4 ms·

Subscriptions are cool right now. It's an easy way, especially when you're a new company, to show that people like your product and need your product enough to

Subscriptions are cool right now. It's an easy way, especially when you're a new company, to show that people like your product and need your product enough to use it on a recurring basis. One off purchases are great for consumables. You wouldn't expect a shoe company to have recurring revenue (at least not monthly, should hopefully take a bit longer than that for shoes to wear out). But for software, the current emphasis is on making products people use, and pay for, regularly.

roelschroeven 7y ago
> Subscriptions are cool right now > But for software, the current emphasis is [...] Yes, SaaS is hot now, but this doesn't explain why. > an easy way [...] to show that people like your product and need your product This attempts to explain an advantage of Saas, but totally neglects the viewpoint of the customer. And that's the problem I have with it: SaaS is an advantage in the relation between the company and their investors (look, recurring revenue!), but for the customer it's often not a good thing.
- ssharp 7y ago
  I think Saas has a ton of advantages for customers as well. Just spitballing some: - Updates happen automatically without disruption to users - The product, at least in theory, improves and adds new features over time - Can access from any device - Better integrations through APIs, Zapier, etc. All of those things are pretty non-trivial.
- MisterBastahrd 7y ago
  The reason most companies have turned to SAAS is that it provides a more reliable revenue stream at the low end of the spectrum given that individuals are usually bad about paying attention to recurring billing, and much cheaper to support at the enterprise level. You don't have to support 20 versions of the same product, you just roll out one or two and support those.
  - agota 7y ago
    I remember someone mentioning that one of the dark secrets of the SaaS world is reliance on people procrastinating on cancelling the subscription, forgetting to cancel it, etc. I think if I had a SaaS company, I'd try to avoid doing that, and encourage people who are clearly not using the product to unsubscribe.
    - unlinked_dll 7y ago
      Most SaaS is enterprise facing, not consumer, so I don't know how much procrastination fits into it as the momentum behind decision making in a business.
      - agota 7y ago
        Good point, I didn't think about B2C vs B2B difference, I was thinking about B2C SaaS.
      - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
        The other part though is that if you want your data from a SAAS platform to migrate to another one, it's a giant pain in the ass because most SAAS platforms don't have "export data for use with competitors" at the top of their TODO lists. You need to get the data, get the new system configured, and then train your employees on that system.
      - xorcist 7y ago
        As long as you've got the cost approved for your cost center it will continue to be paid until someone says otherwise. The end result is the same.

roelschroeven 7y ago

> Subscriptions are cool right now > But for software, the current emphasis is [...] Yes, SaaS is hot now, but this doesn't explain why. > an easy way [...] to show that people like your product and need your product This attempts to explain an advantage of Saas, but totally neglects the viewpoint of the customer. And that's the problem I have with it: SaaS is an advantage in the relation between the company and their investors (look, recurring revenue!), but for the customer it's often not a good thing.

ssharp 7y ago
I think Saas has a ton of advantages for customers as well. Just spitballing some: - Updates happen automatically without disruption to users - The product, at least in theory, improves and adds new features over time - Can access from any device - Better integrations through APIs, Zapier, etc. All of those things are pretty non-trivial.
MisterBastahrd 7y ago
The reason most companies have turned to SAAS is that it provides a more reliable revenue stream at the low end of the spectrum given that individuals are usually bad about paying attention to recurring billing, and much cheaper to support at the enterprise level. You don't have to support 20 versions of the same product, you just roll out one or two and support those.
- agota 7y ago
  I remember someone mentioning that one of the dark secrets of the SaaS world is reliance on people procrastinating on cancelling the subscription, forgetting to cancel it, etc. I think if I had a SaaS company, I'd try to avoid doing that, and encourage people who are clearly not using the product to unsubscribe.
  - unlinked_dll 7y ago
    Most SaaS is enterprise facing, not consumer, so I don't know how much procrastination fits into it as the momentum behind decision making in a business.
    - agota 7y ago
      Good point, I didn't think about B2C vs B2B difference, I was thinking about B2C SaaS.
    - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
      The other part though is that if you want your data from a SAAS platform to migrate to another one, it's a giant pain in the ass because most SAAS platforms don't have "export data for use with competitors" at the top of their TODO lists. You need to get the data, get the new system configured, and then train your employees on that system.
    - xorcist 7y ago
      As long as you've got the cost approved for your cost center it will continue to be paid until someone says otherwise. The end result is the same.