4 ms·

Nobody wants to pay upfront. This is antithetical to what customers prefer.

latexr 8y ago
You also pay upfront for subscriptions, although there’s usually a trial which is also a thing with non-subscription apps.
- drusepth 8y ago
  You often pay much less upfront for a subscription than you do e.g. purchasing an app "full price". You might pay more over the lifetime of your subscription than you would paying full price for something, but in terms of your parent's comment, that is why a subscription is seen as preferred over paying for something upfront. For example, $7/mo is a lot more palatable than buying some software for $80, especially when you're in the stage of "I don't know if I'll use this or not".
quickthrower2 8y ago
Not me. I loved paying $50 for YNAB4 for life. Or I could have say a year of YNAB cloud access for an inferior product.
- KaoruAoiShiho 8y ago
  So you enjoy paying less? Obviously upfront costs need to be vastly lowered in order to get any customers.
  - quickthrower2 8y ago
    Well this is the game being played. If you run a business you don't want customers like me who seek value and privacy. You'll make a lot more money from those with plenty of disposable cash who don't mind adding yet another $10/m SaaS to their monthly expenses. I thought about creating a budget SaaS but what puts me off is (i) Your target money is in a budgeting mindframe and so yeah they are going to be looking for the cheapest option. (ii) There are so many budget apps and they are good and fairly cheap. YNAB4 is the best as far as I am concerned, unless you need full double-entry accounting. The user interface is superb. It is going to be hard to come close. My ideal budget app is YNAB4 but with some of the opinionated envelope-based budgeting calculations being more flexible for those who do have some cashflow buffer. I'd literally keep a Windows 10 VM for the next 20 years to run it :-) unless something with a better UI comes out which I doubt.
    - KaoruAoiShiho 8y ago
      You're certainly offering a good value but you don't have a good business. I guess you can jump around from app to app but you'll just get outcompeted by people who have better revs and more resources to plow into r&d or distribution.

You also pay upfront for subscriptions, although there’s usually a trial which is also a thing with non-subscription apps.

drusepth 8y ago
You often pay much less upfront for a subscription than you do e.g. purchasing an app "full price". You might pay more over the lifetime of your subscription than you would paying full price for something, but in terms of your parent's comment, that is why a subscription is seen as preferred over paying for something upfront. For example, $7/mo is a lot more palatable than buying some software for $80, especially when you're in the stage of "I don't know if I'll use this or not".

quickthrower2 8y ago

Not me. I loved paying $50 for YNAB4 for life. Or I could have say a year of YNAB cloud access for an inferior product.

KaoruAoiShiho 8y ago
So you enjoy paying less? Obviously upfront costs need to be vastly lowered in order to get any customers.
- quickthrower2 8y ago
  Well this is the game being played. If you run a business you don't want customers like me who seek value and privacy. You'll make a lot more money from those with plenty of disposable cash who don't mind adding yet another $10/m SaaS to their monthly expenses. I thought about creating a budget SaaS but what puts me off is (i) Your target money is in a budgeting mindframe and so yeah they are going to be looking for the cheapest option. (ii) There are so many budget apps and they are good and fairly cheap. YNAB4 is the best as far as I am concerned, unless you need full double-entry accounting. The user interface is superb. It is going to be hard to come close. My ideal budget app is YNAB4 but with some of the opinionated envelope-based budgeting calculations being more flexible for those who do have some cashflow buffer. I'd literally keep a Windows 10 VM for the next 20 years to run it :-) unless something with a better UI comes out which I doubt.
  - KaoruAoiShiho 8y ago
    You're certainly offering a good value but you don't have a good business. I guess you can jump around from app to app but you'll just get outcompeted by people who have better revs and more resources to plow into r&d or distribution.