[saagarjha]

I agree. I'm not against selling software, but $5 for something I could probably whip up in an hour and post as open source is really not the best way to get people to use your app. This app just doesn't provide enough value to be $5–maybe if it was a dollar.

[lifeformed]

But wouldn't saving an hour of time for $5 be a good deal?

[saagarjha]

No, because in doing so I can help a hundred other people save an hour of their life as well.

[marc]

Yes, but in that hour you could also make something that does not exist yet which would help hundreds of people. This would arguably be worth a lot more than $5.

[andreyazimov]

I want to build a sustainable lifestyle as an indie maker, and I feel like $5 is the optimal price point to help me achieve that. Too cheap and I need _a lot_ more sales to get there. Too expensive and it will be difficult to get people to buy. So far this price point has generated 100+ sales.

[greenhatman]

If he sells this to people whose hourly rate is $50, and hypothetically it would take each an hour to write, then he just created an economic surplus of $45 for each of those people, while he only took $5 for each sale.

If he sells enough the income could allow him to create even more useful things for other people.

There is nothing wrong with selling something you created.

I'm an open source enthusiast. I run Linux on my MacBook Pro. Still, people should be able to sell what they created if they want to.

[saagarjha]

See my other comment on why I don't believe in the "economic surplus" argument: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16899924

[greenhatman]

That being said, I don't understand the use of this app at all. But other people seem to find it useful.

[dspillett]

Depends on if you enjoy the process and what else you would do with the hour otherwise. If you find it fun and/or learn something by making your own, and would otherwise be doing nothing more useful and/or fun, spending the time works out better than spending the money.

[saagarjha]

Yeah, that too. Most of my projects tend to be learning experiences rather than making something that others would want.

[SyneRyder]

At $1, it's really not worth selling - credit card fees alone would eat 30% of the revenue. Never mind that a single email support request will often take 10 - 15 minutes of time, and you'll quickly find you've created a support job for yourself that pays less than minimum wage.

A better approach might be to make more software and create a bundle, so customers get more value for their $5, rather than lowering the price.

Or improve the marketing, so people realize the value the software gives for their $5. If you get paid $60/hr in your freelance work, and this app encourages you to squeeze in an extra 5 minutes of billable time today because you see the year is ticking away, it will have paid for itself.

[saagarjha]

> Or improve the marketing, so people realize the value the software gives for their $5

I'm not sure I agree with this metric. For example, if I buy a shopping bag I could end up saving an hour over its lifetime because now I carry more things and once and make fewer trips. Does that mean that it should cost me $whatever my hourly rate is? No, I'm going to pay how much I feel its intrinsic value is based on factors such as the market rate, the raw materials that went into its manufacturing, and the quality of the craftsmanship. Maybe I end up paying a dollar for it.

Using these guidelines, to me I think the effective price of this software should really be $0. Other comments have mentioned how this is trivial to set up with free software that's already available, and if this doesn't fit people's needs, there are sure to be people like me who could whip up a clone in an hour.

[ReverseCold]

There is a lot of overpriced software, especially on MacOS. If people are willing to pay (not necessarily you) - why not let them?

Will people realize how easy this app is to make? Will they care? I think it's worth a shot for the developer. It could pay for a coffee or two.

[SyneRyder]

It did a bit better than a coffee or two. He sold 86 copies on the first day for $430 revenue (about $379 US after Gumroad's cut). Not bad for an app that everyone here claims they could make in an hour - but didn't.

https://twitter.com/AndreyAzimov/status/988319772545662977

[saagarjha]

> Not bad for an app that everyone here claims they could make in an hour - but didn't.

If this is something you'd be interested in, I'm fine with putting in the time to make this…

[ReverseCold]

Everyone here (on MacOS) who wants it can just use BitBar.

With bitbar it's one print statement in Python. (Just print current time divided by total time.)

(Yes yes, typing in your credit card number is certainly easier for many than writing a line of Python. Good for OP that they found quite a few buyers.)

[saagarjha]

> There is a lot of overpriced software, especially on MacOS

I really don't think this is the case. It's not fundamentally wrong to charge $50 or $100 for software: it just means that there are some people that won't be able to afford it, but the tradeoff you make is that you might be able to provide better support or higher quality.

> Will people realize how easy this app is to make? Will they care?

Well, I certainly did ;)