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I am the target audience for this, from a UX and tech perspective. It addresses a problem I have and for which I periodically audition solutions. A subscriptio

I am the target audience for this, from a UX and tech perspective. It addresses a problem I have and for which I periodically audition solutions. A subscription for a menu bar, though, kills it for me. I have apps on Macs that are over 20 years old. Some of those companies don’t exist anymore. I’m not going to risk paying $100 for a decade of your app and hope that your company, or your goodwill, stays around that long.

cactusplant7374 6mo ago
It's a tiny market. Why would they bother if only 10 people will give them $10?
- SyneRyder 6mo ago
  Apparently not that tiny, if a competitor has the same product priced at $30 and is currently on to version 4 after 12+ years in business!
  - cactusplant7374 6mo ago
    They can set whatever price they want. And in business... for a micro saas? Is that just... waiting?
- comboy 6mo ago
  I have the same bias as the parent. I'd rather pay $50 one time than $9 a year even if I throw it away after 4 years. But the main reason I wouldn't install it despite being happy customizing linux is that it's yet another black box I need to trust and that knows way too much. It's really insane how much you need to compromise your security on macos to have a decent developer experience.
  - cactusplant7374 6mo ago
    It's not economical. Lifetime sales for a lifetime unlock would probably be under $100. So not worth it for the developer.
a-ve 6mo ago
I think that’s a fair question. My thinking is pretty simple: most people will probably choose the basic 2-device plan, which works out to about $0.85 per month. For an app like this, I think that is a reasonable price. Another reason is that a lot of Mac apps charge a one-time fee upfront, but then require paid upgrades later. In practice, that often ends up being similar to paying for a few years of ongoing support anyway. I also think a low-cost subscription sets a clearer expectation that the app will continue to be maintained and kept working as macOS changes. For software like this, where OS updates can easily break things, that felt like the more honest model.
- a-ve 6mo ago
  Adding on to this, apps that hook into window management and multi-monitor behavior can break in subtle ways over time. I ran into some of that with uBar on my setup, especially around multi-monitor use and waking from sleep, and I wanted boringBar’s pricing to match the expectation of continued support and fixes.
  - theowaway213456 6mo ago
    I 100% understand why you are using a subscription-based model. It makes sense, and I agree it's the most honest model given that you have to continually support it and you don't want to have to either over-promise on extended support, and offer refunds if you can't fulfill that promise. I just hate managing subscriptions. If you gave me the option to require manual subscription renewal, rather than auto-renewal, I would 100% buy this right now. Basically allow me to purchase for 1 year then click a button to confirm that I'm still getting value out of the product. If I don't click that button then you should assume I'm no longer interested and cancel my subscription. (I don't like using my mac but sometimes I have to use it for work, and I wish I had this.)
    - a-ve 6mo ago
      Fair point. The billing part of it is managed via Stripe - I'll put up the update/cancel subscription part on the Customer Billing panel soon.
carlosjobim 6mo ago
The target audience for any product for sale are people who are willing to pay. Not people who are outraged by that concept.
a-ve 6mo ago
Since this is the top comment as of now - hijacking this to introduce a change to pricing: ------ OP here - based on the feedback, I’ve switched boringBar to a perpetual license for personal use: https://boringbar.app https://boringbar.app It’s now $40 for 2 devices and includes 2 years of updates. After that, you can keep using the version you have, or choose to pay for updates again later. For businesses, I’m keeping the existing annual pricing. A lot of the comments on pricing were fair, and I appreciate people being direct about it. I still care a lot about long-term maintenance for an app like this, but I think this is a better balance. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743992
- DrammBA 6mo ago
  Given how many developers here use LLMs daily, how do you think about defensibility? Tools like this seem relatively easy to reverse-engineer and replicate with enough time and LLM assistance. Did that influence your decision to charge a subscription or the change to a personal license?
  - butlike 6mo ago
    It's not the idea, it's the implementation. It still takes time and effort to reverse-engineer, LLM assistance or not.
  - risyachka 6mo ago
    >> how do you think about defensibility? defensibility nowadays is app support and development. the more work you pour into it the more defensible it will be. I personally would gladly pay to have app constantly polished and improved. What I would not use is some vibe-coded alternative that was slopped with AI in a day and pushed to github with a tweet "i made a free X alternative" and then abandoned.
    - mfru 6mo ago
      how much is there to improve and polish for a taskbar? at most it will be keeping up with macOS throwing breaking changes at you and maybe one or the other weird bug. but isn't that it?
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]

cactusplant7374 6mo ago

It's a tiny market. Why would they bother if only 10 people will give them $10?

