Thanks for your thoughts and taking the time to write it all out. I appreciate your stance on the password software. Thankfully, 1P6 still does everything I need without a subscription, so I’m good for now. I was just thinking ahead.
I too have thought a lot about subscriptions. For me, I still think it’s not a good way to run a software shop. It’s not what I wanted to get from this thread, but I’ll offer up these thoughts here, which I’ve offered up elsewhere:
Used to be, and often still is, that the way software ran was pay for it, take it home, use it. Buy it again when there was a reason to do so. Those reasons were entirely in the control of developers. They needed to DO something. They needed to add the features people wanted so things were compelling (it’s pretty much why we keep buying iPhones) and so people would pony up. Or they needed to branch out–make something NEW, something we never knew we needed. Push the barrier forward. Earn the money you’re asking for. Three of the most long-lived apps (Omni Group stuff, PCalc, and BB Edit) are STILL subscription-free 20 years later, so it obviously works, but now all devs want you to believe is they cannot stay afloat without “a secure revenue stream”. The theoretical improvements or enhancements coming down the pike in their unknown software development process may or may not be worth the price of a year’s subscription, but we don’t know that, and they don’t care—we need to take it on faith—we can’t make up our own minds as consumers as we lack the information. We just need to open our wallets and let ourselves be pick-pocketed, hopeful it’ll all be worth it. Is that fair?
Devs say their app isn’t sustainable? Is that really on me as a consumer? Is it really up to me to make their company work? Really? My role, as I see it, is to buy their stuff when it’s available. Software is a thing, a tool, not a service. I value my tools. But make no mistake they are tools. When a plumber needs a wrench, he buys the best one he can so he can do the job best, longest. He buys a new one when it breaks. Depending upon the quality, he fosters brand loyalty. No one will come and take his wrench away because he didn’t pay for it this month. Neither will your metaphorical tires magically cease to work or only go a certain speed if you don’t pony up for the month.
Your example of YNAB is a particular bugaboo of mine. I have used it since ver 3, and totally love it, but Jesse is insane. The subscription price was nuts to begin with, even for the value, but then he upped it by over 50% for no reason other than he thought “the software was undervalued”. It’s a load. There’s no way the software is worth what he’s charging. I was on the Reddit AMA when users implored him NOT to go subscription, and he didn’t care. He still doesn’t care. I can see where all the courses and help is pricey, but honestly, how often have you attended a class since you got the hang of it? And yet you’re paying for those classes in perpetuity. That’s like buying a kickass stereo for your metaphorical car, every year, and then never installing it and letting it languish in the garage somewhere. That’s just absurd. I love YNAB, but I have promised myself that if Jesse ever discontinues the grandfathered pricing, or ups the price even more, I’m gone. Unlike some devs who are actually listening to the users because they know a subscription is precarious ground, Jesse doesn’t give a fig that users liked things about YNAB4 that are now gone—it’s his way or no way at all. I refuse to reward that kind of thinking.
There’s got to be some middle ground here, but I still think that it’s not what devs are doing.
Anyway, that’s my $0.02. As for 1Password, $3 a month is not a huge fee, so I’ll need to give it more thought if thy ever obsolete version 6. Thankfully, I don’t yet need to. Maybe Apple will make Keychain a true competitor before then.It isn’t any one app… It’s all of them together that makes ‘death by 1000 coffees’.
Thank you for your feedback!