7 ms·

I will only leave it and never pay if something terrible happens: the price is jacked up, service suffers or I create such a great thing that I need commodity p

I will only leave it and never pay if something terrible happens: the price is jacked up, service suffers or I create such a great thing that I need commodity pricing. But its worse than that: if I don't have the security that I can leave, I won't dedicate time to use this. I am happy to pay for the convenience and to try to create MVPs or proofs of service etc. Anyway, it hardly matters what I think. Imagine what all the students and start ups think when they see it.

sametmax 9y ago
It's ok, you are probably no the target for the service. If you want control, you don't use a closed source saas RAD. I would not use the product for myself. I would hate been locked down. But I can see the value for others. For some, having one easy but clear solution is the important value.
- icebraining 9y ago
  Customers aren't that black and white. I used to work for a SaaS company, and having the option of requesting the source and copy of the database was crucial to land quite a few of our contracts. That said, I agree with you that it's probably not their best approach right now. Even if it pains me to say so :)
  - infinite8s 9y ago
    There are definitely companies that provide an escrowing service for their platform (in case they go out of business, etc).
- amenod 9y ago
  I don't think being locked down to a service is that important in this case. I see Anvil as a potentially valuable tool to create prototypes, to quickly iterate on an idea... then when it is validated, you can build it with more conventional (and safer in terms of future) tools.
  - _red 9y ago
    Yes, its funny but I think of python itself as an exceptional good "prototyping" language. Thats not to say it can't be used in production, but I think the real power of python comes from its ability to go from 0-100 in a very short amount of time (powered by all the great python libs). So in a sense, Anvil is valuable at its price point for just as a web prototyping service. Most new developers obsess on things like "scalability" and "MVC separation", etc and in 95% of cases their creations never ever generate enough traffic to warrant any of that. I see Anvil as a tool that would allow developers to sketch out an idea, quickly iterate features based on feedback, and when warranted, move to a full production stack.

sametmax 9y ago

It's ok, you are probably no the target for the service. If you want control, you don't use a closed source saas RAD. I would not use the product for myself. I would hate been locked down. But I can see the value for others. For some, having one easy but clear solution is the important value.

icebraining 9y ago
Customers aren't that black and white. I used to work for a SaaS company, and having the option of requesting the source and copy of the database was crucial to land quite a few of our contracts. That said, I agree with you that it's probably not their best approach right now. Even if it pains me to say so :)
- infinite8s 9y ago
  There are definitely companies that provide an escrowing service for their platform (in case they go out of business, etc).
amenod 9y ago
I don't think being locked down to a service is that important in this case. I see Anvil as a potentially valuable tool to create prototypes, to quickly iterate on an idea... then when it is validated, you can build it with more conventional (and safer in terms of future) tools.
- _red 9y ago
  Yes, its funny but I think of python itself as an exceptional good "prototyping" language. Thats not to say it can't be used in production, but I think the real power of python comes from its ability to go from 0-100 in a very short amount of time (powered by all the great python libs). So in a sense, Anvil is valuable at its price point for just as a web prototyping service. Most new developers obsess on things like "scalability" and "MVC separation", etc and in 95% of cases their creations never ever generate enough traffic to warrant any of that. I see Anvil as a tool that would allow developers to sketch out an idea, quickly iterate features based on feedback, and when warranted, move to a full production stack.