3 ms·

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 ad

by 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.
    - XCSme 6y ago
      I agree. With services you also feel that you are captive and paying for stuff that you don't even use, but if you stop you lose your data or might not be able to come back in the future, so you keep it running "in case I need it" or "I will use it at some point". I also think software is way overpriced, especially when it comes to services that mostly just rent a server for $5/mo and resell it for $100/mo with not a lot of real value added on top. I think it makes more sense to buy the app/product and choose the server yourself, and pay $5/mo for the server or like $100/mo for a REALLY powerful server, not for a plan with "100k visits, 30 days retention". On point 2), if no one buys your product anymore you can just stop supporting it and "kill it". Being a software product it usually doesn't break over time, unless it's something based on other volatile APIs. Take games for example, they sell as a lifetime software license, games released 20 years ago can usually still run without problems and without any maintenence. I do somewhat openly share the revenue, currently I have myan estimated revenue shown on the IndieHackers page, but being only a product up until now, the revenue varies from month to month (not as stable as a SaaS). Currently it's around $1000/mo as I'm not doing any marketing, I still get sells from people coming from Google or from word of mouth. I usually try to update the IH page as soon as a big milestone is reached. I think userTrack could be listed on MakeHub (from what I read, as I'm a solo founder, no funding, public revenue).

by XCSme 6y ago

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.
  - XCSme 6y ago
    I agree. With services you also feel that you are captive and paying for stuff that you don't even use, but if you stop you lose your data or might not be able to come back in the future, so you keep it running "in case I need it" or "I will use it at some point". I also think software is way overpriced, especially when it comes to services that mostly just rent a server for $5/mo and resell it for $100/mo with not a lot of real value added on top. I think it makes more sense to buy the app/product and choose the server yourself, and pay $5/mo for the server or like $100/mo for a REALLY powerful server, not for a plan with "100k visits, 30 days retention". On point 2), if no one buys your product anymore you can just stop supporting it and "kill it". Being a software product it usually doesn't break over time, unless it's something based on other volatile APIs. Take games for example, they sell as a lifetime software license, games released 20 years ago can usually still run without problems and without any maintenence. I do somewhat openly share the revenue, currently I have myan estimated revenue shown on the IndieHackers page, but being only a product up until now, the revenue varies from month to month (not as stable as a SaaS). Currently it's around $1000/mo as I'm not doing any marketing, I still get sells from people coming from Google or from word of mouth. I usually try to update the IH page as soon as a big milestone is reached. I think userTrack could be listed on MakeHub (from what I read, as I'm a solo founder, no funding, public revenue).