Apps that shouldn't be Subscriptions

What is the most useless app that you have seen being given as a subscription?

For me, I tried a ‘minimalist’ launcher app for Android that had a 7 day trial or something and they had a yearly subscription based model for it. I was aghast. I would literally expect the app to blow my mind and do everything one can assume to go that way. In a world, where Nova Launcher (Yes, I know it has been acquired by Branch folks but it still is a sturdy one) or Niagara exist plus many alternatives including minimalist ones on F Droid, the dev must be releasing revolutionary stuff to factor in a subscription service.

Second, is a controversial choice, since it’s free tier is quite good and people like it so much. But, Pocketcasts. I checked it’s yearly price the other day, and boy, in my country, I can subscribe to Google Play Pass, YouTube Premium and Spotify and still have money left before I hit the ceiling what Pocketcasts is asking for paid upgrade.

Also, what are your views on one time purchase vs subscriptions? Personally, I find it much easier to purchase, if it’s good enough even if it was piratable, something if it is a one time purchase rather than repetitive.

spyd4r,

Geocaching. Like come on.

fender_symphonic584,

$30/yr? $2.50 a month? A hobby that gets you outdoors, exploring nature, exploring cities, learning the history and culture of an area, getting you to spend time with your kids in those same spaces if that’s applicable to you isn’t worth that?

spyd4r,

$10 a month or $50 a year in Canada. Aren’t all the caches community created? Where does the $50 a year go?

fender_symphonic584,

Well, Canadian costs change the equation, even for me. $10/month is significant compared to $2.50. Caches are community created. But no one would known they were there unless someone published the information. So the money goes to a team of developers working to maintain the app and website, and the API they share with other 3rd parties. They have an office in Seattle as well. They have office staff and a foyer that is maintained for geocachers to visit and earn the find of Geocaching HQ.

slightperil,

I do miss it, that changed very much killed my koy for the past time. The alternatives were never as good.

somegadgetguy,

Wow yeah. I LOVED hiking around looking for caches.

thomasloven,

Awww I had forgotten about that. Now I’m sad.

thesmokingman,

In all fairness to Pocket Casts, the yearly cost in the US is $40, which is about the monthly cost of the three things you mentioned together. If your country gives you yearly Google Play Pass, YouTube Premium, and Spotify Premium for less than $40 US, that’s a fucking steal.

In all fuck you to Pocket Casts, Basic App functionality like folders shouldn’t be behind a subscription. I can understand a one-time unlock fee for app functionality or ongoing subscription costs to cover cloud storage and sync capabilities. I cannot fucking understand why folders would cost me $40 US a year.

kirk782,
@kirk782@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Apparently it used to be one time payment for Pocketcasts back in the day. They then switched to subscription model. The old users were grandfathered in into the new version, so from today’s point of view, they got a steal deal.

Rizoid,

I was one of those old purchasers. There was a huge uproar on the subreddit back in the day cause they said everyone who purchased the app before the subscription model would only get like 1 or 2 years of subscription access instead of lifetime. People got so pissed they changed it to lifetime.

jpeps,

Me too! Thanks for the info. I was never a part of that community and I have to admit I’ve been wondering when someone was going to realise my 3 year membership should’ve finished

Kichae, (edited )

And yet it still has a bunch of ads for PC+ littered throughout it. Despite being grandfathered in, I abandoned it earlier this year for Podcast Republic, which hasn't spammed me or locked me out of any features I've tried to play with despite not having paid them anything.

Rizoid,

I myself switched to Audiobookshelf. I initially set it up for my wife to have her audio books while traveling but I found it does podcasts and normal epub books really well also.

Sproux,

The most useless I’ve ever seen was wallpaper packs for roku for $10/month

RatzChatsubo,

Is that why every TV has that god awful purple background photo?

discusseded,

Microsoft Solitaire on Android. The ads were driving me nuts so I went to pay for the app. If I recall they wanted almost 10 bucks a month for that shit. Deleted, forgotten, until now.

mindbleach,

Products aren’t services.

So much bullshit has come from pretending otherwise.

janguv,

But loans are temporal. That’s all that is happening – you’re renting out software (akin to digital library borrowing), in some sense, not buying a product.

