If it really takes the competition a whole afternoon to implement this, $20 is an incredible price. Even just an hour for any in-house SWE in America is going to cost the company at least $20.
Replace "competition" with "user" and you have a point.
But what I mean is that if it takes only an afternoon to replicate 95% of what this tool offers, then a competitor could knock it out and start charging $10, or $5, or $1, or heaven forbid, release it as a free tool.
If that happens, the only people who are going to pay $20 are those who have no idea that the other tools exist.
There are certainly companies who operate solely on marketing power and get people to pay for things they could otherwise get for free -- see ProPublica's TurboTax investigation -- but for a tool like this, I can't see how it could work out in the long term.
But what I mean is that if it takes only an afternoon to replicate 95% of what this tool offers, then a competitor could knock it out and start charging $10, or $5, or $1, or heaven forbid, release it as a free tool.
If that happens, the only people who are going to pay $20 are those who have no idea that the other tools exist.
There are certainly companies who operate solely on marketing power and get people to pay for things they could otherwise get for free -- see ProPublica's TurboTax investigation -- but for a tool like this, I can't see how it could work out in the long term.