[chasote]

I agree that subscription fatigue is a problem and most will opt out but I feel you are projecting too much malice onto the developers in your last sentence.

Why does asking for the subscription automatically entail they are hoping people will stop using the product but stay subscribed or are charging far more than they think the service is worth?

I think it is too jaded an outlook to see it all as a zero sum fight. The service might just be worth a subscription and the developers want to continue providing it and not be able to with a different business model.

[scrollaway]

Appropriately-usernamed GP isn't wrong though. SAAS models are loved by entrepreneurs because you get more money at a lower cost: Making a sale is easier because the numbers are lower, but what you rake in is higher because LTV is (usually) higher than what you'd normally charge as a one-off.

The amount of people who forget to unsubscribe, who don't care and leave it running, etc, is shocking. Hell, I'm frugal, and I've been guilty of leaving things like my Prime subscription running for months despite living somewhere I don't even have Amazon. My WoW subscription is still running today even though I haven't logged on the game since 2017. (My monthly costs are sub-300usd... making a $15/mo subscription 5% of my costs)

So yeah, it can absolutely be toxic. I've seen people not be confident enough in their product and rely on tricks rather than worry about making what they charge for attractive enough for users to want to pay for it.

But all in all, unless you're straight up scamming people, I think the incentives behind subscriptions are pro-consumer. Certainly a hell of a lot more than the incentives behind ads.

There are two problems I see as unsolved in the subscription model today:

- Payment gateway fees prevent microsubscriptions. Decentralized digital currencies promised to solve this -- they didn't. When the cost of providing a subscription is $0.001, and you have to charge at least $0.32 to break even, you're forced to tack it on to something bigger. This also massively incentivizes long-term subscription plans (12 month plans), over impulse-buy short term subscriptions.

- Subscription management is done individually by services. This is a feature that your preferred payment provider should be offering. Paypal has a pretty decent implementation of this for users (A shame that Paypal sucks so much for developers). If you could cancel/manage all your subscriptions through your bank, subscription fatigue would be less of a problem I believe.

[oldcynic]

Not saying it's done with malice aforethought, but it's a known and common pattern. I've done it myself with Amazon Prime and other things where I took a few months longer than I should have to actually go cancel it. Some will let things lie far longer.

If a service is worthless without the online component, Netflix for instance, a sub is clearly the answer and I'll pay gladly. For an editor, utility or IDE having an online account is usually, for me at least, a minor benefit at best when I'll put my files in iCloud, dropbox or git. You made it a tougher sell as you want a rolling commitment. £50 as a one off? I'll spend that on a whim, then probably upgrade in a couple of years.

Most examples I've seen of companies switching to a subscription model end up with a subscription that's more than the previous licence cost. Unless it's something your career or business depends on few would buy every major release widening the real differential further.

That we're having this conversation on a post about a "cash cow sales model" says it all don't you think? It simply starts to look like "we'd like more money from you".

[chasote]

Fair enough, you both make good points. I have been exploring how to make a simple living off one's creations and trying to fight my own cynicism on all the seeming trade offs. Right now that just means staying focused on the creating part and hoping some of you smart folks figure out the best mix of financial feasibility and doing what is right by everyone. These discussions help.

And yes, "cash cow" seems a little uncouth in light of that discussion, haha.

[oldcynic]

For a small dev I think it's difficult now the big app stores have conditioned so many to believe free, £1.99 and £3.99 are appropriate price points for software. That only works for the tiny few that get a viral lottery win.

I see the attraction of a sub as implicit copy protection. So I wonder why there aren't more ISVs putting the yearly sub markedly lower than the former licence price.

Scrollaway makes great points about microsubscriptions. I think he's right that a central place to easily manage multiple subs would take away most of the pain. Banks seem to specialise in awkward UX and statements that just show "UnknownCo LLC Service" because they're the parent company of coolthing.com's service. Patreon might be better placed to have a try here.

Right now I'm having this battle with myself as the side-project I'm slowly progressing looks like having a sub might be right. I'm still reluctant. Oh the irony. :)

Good luck with your creations.