The problem is how to do it otherwise and maintain enough income to ensure continued active development for future updates.

I don’t have a solution to it, and subscriptions aren’t ideal, but that’s the problem at least.

stardust,

Only subscriptions that make sense to me a cloud based ones that can’t function at all without access to the internet due to not being able to retrieve content needed to function. Examples that come to mind are netflix and spotify, since even though you can download content to watch or hear offline you need internet to retrieve new content. Means there are hosting costs, and I’m basically paying to not host all that content myself.

But, anything else doesn’t make sense to me. If app wants to charge again then they can do another version release, and let people keep using the old version if they want while stopping updates for it. I don’t do subscriptions.

Drewski,

Filebot, I like and use the app but it shouldn't be a subscription. You can buy a lifetime license for $48 but it's too expensive for what it is.

LoganNineFingers,

I’m with you here. I figure I’ll buy the year when I need it. I did the math and figured the lifetime was about 10 years worth. I figured if I end up paying for 10 years worth eventually, they’ve earned it. Likely something free will come out and I won’t need it anymore.

I’ve mostly stopped using it because I have had no more issues with plex recognizing files now.

Cyberflunk,

Filebot is wildly useful. U cray

RobotToaster,

All of them

sub_,

Subscription only makes sense if there’s an ongoing service, e.g. processing in the cloud, cloud data storage, etc.

Apps that don’t need to be subscription:

  • Camera apps like Halide or Filmic Pro, wtf
  • Any todo / habit apps, the ‘cloud’ part is usually iCloud / Google Drive
  • Notetaking apps, e.g. GoodNotes, wtf
  • Duolingo, mainly because the contents of some lessons are outdated (missing audio, etc).
dylanmorgan,

I would say if you accept subscription services as justifiable, Duolingo is justified. What you’re raising is poor performance, not a reason for it to be purchase only.

Of course, I would be in favor of “the app is free, pay a set price for a language pack” rather than a subscription for premium.

daniyyel,

I agree that a lot of subscriptions are really overpriced, but updates to an app are also a sort-of service. Pixelmator explained it quite well when their app switched to a subscription model, mentioning some fair (I think) pros and cons of the succession model, both from the perspective of users and developers.

pixelmator.com/…/why-pixelmator-photo-is-switchin…

ilinamorato,

Pocket Casts has a server component that makes sense you have to pay for, and for the most part the only things you don’t get with the free version are the server stuff and a little bit of cosmetic stuff. $40/year for 20GB is a little steep, but the fact that they charge for it doesn’t bother me.

With the exception of the folders; that doesn’t make sense to me being a Plus-only thing.

All that being said, I bought the app before it went free, so I am grandfathered in to a lifetime Plus plan; but if that hadn’t been the case I would not be paying for a subscription today.

archomrade,

I bought the app before it went free, so I am grandfathered in to a lifetime Plus plan; but if that hadn’t been the case I would not be paying for a subscription today.

Same, I don’t think I’d be paying for it otherwise

Kit,

Duolingo. Why can’t I just pay $100 or whatever one time? Languages don’t change to the extent that it needs to be a subscription.

thoughts3rased,

They do update the learning material over time as recommendations for teaching the languages changes, plus they do have server costs to keep in mind.

yamanii,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, the japanese course had a total reboot, I think I lost some progress because of it? It’s been years so I don’t remember exactly.

timbuck2themoon,

Yeah and every update seems worse than the last.

They don’t let you at all skip around so I’d never pay. It only gets worse with them.

Remotedeck,

If you pretend your a teacher and create a class then you get infinite hearts for free.

kratoz29,
@kratoz29@lemm.ee avatar

Well, there are too many to name, but one that called my attention recently was Battery Guru… I thought you could buy the app, but it seems that it has only a subscription model? Yeah I’d rather buy it once than having to pay each day, month or year.

dasgoat,

Would you rather drain your battery or your bank account

kratoz29,
@kratoz29@lemm.ee avatar

I chose none 😆

There is BetterBatteryStats and Franco Kernel Manager, AccuBattery and GSam Battery Monitor to track the battery, most tools should exist too.

