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After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/ h

by zupo 5y ago

After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/ https://paretosecurity.com/. Revenue in last 30 days is $3000+, we started working on it back in July. So, it's something? That said, long-term, we expect to earn more from subscriptions for businesses, than we do from single-user lifetime licenses. But again, ATM, it's the single user licenses that sell well.

muttled 5y ago
How are you marketing this if I might ask?
jb1991 5y ago
That looks like a rather useful app.
- zupo 5y ago
  Thanks! And it's open source: https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/ https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/
  - phkahler 5y ago
    Interesting that you're selling a GPL licensed app. I think that's actually quite viable in many cases. I'd rather pay a low price and get something in the app store than have to build it myself.
    - hollerith 5y ago
      What if a competitor uses the GPLed code to sell essentially the same app for less?
      - zupo 5y ago
        As much as I hate to say it as a developer: code is trivial. Finding users is the hard part. Additionally, our long-term vision is to make the bulk of revenue from Teams subscriptions, where most value comes from a web-based dashboard (https://paretosecurity.com/teams https://paretosecurity.com/teams), which is closed sourced.
chrisandchris 5y ago
I don't have a Mac do I'm not your target customer. However I really like your approach having a pay-once personal edition and a subscription team/business edition. It's something different from the subscription-everywhere trend.
- zupo 5y ago
  I'll report back in a year or three if it does in fact work in real life hehe
  - Melatonic 5y ago
    Standard for years was perpetual license + monthly fee for premier support / maintenance so it is definitely a workable model.
ulimn 5y ago
Being relatively new to macOS, I really like this program because there are settings I wouldn't even know exist. Also, it tells me when other programs, like docker or cyberduck have an update which is also nice.
divbzero 5y ago
I’m curious about the Setapp subscription option which is new to me. What was the process for joining the Setapp portfolio of apps and how is the subscription revenue distributed? Do you expect it to become a significant part of your revenue compared to one-time licenses or business subscriptions?
- zupo 5y ago
  TL;DR: Quick & easy process, do it. Minor part of revenue on long term, though. They reached out to us. We integrated their SDK (trivial), provided sales copy and screenshot, then waited about two weeks for the review. For the first few months, we got the most revenue from SetApp, it quickly jumped to ~$800, but these days, we earn more from selling single-user licenses. I expect the SetApp part to become smaller and smaller as we grow our Teams subscriptions. Generally, I think it was good. It got us a few hundred users very early on, which helped us focus on the features and fixes that mattered. It also helps with brand trust, i.e. if you are in SetApp, there is less chance of you being a scammer.

by zupo 5y ago

muttled 5y ago

How are you marketing this if I might ask?

jb1991 5y ago

That looks like a rather useful app.

zupo 5y ago
Thanks! And it's open source: https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/ https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/
- phkahler 5y ago
  Interesting that you're selling a GPL licensed app. I think that's actually quite viable in many cases. I'd rather pay a low price and get something in the app store than have to build it myself.
  - hollerith 5y ago
    What if a competitor uses the GPLed code to sell essentially the same app for less?
    - zupo 5y ago
      As much as I hate to say it as a developer: code is trivial. Finding users is the hard part. Additionally, our long-term vision is to make the bulk of revenue from Teams subscriptions, where most value comes from a web-based dashboard (https://paretosecurity.com/teams https://paretosecurity.com/teams), which is closed sourced.

chrisandchris 5y ago

I don't have a Mac do I'm not your target customer. However I really like your approach having a pay-once personal edition and a subscription team/business edition. It's something different from the subscription-everywhere trend.

zupo 5y ago
I'll report back in a year or three if it does in fact work in real life hehe
- Melatonic 5y ago
  Standard for years was perpetual license + monthly fee for premier support / maintenance so it is definitely a workable model.

ulimn 5y ago

Being relatively new to macOS, I really like this program because there are settings I wouldn't even know exist. Also, it tells me when other programs, like docker or cyberduck have an update which is also nice.

divbzero 5y ago

I’m curious about the Setapp subscription option which is new to me. What was the process for joining the Setapp portfolio of apps and how is the subscription revenue distributed? Do you expect it to become a significant part of your revenue compared to one-time licenses or business subscriptions?

zupo 5y ago
TL;DR: Quick & easy process, do it. Minor part of revenue on long term, though. They reached out to us. We integrated their SDK (trivial), provided sales copy and screenshot, then waited about two weeks for the review. For the first few months, we got the most revenue from SetApp, it quickly jumped to ~$800, but these days, we earn more from selling single-user licenses. I expect the SetApp part to become smaller and smaller as we grow our Teams subscriptions. Generally, I think it was good. It got us a few hundred users very early on, which helped us focus on the features and fixes that mattered. It also helps with brand trust, i.e. if you are in SetApp, there is less chance of you being a scammer.