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So many projects we use at work (including Qt and GitLab) seem to change their subscription plans to something that is much less favorable for smaller developme

So many projects we use at work (including Qt and GitLab) seem to change their subscription plans to something that is much less favorable for smaller development teams. I wonder where this will lead to in the big picture, when more and more small companies can simply no longer justify paying for those subscriptions.

izacus 6y ago
Probably into another cycle of cheap products to which you'll migrate to, which will then increase prices and again and again until someone realizes that running sustainable services costs money.
curryst 6y ago
Personally, I think it's a side effect of globalization. All else equal, large companies beat small companies by economy of scale. It follows that larger companies beat large companies. The inevitable outcome is an aggregation of tons of small companies into a small number of very large companies. That changes 2 things for a SaaS company: 1) Large companies pay more (in absolute amounts). They are also likely to be less of a support burden, since they're a single company so they should be relatively uniform. They're unlike to ask for both AWS and GCP support, but the 1,000 small businesses you need to replace that revenue are likely to ask for AWS, GCP and Azure cumulatively. 2) Small companies are more likely to fail. It's not enough to create a competitive product. They have to create a competitive product at a price that allows them to overcome the economy of scale. Creating an equivalent to Google is great. You're probably still going to pay more per-search than Google is, so they can cut prices until you can't keep up. > I wonder where this will lead to in the big picture, when more and more small companies can simply no longer justify paying for those subscriptions. I would argue that we're seeing the fruition of that. The answer is that you go ahead and pay for it. You hope that you can get enough growth to be a company that can afford to pay for it before you run out of money. Or you get acquired by a company whom you're more valuable to, and they can afford to pay for it. I don't see a viable path forward for small businesses under current circumstances. They can't compete on cost, big businesses are getting really good at emulating small business features (e.g. Spotify does a good job of recommending new music to me, so I don't need the record store to do that), and people are adapting to interfacing with machines instead of humans. I struggle to think of an advantage local stores have other than being able to get the thing you want in less than a day or two.
- ehvatum 6y ago
  Not all small businesses are stores. A local brewer needs new tooling for their canning line; I’m currently 3d scanning various components and designing replacements that I will machine from stainless and Delrin. I do a lot of this kind of work for local small and mid-sized businesses. I would say that successful local outfits are energetic about making their customers happy and tend to be efficient. I’m sure Siemens could send a team to re-tool this canning line, but it would cost 5x more than having my little company take care of it, and I’m interested in stuff. I don’t mind taking the time to get it right and make it last.

izacus 6y ago

Probably into another cycle of cheap products to which you'll migrate to, which will then increase prices and again and again until someone realizes that running sustainable services costs money.

curryst 6y ago

Personally, I think it's a side effect of globalization. All else equal, large companies beat small companies by economy of scale. It follows that larger companies beat large companies. The inevitable outcome is an aggregation of tons of small companies into a small number of very large companies. That changes 2 things for a SaaS company: 1) Large companies pay more (in absolute amounts). They are also likely to be less of a support burden, since they're a single company so they should be relatively uniform. They're unlike to ask for both AWS and GCP support, but the 1,000 small businesses you need to replace that revenue are likely to ask for AWS, GCP and Azure cumulatively. 2) Small companies are more likely to fail. It's not enough to create a competitive product. They have to create a competitive product at a price that allows them to overcome the economy of scale. Creating an equivalent to Google is great. You're probably still going to pay more per-search than Google is, so they can cut prices until you can't keep up. > I wonder where this will lead to in the big picture, when more and more small companies can simply no longer justify paying for those subscriptions. I would argue that we're seeing the fruition of that. The answer is that you go ahead and pay for it. You hope that you can get enough growth to be a company that can afford to pay for it before you run out of money. Or you get acquired by a company whom you're more valuable to, and they can afford to pay for it. I don't see a viable path forward for small businesses under current circumstances. They can't compete on cost, big businesses are getting really good at emulating small business features (e.g. Spotify does a good job of recommending new music to me, so I don't need the record store to do that), and people are adapting to interfacing with machines instead of humans. I struggle to think of an advantage local stores have other than being able to get the thing you want in less than a day or two.

ehvatum 6y ago
Not all small businesses are stores. A local brewer needs new tooling for their canning line; I’m currently 3d scanning various components and designing replacements that I will machine from stainless and Delrin. I do a lot of this kind of work for local small and mid-sized businesses. I would say that successful local outfits are energetic about making their customers happy and tend to be efficient. I’m sure Siemens could send a team to re-tool this canning line, but it would cost 5x more than having my little company take care of it, and I’m interested in stuff. I don’t mind taking the time to get it right and make it last.