SyneRyder 6mo ago
Apparently not that tiny, if a competitor has the same product priced at $30 and is currently on to version 4 after 12+ years in business!
- cactusplant7374 6mo ago
  They can set whatever price they want. And in business... for a micro saas? Is that just... waiting?
comboy 6mo ago
I have the same bias as the parent. I'd rather pay $50 one time than $9 a year even if I throw it away after 4 years. But the main reason I wouldn't install it despite being happy customizing linux is that it's yet another black box I need to trust and that knows way too much. It's really insane how much you need to compromise your security on macos to have a decent developer experience.
- cactusplant7374 6mo ago
  It's not economical. Lifetime sales for a lifetime unlock would probably be under $100. So not worth it for the developer.

a-ve 6mo ago

I think that’s a fair question. My thinking is pretty simple: most people will probably choose the basic 2-device plan, which works out to about $0.85 per month. For an app like this, I think that is a reasonable price. Another reason is that a lot of Mac apps charge a one-time fee upfront, but then require paid upgrades later. In practice, that often ends up being similar to paying for a few years of ongoing support anyway. I also think a low-cost subscription sets a clearer expectation that the app will continue to be maintained and kept working as macOS changes. For software like this, where OS updates can easily break things, that felt like the more honest model.

a-ve 6mo ago
Adding on to this, apps that hook into window management and multi-monitor behavior can break in subtle ways over time. I ran into some of that with uBar on my setup, especially around multi-monitor use and waking from sleep, and I wanted boringBar’s pricing to match the expectation of continued support and fixes.
- theowaway213456 6mo ago
  I 100% understand why you are using a subscription-based model. It makes sense, and I agree it's the most honest model given that you have to continually support it and you don't want to have to either over-promise on extended support, and offer refunds if you can't fulfill that promise. I just hate managing subscriptions. If you gave me the option to require manual subscription renewal, rather than auto-renewal, I would 100% buy this right now. Basically allow me to purchase for 1 year then click a button to confirm that I'm still getting value out of the product. If I don't click that button then you should assume I'm no longer interested and cancel my subscription. (I don't like using my mac but sometimes I have to use it for work, and I wish I had this.)
  - a-ve 6mo ago
    Fair point. The billing part of it is managed via Stripe - I'll put up the update/cancel subscription part on the Customer Billing panel soon.

carlosjobim 6mo ago

The target audience for any product for sale are people who are willing to pay. Not people who are outraged by that concept.

a-ve 6mo ago

Since this is the top comment as of now - hijacking this to introduce a change to pricing: ------ OP here - based on the feedback, I’ve switched boringBar to a perpetual license for personal use: https://boringbar.app https://boringbar.app It’s now $40 for 2 devices and includes 2 years of updates. After that, you can keep using the version you have, or choose to pay for updates again later. For businesses, I’m keeping the existing annual pricing. A lot of the comments on pricing were fair, and I appreciate people being direct about it. I still care a lot about long-term maintenance for an app like this, but I think this is a better balance. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743992

DrammBA 6mo ago
Given how many developers here use LLMs daily, how do you think about defensibility? Tools like this seem relatively easy to reverse-engineer and replicate with enough time and LLM assistance. Did that influence your decision to charge a subscription or the change to a personal license?
- butlike 6mo ago
  It's not the idea, it's the implementation. It still takes time and effort to reverse-engineer, LLM assistance or not.
- risyachka 6mo ago
  >> how do you think about defensibility? defensibility nowadays is app support and development. the more work you pour into it the more defensible it will be. I personally would gladly pay to have app constantly polished and improved. What I would not use is some vibe-coded alternative that was slopped with AI in a day and pushed to github with a tweet "i made a free X alternative" and then abandoned.
  - mfru 6mo ago
    how much is there to improve and polish for a taskbar? at most it will be keeping up with macOS throwing breaking changes at you and maybe one or the other weird bug. but isn't that it?

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]