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Ask YC: Is MacHeist Good or Evil?
The newest group of "12 Top Mac Apps" is now available for purchase in a $49 bundle at http://www.macheist.com/
I bought the last MacHeist for the simple reason that I wanted Pixelmator which is $59 alone and got a boatload of other software for -$10.
Afterward, I felt a little dirty. Like I just helped to undermine the otherwise thriving Mac shareware community.
What's your take? Developers: would you partake in MacHeist? Consumers: Do you buy bundled software when it's available?
- inovica 19y agoMost of the apps in MacHeist (my opinion) aren't useful to me - nor to many - and therefore the value is much lowered. Many of these apps have competitors that are freeware anyway. I bought the first one just out of curiosity and don't use ANY of them
- e1ven 19y agoGruber wrote on this a bit when it first came out- http://daringfireball.net/2006/12/macheist_lousy_tshirt http://daringfireball.net/2006/12/macheist_lousy_tshirt and http://daringfireball.net/2006/12/iniquities_of_the_selfish http://daringfireball.net/2006/12/iniquities_of_the_selfish I'll admit that I bought the package for the same reason that you did- It was a way to acquire Pixelmator and Snapz Pro, for less than I could pay for either on their own. Personally, I think that MacHeist is a good deal for a lot of small developers- It publicizes the names of programs such as Cha-Ching, which otherwise don't have nearly as many opportunities to gain the eye of a developer. On the counterside, if you program has enough publicity on it's own, It may simply detract from revenue you have otherwise made. Ironically, it seems superficially similar to the YCombinator program- It's a way for a small group of programs to gain publicity together, when they might not be able to get substantial publicity on their own. Some stars might come out of each group, but others would fade to obscurity. The similarity between the two programs is only shared in the one aspect, however; While YC does offer greatly increased blog coverage the real strength of the program is the networking between developers and participation by other YC teams and leaders in helping to suggest and guide during the development process. Given that we do see several developers repeating the process from one MacHeist to the next, they must find that the additional publicity is worthwhile to them.
- boucher 19y agoAdmittedly there's often one app that makes MacHeist a good deal -- TextMate, PixelMator, each was more expensive than the whole bundle. But I haven't bought it. I would rather give a few more dollars to the developers of both apps. Aside from the problems Gruber mentions in his post, I really don't like the man behind the curtain, "Phill Ryu". He takes advantage of a lot of goodwill in the community. His my dream app contest ended well over a year ago, and they still haven't even released the first app.