Anyway, the free version of Battery Guru doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

kirk782,
@kirk782@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Lol, I was actually browsing Mobilism yesterday and came across a modded version of this app, I think. I didn’t install it though. I wonder if I should that a try.

kratoz29,
@kratoz29@lemm.ee avatar

I’d say you are going to be fine with the free app, at least I don’t see ads as I have AdAway always on lol.

otter,

If the app needs a server component, a small subscription is justified. If it doesn’t, then a subscription isn’t justified.

If the subscription is optional, and it gets more frequent updates & support, that might be ok too as long as you can choose to just keep the product as is (and the product isn’t riddled with bugs)

RatzChatsubo, (edited )

I’m a big fan of the way Plex does it. I paid like 100 dollars a decade ago and all my apps stay up to date forever

What’s great about it is that it’s optional and not forced on you. I’m a Plexamp power user so it makes sense to me with my expansive music collection

WashedOver, (edited )
@WashedOver@lemmy.ca avatar

This seems to be the model I’ve witnessed with many apps over the years. Free at first to get traction and users, then ads, then pay one time fee to get rid of ads, then subscription to keep using the app.

Then there are those that wouldn’t even pay a single fee and get upset at the thought as everything should be free.

The part that is upsetting is the contributions the early community made is monetized when they were they there for the benefit of the community.

I do see there are costs to maintaining and updating these apps so I can understand a need to keep revenue flowing for these future costs. The one time payment is a hell of a deal for years with updates to accommodate the revisions needed for each system update let alone functionality improvements.

In the old days we would buy software for our PC and that was it. There wasn’t really any updates or further support for newer versions of Windows. The software would become very insecure or just stop functioning altogether with enough changes to windows.

It’s hard to find the right balance. I know I only want to pay once, or heck never, but I want these upgrades and updates too.

PrincessEli,

It’s hard to find the right balance. I know I only want to pay once, or heck never, but I want these upgrades and updates too.

Personally, I’d love a “buy this version” option, where you can just pay once, and get a version that doesn’t recieve updates, and I could then choose to subscribe to the “live” version from there.

Of course, this would just blow back in company’s faces when it comes to the “average” user, who would be a total fucking idiot and harass support about not getting updates they didn’t pay for

tartan,

There’s actually quite a lot of software that monetises similarly to what you’re proposing. DxO and Ableton, just off the top of my head. Millions of happy users between those 2.

You get minor version updates for “free” (included in the one-time purchase). Upgrades to the next major version are discounted. Don’t need the features in the next major version? Stick with what you have for however long it works for you.

It’s by far my favourite model because it allows the developers to get paid, whilst not squeezing my neck. Everyone’s happy.

PrincessEli,

I generally have little need for paid software since I don’t (or more accurately, can’t) do any work at home, so it figures I wasn’t aware of what’s out there lol. The closest thing I use is cracked office. Because yeah, that payment type sounds pretty good, so long as releases are priced reasonably.

I figure a big difficulty is deciding on “major releases” vs rolling incremental development. If they’re going to sell major releases, they actually need to be able to consistently make pretty sizable upgrades, and not just “streamlined a couple menus, big fixes” type updates.

tartan,

they actually need to be able to consistently make pretty sizeable upgrades

Precisely! It keeps them honest. Furthermore, it forces closing the feedback loop with users. Developers need to understand what features users want most, and what bugs or usability issues need to be prioritised. Not listening to feedback means no future revenue, simple as that.

The subscription model does none of that. It’s just a greedy money-grab.

PrincessEli,

I disagree that major version updates equates to keeping them honest. Not everything needs major overhauls every few years. You can have a perfectly closed feedback loop, and still fail to sell people on buying 5.0.0 when 4.7.12 is still good enough, and recieved the little things that matter.

tartan,

You fail to sell when you fail to timely implement desirable features. And you fail to prioritise properly when you disregard or misinterpret feedback.

None of this is better mitigated by subscription models.

PrincessEli,

Are you just talking to hear yourself speak?

Thorned_Rose,
@Thorned_Rose@kbin.social avatar

Eshittification :(

Pirasp,

I have a photography program, that is a “buy once” model, but if you bought it, you can get a subscription for updates on-top. Once you unsubscribe the updates stop, but aren’t retracted. I find that to be a very reasonable solution.

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