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Thank you! I'm quite a new dev so honestly I don't know where to pitch the free tier, and I'm not above changing it. Do you have any suggestions for the free ti
by sajomes 2mo ago
Thank you! I'm quite a new dev so honestly I don't know where to pitch the free tier, and I'm not above changing it. Do you have any suggestions for the free tier?
- beachy 2mo agoMake it permissive enough that 80% of potential users don't need to pay for subscription. 20% of a heck of a lot of people is still a lot.
- bdangubic 2mo agodo not do this please. if you have a good product, people will pay for it. if you don’t, you don’t. don’t optimize for free-loaders
- iAMkenough 2mo agocorrect. never optimize your product, just wait to see if it's a success or not.
- beachy 2mo agoIf you have an enormous addressable market then it can pay to build awareness as quickly as possible. Having lots of enthusiastic users will do that. Having a useful free tier is a pretty uncontroversial way to get those users. Plenty of apps do this - looking at the first browser tab I have open I see gmail which does exactly this. For a pure client app like an iphone app, you don't have any real "per user" costs, so there are no concerns about going under from the costs of attempting this. It would be very different if you had to pay for server capacity.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- IncreasePosts 2mo agoSo what you're saying is that you prompted Claude to produce the app for you and now you're charging for it? A bold move, but I wouldn't expect much returns before there's completely free apps doing the same thing
- newbie578 2mo agoDon’t listen to him, people like that will always complain, yet will never upgrade or pay for your product. He does not have a problem with your price but the mere fact that you are trying to sell something. Devs are like that. Just differentiate signal from noise. Listen to your target audience not random internet comments
- sajomes 2mo agoThank you, I think I've seen that from reviews for every paid app I've come across - still, happy to take feedback!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- cush 2mo agoNo way. Subscriptions make sense for services. This is just a regular app.
- anigbrowl 2mo agoWrong. I would definitely pay for this and was interested in it precisely because I just bought n iPhone. I spend $500-1000/year on software. But if there's a free tier I want to try out normal use patterns over the course of a week or a month, and I prefer one-time payments or token purchases to subscriptions. I do the latter only for my IDEs, and still don't like it that much. My objection was to the free tier only allowing one to export 3 images a month. That seems bizarre to me, since in course of trying something for the first time you might make 5, 10, or 20 images in an hour. If I'm running into a monthly limit in the first few minutes of using a tool, my immediate reaction is that it's something I can live without.
- sajomes 2mo agoNothing in the app is gated from day 1, you get 14 days of unlimited use before the choice of free vs paid is even presented, with no need to sign up for an official "free trial", so you have a good amount of time to make your mind up. I am also considering a lifetime unlock option.
- ajkjk 2mo agoMy suggestion is be generous and make a bit less money as the cost of making the world a kinder and more pleasant place. There's no rule that says you have to play ruthless capitalist.
- groundzeros2015 2mo agoWe’re talking about an optional phone app.
- ajkjk 2mo agoand everyone is suggested milking it for every dollar. it's gross. this attitude is why so many things suck.
- groundzeros2015 2mo agoI would select products and services which are aligned with your values rather than moralizing.
- ajkjk 2mo agoI don't care what you suggest. If a person asks what they should do I'm gonna give them what I think is the most moral answer.
- groundzeros2015 2mo agoIt’s immoral not to get a free phone photos app? Come on bro. You’re moralizing, not dealing with wrongdoing or mistreatment.
- ajkjk 2mo agoThat's not what I said. I said: note that you are not obligated to maximize profit and you can give away more features for free and that it generally makes the world a kinder place to do so. The point being that they have a choice. Contrary to what people are saying they are supposed to do, charge as much as possible, they can still choose to do something else. This is of course the normal mindset everywhere else, but HN seems to forget about it.
- vcanales 2mo agoI think the less frowned upon way to charge is to just do it once. If the Apple store supports this, free trial + one time payment sounds like a good way. Don't optimize for freeloaders, as someone else said. If the app relies only on iPhone hardware and/or is not a live service, an account/subscription should not be required. Even non-devs might justifiably ask "why do I need a subscription for a camera app".
