[alin23]

Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money?

The recent video I did for Cling for example (https://lowtechguys.com/cling) I’ve had many people ask about how I did it because it has just the right amount of motion and highlighting. I did it in a few minutes of editing in the ScreenStudio UI.

I’m not saying it’s a great video, but people say it conveys the info well enough and that’s what matters. It would have taken me days to do the same with DaVinci Resolve because of my inexperience with complex editors.

A $30/month subscription is indeed too much, but I see it as a one time payment for that month when I release something, then I pause the subscription. I need it rarely, very few videos need zooming and motion.

Anyway I love to see alternatives like OpenScreen! What I would miss the most would be presets, not sure if it’s already there, but it’s a nice quality of life feature to have a consistent look to the motion effects between videos.

[RestartKernel]

I think it's mostly just that a subscription seems weird for a tool like this. Most users would probably only need it occasionally, and with a subscription you can't just add it to your toolbox to grab when that time comes.

[edoceo]

IMO a big disservice to the universe has been done with the recurring revenue drive. Many services could/should offer a one-shot option, with the highest margin. Somehow the world got stuck on SaaS model so hard that one off is completely ignored.

I know why the capital class loves MRR I'm just mad that OTC is ignored.

[gobdovan]

I am struggling with finding a good model for desktop apps. The subscription model always seems to yield the most money, but I too dislike subscriptions.

One-shot option seems attractive, but the desktop (MacOS at least) app market is actually so niche that the SAM is somewhere in the low thousands. So, if I would offer a one-time 100$ app, I'd have 100k$ before taxes. And for that revenue, there's developing, marketing, plus support and maintenance. So to match a dev's salary, I'd need to make 2-3 successful apps a year, that I'd also have to maintain for a long time.

I think maybe there's a mid-ground with buy forever, 1 year updates, so people get the product they paid for, and if they want updates or support the development they can re-buy, however I'm yet to hear opinions on this model.

[feznyng]

> I think maybe there's a mid-ground with buy forever, 1 year updates, so people get the product they paid for, and if they want updates or support the development they can re-buy, however I'm yet to hear opinions on this model.

As far as desktop software is concerned, I think this a commonly accepted approach. Sublime Text is probably the most notable example.

[wongarsu]

Isn't that just how most software used to be sold? If you buy Photoshop CS5 or MS Office 2023 you get the product as it's released and maybe a year of bugfix releases (but no new features). If you want the new features buy Photopshop CS6 or MS Office 2024

Personally I like the model, as long as old versions stay truly static and don't get enshittification updates. It aligns incentives on feature development far better than subscription models: if you make genuine improvements you get recurring sales, if you don't then existing users will just stay on the old version. And existing users are protected from features or UI changes they disagree with

[alin23]

For me it would make more sense to have something like “unlock for a week” if the dev wants to keep the ongoing revenue model. Of course a lifetime purchase is even better, not sure why that’s not an option.

I would be happy to pay $100 for unlimited access and be locked into the current version of the app, maybe only have minor version updates free so you don’t get locked into a buggy version.

But that’s a more complicated licensing model to implement I guess.

[whywhywhywhy]

If you only need it occasionally doesn’t subscription make sense? Just pay for the months you need it.

I’m cautious of adding subscription products i would depend on to my tools but if it’s something I definitely only need once a year I just buy a month of it.

Although $30/mo is a bit much for what it does. So if they did go one off presumably it would be about $500 a license.

[zahradeenie]

this! i used screen studio maybe 2-3 times over the course of 3 months

[IshKebab]

I must be in the minority but I find that constant panning/zooming to be very distracting and almost dizzying. The sharp start of the easing curves is pretty awful too. I'm surprised people like it.

I'd probably do it with arrows or fading out parts of the screen instead.

[alin23]

A lot of the time it is, I agree. I would love the ability to do more highlighting and less panning. But in a small 700px wide video, zooming is kind of necessary to make it clear where the action is coming from. Because the app window is so large and packed.

And these recording editors don’t have arrows and callouts, not even a freeze frame. I have to plan the recording to the letter and after 10 frustrating takes I just say fk it and try to polish the least confusing take

Maybe I should start contributing to openscreen to get the ideal recording editor people are looking for instead of paying and complaining.

[thatxliner]

It used to not be a subscription, and like that it would've definitely have been worth the money

[vochsel]

+1 this, I bought it when it was a flat fee for a year of updates. That year's up now and I'd happily pay for another, but not as a subscription...

[canxerian]

I used ScreenStudio for a year. Then, when my annual subscription was up for renewal I tried https://cap.so/ and https://screensage.pro/

After experiencing many bugs and UX oddities with both of those, I went back to ScreenStudio.

ScreenStudio is reliable and produces the best results for my use case (educational content and client updates)

[ldenoue]

I recently released QuickScreen give it a try for free https://www.appblit.com/quickscreen and one time purchase for $7.99 lifetime

[ergocoder]

> Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money?

This is a classic question to every paid software. The answer is it depends.

[BoorishBears]

> A $30/month subscription is indeed too much, but I see it as a one time payment for that month when I release something, then I pause the subscription. I need it rarely, very few videos need zooming and motion.

If I think something is worth the money, I typically don't need to actively decide to pause the subscription each time I use it.

[alin23]

Right, it’s not worth $30/month all year for me because I don’t use it past demo videos for when I publish a new app or large update. Which happens rarely.

But if I was that kind of user who did demos monthly, the time saved on one or two videos that month is worth $30.

[7bit]

The commenter you're replying to said he needs it only occasionally. It makes perfect sense to pause a subscription if you don't use it. Not doing so would be a waste of money. How can you critisise that, don't be ridiculous

[ldenoue]

I created QuickScre because I wanted a no editing way of recording polished screen recordings for Slack etc. Free to try https://www.appblit.com/quickscreen

[stavros]

The subscription model for an app I'm running on my desktop is taking the piss a bit. I'm fine paying for stuff I use, but I miss buying apps once and either using them as much as I want, or paying to upgrade.

Now I'm both locked in to paying every month, and can't keep using the app as it was when I bought it, because it auto updates and most apps will invariably have a server component that will quickly become incompatible with old app versions.

I hate the direction of "we'll force you to update even if you don't like the new direction, and we'll force you to pay for the privilege", so I'm voting with my wallet on this.

[unicornporn]

Uhm, but ScreenStufio is not available for Linux (or Windows for that matter)?

OpenStudio apparently is and I'm hyped.