Everyone loves to hate subscription pricing for software. I did, too, for the longest time. My opinion has changed, though. Now, I’m launching my first subscription-based product, and I do so with a good conscience. In this post, I want to explain why.
I built the Unlimited Clipboard History App because I had previously purchased a competing product. That product had a single-time payment for purchase, and users celebrated it in the app store for that fact. So many people wrote a review, saying they love the fact that they can buy this product instead of subscribing to a different app—presumably Paste.
But here lies the problem. I bought this app and have used it for about two years. I ran into a handful of issues, and I reported all of them to the developer. Some got fixed, some didn’t. Some were significant flaws that made the product difficult to use. For a while, the developer would be happy about my feedback and fix the issues within a week or two. But that attitude changed gradually until he finally admitted to abandoning the app.
Some of my issues were still open, and I was sad to hear that. Moreover, since updating my Mac to Sequoia, I couldn’t get the app to work anymore. Wiping all my data fixed that issue, but why pay for a more extended history if you must delete it every time you update your device? So, this left me with a sour taste. I had paid for a “lifetime” product license, and now that lifetime was cut short. I hadn’t even used it for all that long.
That’s precisely the point. If you pay for a product for life, you’re locked in. You are attached. You have expectations. And you can’t easily switch. I switched AI providers about six times since ChatGPT came out. I cancel my subscription to one provider to try a new one each time. I pay a one-month premium and will reevaluate my choice next month. Not once did I feel wrong about the sunken cost of spending a month here and another month somewhere else. I continue to vote with my feet and feel good about my purchases every time. By purchasing a lifetime license to a product that would, like so many things in life, eventually stop working, I’m setting myself up for disappointment.
Moreover, the celebrated one-time payment is precisely the reason why the developer had to abandon his app. The choice to keep working and spending time on something that didn’t make him any money anymore wasn’t worth it. He admitted this fact to me. He shared how much money he’s making from this app, and I agree with his decision to abandon the project. It’s not a financially sound decision to spend time on something that’s not worth your time.
So, in the end, all the people writing ecstatic reviews about the revered one-time payments end up raving about a ticking time bomb. It was a time bomb that exploded, at least for me, and left me deleting an app that I had paid for for life.