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As I understand, you're offering a limited lifetime packages (25 x $199 and then x amount of $499)? I guess it's for generating initial $$$ and validating the i

As I understand, you're offering a limited lifetime packages (25 x $199 and then x amount of $499)? I guess it's for generating initial $$$ and validating the interest for the product? And when you sell these out, you continue with monthly/yearly packages? This is cool. But I'm sometimes thinking about these monthly prices. Can we sell products with lifetime packages instead? You know, like you can buy and download a software program, like Postico (which is made by an indie dev): https://eggerapps.at/postico/ https://eggerapps.at/postico/ I see the difference for the maker though. Postico's developer has built a software program (a file) that can be downloaded and used, but SaaS lives on the server and needs maintenance/updates. I'm not a fan of paying every month for a lot of SaaS products. But something feels weird to sell an online product with one-time price only: 1) when I have monthly packages, I need to keep the product alive as long people pay me (or when I have only a few paying customers I can say I'll shut it down and they don't need to pay anymore) 2) when I sell lifetime packages, I need to keep the product alive for an eternity even though maybe nobody pays me But as long as new users are signing up and paying lifetime money, it's okay!

1hakr 6y ago
Yes thats exactly my plan. SaaS is very difficult and B2B SaaS is even more so. If i can get my early customers, then i cam easily concentrate on building and improving the product rather than spending most of my time on chasing early customers.
- raunometsa 6y ago
  Thanks! I added you to my website: https://makehub.io/startups/simpleops https://makehub.io/startups/simpleops I hope you like it. Let me know if you'd like to change anything!
XCSme 6y ago
I also have the same pricing structure on https://www.userTrack.net/pricing https://www.userTrack.net/pricing (initially lifetime only, now also monthly). I added monthly mostly to allow customers to get started at a much lower cost, thus making the initial purchase easier to make. This also means that if they can test it for cheal and if are satisfied, after a while, they can switch to the lifetime plan. In my case I think it works because it is a product, not a SaaS. Feels a bit weird to pay monthly for a product, but it actually works and is more like IRL renting or paying monthly installments.
- raunometsa 6y ago
  Cool product! I've seen many indie analytics tools recently. One thing they promote is privacy. Which is important indeed. But another aspect could be the simplicity of them. Google Analytics is just too huge. We often need only a couple of key metrics. For example, Simple Analytics is really nice I think (doing $6.2k/mo): https://makehub.io/startups/simple-analytics https://makehub.io/startups/simple-analytics But it starts from $19/mo. I feel it's too expensive. Another one I recently discovered is Plausible (doing $1.8k/mo): https://makehub.io/startups/plausible https://makehub.io/startups/plausible Starts from $6/mo, which is a lot better. I love that your product is self-hosted by the client. Are you providing updates for them?
  - XCSme 6y ago
    Thanks! I know of most of the other analytics platforms, I am not really a fan of the hosted "privacy-focused" analytics, as they are still 3rd party analytics where data is centralized, but they are a step forward. Also the data the data that they provide is usually not enough for commercial websites. I do release regular updates, but I am just releasing an auto-updater functionality which will enable you to update the platform with one click. This is one of the final steps before I start a bigger marketing campaign. I personally think self-hosting is the future, not only in terms of analytics, but for any hosted service that you might use. The most important thing stopping this from happening is usually the big corporations not wanting to give up on potential huge money and data streams. I self-hosting is now possible and easy thanks to all the VPS/cloud providers that enable for very cheap servers running the app that you need to be easily setup and maintained.
    - raunometsa 6y ago
      I think most things were self hosted before they moved to the cloud and software as a service became a thing? So what you're saying is that maybe we're going back to self hosting again. This could make sense! Then we're buying software for a reasonable price and not having to pay every month for it. I don't like these monthly payments somehow! It's like $20 here and $30 there, and you'll pay $500/mo before realising it. Self-hosting could be the answer to my problem here: 1) when I have monthly packages, I need to keep the product alive as long people pay me (or when I have only a few paying customers I can say I'll shut it down and they don't need to pay anymore) 2) when I sell lifetime packages, I need to keep the product alive for an eternity even though maybe nobody pays me Curious if you're also sharing your revenue publicly? Would be fun to list you on MakeHub.

1hakr 6y ago

Yes thats exactly my plan. SaaS is very difficult and B2B SaaS is even more so. If i can get my early customers, then i cam easily concentrate on building and improving the product rather than spending most of my time on chasing early customers.

raunometsa 6y ago
Thanks! I added you to my website: https://makehub.io/startups/simpleops https://makehub.io/startups/simpleops I hope you like it. Let me know if you'd like to change anything!

XCSme 6y ago

I also have the same pricing structure on https://www.userTrack.net/pricing https://www.userTrack.net/pricing (initially lifetime only, now also monthly). I added monthly mostly to allow customers to get started at a much lower cost, thus making the initial purchase easier to make. This also means that if they can test it for cheal and if are satisfied, after a while, they can switch to the lifetime plan. In my case I think it works because it is a product, not a SaaS. Feels a bit weird to pay monthly for a product, but it actually works and is more like IRL renting or paying monthly installments.

raunometsa 6y ago
Cool product! I've seen many indie analytics tools recently. One thing they promote is privacy. Which is important indeed. But another aspect could be the simplicity of them. Google Analytics is just too huge. We often need only a couple of key metrics. For example, Simple Analytics is really nice I think (doing $6.2k/mo): https://makehub.io/startups/simple-analytics https://makehub.io/startups/simple-analytics But it starts from $19/mo. I feel it's too expensive. Another one I recently discovered is Plausible (doing $1.8k/mo): https://makehub.io/startups/plausible https://makehub.io/startups/plausible Starts from $6/mo, which is a lot better. I love that your product is self-hosted by the client. Are you providing updates for them?
- XCSme 6y ago
  Thanks! I know of most of the other analytics platforms, I am not really a fan of the hosted "privacy-focused" analytics, as they are still 3rd party analytics where data is centralized, but they are a step forward. Also the data the data that they provide is usually not enough for commercial websites. I do release regular updates, but I am just releasing an auto-updater functionality which will enable you to update the platform with one click. This is one of the final steps before I start a bigger marketing campaign. I personally think self-hosting is the future, not only in terms of analytics, but for any hosted service that you might use. The most important thing stopping this from happening is usually the big corporations not wanting to give up on potential huge money and data streams. I self-hosting is now possible and easy thanks to all the VPS/cloud providers that enable for very cheap servers running the app that you need to be easily setup and maintained.
  - raunometsa 6y ago
    I think most things were self hosted before they moved to the cloud and software as a service became a thing? So what you're saying is that maybe we're going back to self hosting again. This could make sense! Then we're buying software for a reasonable price and not having to pay every month for it. I don't like these monthly payments somehow! It's like $20 here and $30 there, and you'll pay $500/mo before realising it. Self-hosting could be the answer to my problem here: 1) when I have monthly packages, I need to keep the product alive as long people pay me (or when I have only a few paying customers I can say I'll shut it down and they don't need to pay anymore) 2) when I sell lifetime packages, I need to keep the product alive for an eternity even though maybe nobody pays me Curious if you're also sharing your revenue publicly? Would be fun to list you on MakeHub.