- spockz 2mo agoHalide asks for a subscription. Not entirely sure why yet. Yes, it is more advanced than the normal app. Also slower and I haven’t noticed any changes or improvements in the last two years. Maybe support for new features in newer iPhones.
- ebbi 2mo agoThey just released a major update, but it's not something I would pay a subscription for. I paid the lifetime fee in it's early days, but that doesn't unlock the new updates sadly. I use Analogue for day to day capture, and NoFusion and Moment apps for things I will want to edit later. All with one-time purchase. I don't mind paying for quality apps, but I do have subscription fatigue now.
- LoganDark 2mo agoThere is still a lifetime purchase for the new version, IIRC. I can see it in the App Store IAP section. (Which is so useful! Lets me filter for apps that have a lifetime option at all.)
- cush 2mo agoCharge some number of dollars once. There's no service here, so why would we need a subscription?
- hbn 2mo agoMaintaining an app isn't free. You let it sit stale for a year or 2 and you'll get kicked from the App Store for non-compliance. Not to mention the developer account subscription is $99/year
- cush 2mo agoThis is hardly convincing. A $99/yr fee and a once every 2 years update doesn't warrant a monthly subscription fee from every user. Eg a $9.99 app could cover those costs with a few dozen downloads
- indianmouse 2mo agoMight be. But as an Indie developer and maintaining app is just not the app developer and maintenance. Upgrades and the development requirements around it are costly and needs constant upgrades! I'm not justifying, but trying my best to bring the reality. The time spent on development, hardware costs, licensing costs, design costs etc, are to be factored. If people are working on a full-time job and trying to create something in the free (!!) time (it still needs to be valued for the time and effort!) and they could chose to or not to charge for the app. It's more personal and a general view. IMHO, any and all subscription fees are justified based on the thoughts of the developer and how he values his effort, time and development complexity. Not stating anything about it even if it is not appealing or convincing. It is purely a personal choice and the dynamics of value, usage, benefits, cost and the problem it solves from the buyer's side will also kick into the thought process and decision making. I'm just saying only one side of the story and want to record my thoughts. Peace out!
- cush 2mo agoThese types of costs exist for any business. It’s called overhead, and I done care. Profit doesn’t equal revenue for any business, and it’s the developer’s responsibility to charge enough to cover their costs. If they can’t do that without inventing reasons to impose a monthly charge, again I don’t care. If you want to charge for new features, box it up in v2 and I’ll pay again.
- anigbrowl 2mo agoI don't think there's anything wrong with charging, even if you vibe coded it. You clearly put a lot of effort into the design and concept. As I said in more detail below, on a free tier I expect to be able to at least try it out in a normal way. a monthly limit of exporting 3 pictures (eg to look at on my computer or TV) seems like something a normal person would hit in the first 30 minutes of just exploring what it does. Now, I noticed you run it this way for 14 days, but I gotta say that on first view this was massively outweighed by the 3/month limit. subscription-wise, I just don't like them. If you are doing a ton of server-side processing, I'd rather pay on an as-needed basis. If not, I'd rather just Pay $19.99 (or whatever price you determine to be competitive in the market for photo apps). I see why subscription income would be nice to have for you, but for me it's a financial leaky faucet. In that case, I'd prefer to just go without because the app is a fun thing to have rather than a professional need. It also bothered me that it was described as a 'reasonably priced' subscription. If I don't see a $ sign and a number, I reflexively classify it as a scam even though rationally I know you're just testing the waters. I close or dismiss 10 or 20 things a day after a cursory glance into whether they're worth my time or money: fear of being ripped off (FOBRO) outweighs the fear of missing out (FOMO).
- basisword 2mo agoI wouldn't worry - there are some customers you don't want (and that's fine). Apps require a fair bit of upkeep and I imagine a camera app will need testing/modifying to ensure it works with the camera in every annual phone release. If you want to capture people who don't want a subscription add a lifetime plan 2-3x the annual price. Almost nobody will buy it. People complain about subscriptions but back in the day the number of people that complained when an app with 99¢ and not free was also staggering.