[reitanqild]

For me one part of "growing up" in sw engineering has been that I have started to want to pay reasonable amounts for things I use actively.

I see it as an insurance for us users: as long as a significant amount of users are paying keeping the service as-is is a valid alternative for the owners.

When it becomes free I fear that someone suddenly starts looking at it as a cost center, I mean: all the benefits you mention seems to be possible without operating an end-user service.

Disclaimer: not a paying Instapaper customer, but I am a paying lastpass customer and a paying google docs customer etc etc.

[kbutler]

I don't have a statistical survey, but I have anecdotal evidence of paid services going away, increasing in price dramatically, or remaining the same. Same with free services.

I can't honestly say that the paid-for services I use are more likely to remain available than my non-paid services.

The key factor appears to be a viable business model, but that's impossible to evaluate from the outside (and sometimes from the inside).

[canes123456]

Being a service that charges money does not guarantee a longer life.

[ChefDenominator]

Guarantee? No. Improve the odds? Yes.