I Think Subscriptions Are Over
Anyone else super subscription-fatigued?
I don't have a problem paying when the pricing model makes sense, ie, when I actively engage with your product, or you give me access to a content library that keeps improving, like netflix.
What I have fatigue with is SaaS products that could easily be microtransactions.
In fact I was using an AI product that was using a credit system and swtiched over to a subscription. Without getting into too much detail, if you didn't pay for the subscription, you lost your library of work. But I was only using the product 1-2 times a year - it felt crazy to pay even $10 for them to store data that probably cost pennies to store.
Maybe it's because I know how the sausage is made, but I don't like being screwed at this level. Pricing structure needs to more closely match value add, and I think a lot of software should be microtransaction based.
Curious if there are other business models that any of you have considered outside of software as a subscription.
This seems to be a generational problem. Middle aged people are not keen on the subscription media model and would rather go without. Younger people, like my adult children, on the other hand, cannot and will not live without it. They will gladly pay an arm and a leg for the convenience and limitations associated.
I do find that strange. All the younger people know is full service convenience or complete absence of experience with no in between. I, and many people I known my age, would gladly spend many hours carefully procuring media and carefully storing/organizing it at great cost and effort. If the internet goes down we old people still retain access to everything uninterrupted.
That's odd. I'm one of the 'younger people', I assume (Gen Z can't be considered old already, right?) but would prefer to own things, for the simple reason that I can barely manage library books (luckily mine has no late fees). If it autorenews, I'll probably forget to cancel a bunch of them; if it doesn't, I'll probably forget to renew a bunch of them. Easier to keep the number down.
Plus, you know, all the concerns that come with subscriptions and not really owning things.
Sounds like you just need to be a bit more discerning about what you use.
For example, your projects in that site. You describe it as "pennies to store". For how long should they store it for free? For a year? 5 years? a million years?
Let me put it this way - if your own library of work is not worth $10 to you, then perhaps it's worthless and can be discarded?
Subscriptions are not going away as a business model because where there are ongoing costs, there has to be ongoing revenue. Anything else is not sustainable.
If there are one-time costs then by all means charge one-time amounts. But hosting, storage, bandwidth cost money every month because the hardware and meatware costs of providing that service happen every month.
I'm willing to pay 50 cents per year for them to store it. That's already a 10x profit for them. But 10/month is a lot for virtually nothing?
Anyway, I ended up saving my stuff locally, closing my account and just not using their service. I found an alternative solution using a product I already pay for.
There you go. Good discernment.
If they're not offering you value then cancel the subscription.
But that doesn't mean the end of subscriptions. It means that services that don't offer sufficient value go away.
But there are interesting situations, e.g. video on demand. When there was essentially only Netflix, everybody was fine paying a subscription. But now there are many different services with exclusive rights on some content, so people have to choose between paying multiple subscriptions, alternating between subscriptions, or going back to downloading content.
Meanwhile the VoD services get more expensive and add ads on top of subscriptions. Not sure if that model "works".
I'm a big fan of the Jetbrains subscription model - you pay for an annual subscription and if you choose not to renew, you get a perpetual license to the last version of the software when you subscribed.
On another note, never deal with a company that can effectively hold your data hostage. If they don't provide an easy way to exfiltrate your data, you send a strongly worded email and do your absolute best to not rely on them.
Of course it’s not over. Anything that connects to the web is constantly experiencing a dizzying array of tax and companies like cloudflare aren’t perfect. People tend to request new features every year. Technical support is hideously expensive if done right. Good backup strategies are not cheap. Like any business, web apps have continuing costs associated with them.
Being charged $10 a year for storage doesn’t just represent the pennies it would cost you on AWS. You have to pay for people running the site, your support contract with Amazon, egress charges, etc. I am happy to pay $10 a year for someone to blame if I know it’s reliable service.
I'm totally with you. As a user, I hate subscriptions. I feel like I owe money to others for too long. I launched a couple of services that offered subscriptions, and they didn't go well. So for the latest one I launched (getting/giving user feedback), I opted for a one time payment per use, and it has been much better.
it felt crazy to pay even $10 for them to store data that probably cost pennies to store
If you are not getting $10 of value it is economically irrational to pay $10 to store data. If you are getting $10 of value or more it is economically rational.
That it costs only pennies to store the data incentivizes the company to stay in business. That’s probably in the interest of the people whose data is stored.
If it is a business decision, the cost of storing the data should be reflected in the prices its customers pay. Ideally the price is marked up so that profits increase in proportion to the expense. Personal use is another Ferraris-are-not-for-everyone matter. Good luck.
Nobody likes subscriptions but in the near future everything will be a subscription even your clothes or food.
In the future everything will be owned by the riches, we will just rent our lives from them.
Absolutely agree. I would much prefer to pay for a pass for a month/day/hour to use a service instead of paying for a subscription.
shrug, i only subscribe to things i really value.
In the USA, folks spend their whole lives jumping from one car subscription or house subscription to the next. In return for something that needs constant maintenance, instead of improving with new features and DLC. And when you stop paying, you lose your life’s work :) /s