3 ms·

I quite like Affinity too, but have a small gripe with the company. While they have free online tutorials, they also sell "workbooks" for their software, which

I quite like Affinity too, but have a small gripe with the company. While they have free online tutorials, they also sell "workbooks" for their software, which seem to be beautiful manuals. Why are users expected to pay for manuals? Shouldn't their PDFs be free downloads? More generally, why do many tech companies charge for training in using their products? For instance, Google has GCP courses on Coursera, but you have to pay $49 month to access labs. I don't see this practice with physical goods, but we seem to accept with software.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> Why are users expected to pay for manuals? ...why shouldn't they? They take extra time/money to create, and not all users will necessarily need them. If a third party wrote a book on Affinity and charged for it, we wouldn't bat an eye. Shouldn't the developer get the same privilege?
- PunksATawnyFill 7y ago
  Manuals and books are different things. Nobody should be expected to pay for a manual; that's part of the product. An advanced book? Sure. Look at Resolve: It has an EXTENSIVE (and pretty decent) manual, which costs nothing... and for most users, neither does the product.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    As GP mentioned, Serif offers free online tutorials. It's just that they also sell additional "workbooks".
x3haloed 7y ago
Because the software is super cheap. Affinity sells perpetual licenses at a fraction of what Adobe charges. They need additional income sources. Makes sense to me. Why not break up the pricing to pay for only what you need?
g_p 7y ago
Serif also produces free online manuals, in addition to the workbooks: https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html (Photo) https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html (Designer) https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html (Publisher) Might be of use to anyone wanting to learn more about the products by way of the old-fashioned reading of the manual!
Ididntdothis 7y ago
“More generally, why do many tech companies charge for training in using their products?” It wasn’t always like that. A lot of the “disruption” that came from tech companies wasn’t necessarily about great tech but often their advantage was that they took shortcuts in terms of customer service. And good manuals were one of the costly things they dropped. Just compare Microsoft or Apple documentation from the 90s against what we have today. Back then they put some real effort into writing good manuals. Today it so just some auto generated stuff and even that doesn’t work well. Or try to file a bug and you just get an empty response from some bot.
Kye 7y ago
The workbooks are more than manuals. You can get a manual from the Help menu. The workbooks are textbooks that show you how to do specific full projects.
david_w 7y ago
Companies generate revenue to stay afloat by differential pricing- they price things so that some usually essential things are moderately priced and more expansive / powerful / nicer things cost more money. The people to whom the possession of the nicer things is "worth it" are willing to pay more. Everyone wants the nicer things- the pro edition, the nice coffee table book, but it's not worth it to those same people. This produces people who see things that are nice that they want, but they can't justify paying the extra money for. Those people sometimes say things like "why is edition X so expensive? It's not worth it". In other words, it's economic nonsense to buy that thing. But that's the point- it's not worth it- to you. But to some people, it IS worth it, and they're the target market. The consumer self-identifies and self-selects which category they fall into. The fact that something isn't "worth it" or "too expensive" means that the consumer does not belong to that category of people for whom it makes economic sense to buy that product. Affinity offers a huge amount of functionality at a price everyone can afford. Some people have more money which they would use to buy more Affinity stuff, if it was there. That's what those books are - more wonderful stuff for people to whom its worth it. Differential pricing is how companies keep things affordable. In some sense the people to whom extras are worth it subsidize the low cost of the essential core for everyone else. It's pretty nice.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

> Why are users expected to pay for manuals? ...why shouldn't they? They take extra time/money to create, and not all users will necessarily need them. If a third party wrote a book on Affinity and charged for it, we wouldn't bat an eye. Shouldn't the developer get the same privilege?

PunksATawnyFill 7y ago
Manuals and books are different things. Nobody should be expected to pay for a manual; that's part of the product. An advanced book? Sure. Look at Resolve: It has an EXTENSIVE (and pretty decent) manual, which costs nothing... and for most users, neither does the product.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  As GP mentioned, Serif offers free online tutorials. It's just that they also sell additional "workbooks".

x3haloed 7y ago

Because the software is super cheap. Affinity sells perpetual licenses at a fraction of what Adobe charges. They need additional income sources. Makes sense to me. Why not break up the pricing to pay for only what you need?

g_p 7y ago

Serif also produces free online manuals, in addition to the workbooks: https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html (Photo) https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html (Designer) https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html (Publisher) Might be of use to anyone wanting to learn more about the products by way of the old-fashioned reading of the manual!

Ididntdothis 7y ago

“More generally, why do many tech companies charge for training in using their products?” It wasn’t always like that. A lot of the “disruption” that came from tech companies wasn’t necessarily about great tech but often their advantage was that they took shortcuts in terms of customer service. And good manuals were one of the costly things they dropped. Just compare Microsoft or Apple documentation from the 90s against what we have today. Back then they put some real effort into writing good manuals. Today it so just some auto generated stuff and even that doesn’t work well. Or try to file a bug and you just get an empty response from some bot.

Kye 7y ago

The workbooks are more than manuals. You can get a manual from the Help menu. The workbooks are textbooks that show you how to do specific full projects.

david_w 7y ago

Companies generate revenue to stay afloat by differential pricing- they price things so that some usually essential things are moderately priced and more expansive / powerful / nicer things cost more money. The people to whom the possession of the nicer things is "worth it" are willing to pay more. Everyone wants the nicer things- the pro edition, the nice coffee table book, but it's not worth it to those same people. This produces people who see things that are nice that they want, but they can't justify paying the extra money for. Those people sometimes say things like "why is edition X so expensive? It's not worth it". In other words, it's economic nonsense to buy that thing. But that's the point- it's not worth it- to you. But to some people, it IS worth it, and they're the target market. The consumer self-identifies and self-selects which category they fall into. The fact that something isn't "worth it" or "too expensive" means that the consumer does not belong to that category of people for whom it makes economic sense to buy that product. Affinity offers a huge amount of functionality at a price everyone can afford. Some people have more money which they would use to buy more Affinity stuff, if it was there. That's what those books are - more wonderful stuff for people to whom its worth it. Differential pricing is how companies keep things affordable. In some sense the people to whom extras are worth it subsidize the low cost of the essential core for everyone else. It's pretty nice.