pay-up-front with upgrade pricing model. However, I also don’t think that I am paying, say Adobe, more yearly today than I did back when I was periodically paying a significant sum for a new version of the Creative Suite…
I agree that Scrivener is a must have app. I love it so much, I bought it for my iPad, my PC, and my MacBook Air. There are some formatting issues I wish they’d clean up but I understand they’re about to release an update. But even without that, it’s definitely a “must have” app.
iThoughts (in addition to Scrivener) is a must for me. While not as colorful as Mindnode, its beauty is that it works cross-platform, on PCs, Macs, IOS. My office is PC based but i use an iPad and a Macbook Air and love to be able to use all these devices to work on the app.
The following are my “mission critical” apps and, as such, I will continue to pay for them so long as they are anywhere near reasonably priced (especially considering that I can deduct their cost on taxes):
Devonthink and DTTG
Timing
Ulysses
LiquidText - recently added to this list since getting iPad Air 4
Filemaker - this one is an expensive buy-in at $549, but I have had a license since Filemaker 14 and always make sure to upgrade within the time period that lets me get the new version for the $199 upgrade price. I have upgraded to Filemaker 17 and now Filemaker 19. I am the most concerned about this app because it is supposed to be moving to an agile development model and I don’t know what that is going to mean for individual users. This one is probably a hard sell for most because it is a high buy-in and a high learning curve. When I originally purchased this app, I intended for it to do everything, but have since off-loaded many things to other apps that can do a better job than what I can do with my amateur development skills (i.e. Devonthink for Document Management, etc). Still, there are several things little things that would doubtless eat up my day (even more so than they already do) if I didn’t have this app (e.g., automating correspondence, fax cover sheets, address labels, etc). I know if I was more skilled at programming, I could get a lot more benefit from this App, but I have (reluctantly) made peace with the fact that I will never be a great programmer.
For messenging: Signal and Threema
For mail: Protonmail
For hosted cloud file sync: Tresorit
For encrypted file sync using otherwise non-encrypted cloud providers: Cryptomator, Veracrypt
While not audited and just a 80% focus on privacy (if the settings are made accordingly), Day One should be an honorable mention since they offer encryption with a key of your choosing that doesn’t get stored anywhere. At least they claim that.
There are a few apps that I intentionally buy a new license for when a major upgrade occurs, rather than the lower upgrade fee. Curio is at the top of this list.
Good indie developers and great work need our support.
I noticed that no one has mentioned any Twitter clients. I have been using Tweetbot for a number of years, mainly for following news, and would pay for an upgrade, but I’m open to other suggestions.
I also purchased the upgrade of Moneydance recently, partly to avoid the hassle of searching out and moving info to another app. I’m satisfied with it for my pretty basic planning and tracking uses.
ScreenFloat – You do not hear too much about but invaluable to me. Really come into its own if your short-term memory is weak and if you are a big/multiple screen user so easy to stash little snips of screen photos for reference
Keyboard Maestro
Hazel
TextExpander
OnePassword
GraphicConverter
Xojo
The above are all reasonably priced IMO, and very useful.
I have others that are essential to me, but I am not happy to pay for. Some are in the category of expensive software that at one point was interested in the “general public” but then evolved a pricing model only suitable to businesses. This is a very frustrating category because you may have invested a lot of mental capital into learning these powerful programs, but they have gone on to pricing models that make them pretty difficult for the personal user. They used to have some slightly crippled versions that they would sell at a low price (relatively) for the general consumer and then have a higher price that would make sense for a business. Someone mentioned Filemaker which I would put in this category. I would include other software that is likely familiar: Photoshop/Illustrator/AcrobatPro. For me, 4D is “essential” but they now have a pricing model which is “onerous” to be polite.
Interesting - I have a license also and have been working on learning it. Seems to me a great way to easily write apps that are cross platform - Mac, iOS, WebApp, Windows. Yet I don’t hear about it much - not sure why. Do you like it?
