For some of these services, I would likely choose to not lock myself into something that is quite expensive per month after the 3 or 6 months provided by the pr

For some of these services, I would likely choose to not lock myself into something that is quite expensive per month after the 3 or 6 months provided by the program. Obviously, if you were gonna use them anyway, it makes sense to get them free. But, with subscription services, I tend to think long and hard before going down that road, if there are one-time cost alternatives. And, it's easy and cheap for subscription services to give away a few months for free; it's a proven marketing model, in fact. That's not to say there's no value here. For people that will use these services and get real value out of them, it's a win-win; the companies providing the services get a new qualified lead who will likely turn to a paying customer in 3 to 12 months, and the developer gets to launch with less capital invested.