Today, I got a message about Flying Logic v4 that it will switch to annual/monthly subscription.
At the same time, support for v3 will be discontinued in a few months. This could be problematic especially because of the annual new versions of macOS.
Perhaps the annual fee would be affordable, but as more and more programs switch to subscription, the bottom line is that it adds up to a large sum each year.
But what is more serious is that I will lose my work if I stop the subscription.
So far, I've bought programs before, even though I don't necessarily use them all the time.
I guess that will have to change in the future.
Now I have to think hard about investing in a program in any case.
The good thing about it, though, could be that I become more productive and focused in the process.
Let's see.

Bernhard wrote:

So far, I've bought programs before, even though I don't necessarily use
them all the time.
I guess that will have to change in the future.
Now I have to think hard about investing in a program in any case.
The good thing about it, though, could be that I become more productive and focused in the process.

This exactly what's been happening to me. I often bought apps on impulse, even though I ended not using them. Subscription fatigue had been pushing me in the opposite direction : I think long and hard before subscribing to anything today, even if the sub price is supercheap, and quickly replace them if I find a non-sub equivalent ( or one that at least offers a perpetual license option along a subscription option ).

Maybe the good thing as you say is that I've ended up spending less on apps, not more, and owning/using less as well, making me more focused. Less Crimping.

I don’t buy app where I lose access to my data if I do not continue the subscription. I prefer apps where I have access to my data and will co tinge the subscription if there are new features that interest me or I need compatibility with the current OS. I tend to stick to the apps that I know and have to think more prudently if I want to take on the additional cost (monetary, time,mental) of another app/subscription. For those subscription apps I like to look at the cost/year to assess their value.

The subscription pricing for v4 of this app is considerable - $288/yr - compared to the old purchase price which I believe was around $170.

That said, it's a little too soon to worry about v.3 incompatibility with future macOS versions, but you should make plans to export your current work before possible issues arise.

I'm a fan of subscription software, and for the most part developers migrated to this model because the old model of boom-bust with new versions (banking new features to entice upgrades) and having unpredictable cash flows doesn't work well, and subscriptions offer the possibility of predictable revenue and constant upgrades for users, among other reasons. Here's a good overview of the subscription business (and "affliction"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKuQQegNTs

But I've let go a lot of apps that went subscription that I was paying upgrades for but wasn't dependent upon. I'd purchased Noteplan and Noteplan 2, but it just wasn't worth the $72/year for it. (It *could* have been, if I'd dropped my subscriptions to Todoist and Day One, but I'm pretty happy with those apps.)

Although I think Noteplan's price is too high for my casual use, Eduard was transparent about the poor economics of the old model:

Unfortunately, I couldn't make the one-time
payment model work long term. Since 3+ years
I have pushed out updates every 2-3 weeks,
rewrote the whole app, tweaked the marketing
and website, but it changed nothing about the
revenue. So, as the developer, I'm
incentivized to save up all the new features
and sell them with a paid upgrade - as often
as possible (means multiple times a year if I
can) and throw in lots of time into marketing
the upgrades. And I think that's not good for
anyone.

On top of this, the AppStore doesn't natively
support paid upgrades. You need to do
something very complicated (internal license
validation for every feature) or confusing
(uploading multiple version to the AppStore)
to make it work. I like the Sketch model, but
NotePlan is not big enough to survive it
without the AppStore. The Sketch model
doesn't work with the AppStore, because
updates come in without license checks.

So after considering everything, subscription
is the only viable option for long-term
sustainability.

The goal is to make NotePlan a productivity
powerhouse for pro users and $2/month
wouldn't cut it and wouldn't look like a
power user tool.

###

I assume something similar is going on with the developer of Flying Logic.

nirans@gmail.com wrote:

I don’t buy app where I lose access to my data
if I do not continue the subscription.

Do they say that, or does the data just become read-only?

Although the features may not be that of Flying Logic, Vithanco https://vithanco.com/tools/ is a possible replacement if you work on a Mac.
The app is available for a one-time purchase with a free version with up to 20 nodes. The developer is a really nice guy who always tinkers away to make the app better.

Opps ... sorry. I spoke too soon. Vithanco has a one-time purchase for three of the dedicated versions. The version which has all the versions included, the full version, has gone subscription. The freeduim version is the full version with the restriction that is for up to 20 nodes.

Darren McDonald wrote:

Although the features may not be that of Flying Logic, Vithanco
https://vithanco.com/tools/ is a possible replacement if you work on a
Mac.
The app is available for a one-time purchase with a free version with up
to 20 nodes. The developer is a really nice guy who always tinkers away
to make the app better.

I just meant that in generic terms, not for Flying Logic. I prefer apps where I can interact with my data, past the subscription. I get the features that I paid for.

Subscriptions is a hot topic amongst product developers.

Most of my product developer peers have gone subscription. And it makes a lot of sense for web apps, where the vendor has ongoing monthly costs to support each customer in terms of web server costs and there is no obvious 'release' schedule.

Many desktop apps have also gone subscription, which is a bit more contentious. But has obvious attractions for the vendor in terms of steady revenue and often more money in the long term..

I released by first app (PerfectTablePlan) in 2005 as a desktop app (web apps werent much of a thing then). Many people would use it just to plan one event (e.g. just their wedding). So a one-time fee + discounted major upgrades seemed a good fit. Increasingly now it is used by businesses and I could probably make a lot money by charging them a monthly subscription, rather than a one-time cost. But:

-I am wary about changing the licensing model 18 years in

-switching customers from one-time to a sub fairly is tricky and I feel I would lose a lot of goodwill with existing customers

-subscriptions are more of a hassle to administer (e.g. chasing customers whose credit cards have expired)

-I'm not obsessed with squeezing every last penny out of my customers

I followed the same one-time fee + discounted major upgrades model for Hyper Plan.

With Easy Data Transform I tried a subscription model early but got pushback and changed back to one-time fee + discounted major upgrades. Also I felt the simplicity of a low one time fee and published prices fit better with my mission to make date transformation easy and cheap (as opposed to many of my expensive corporate competitors who don't even publish prices). Maybe I caved in too soon? For v2 I am considering offering people the choice of either:

one-time fee + discounted major upgrades

or

a license that expires after 1 year (it then reverts back to a trial and you have to buy another year)

If I do I will probably price it so the yearly fee is 30% or 40% as expensive as the one-time fee.

Andy Brice

Sustainable development is a good thing. I wish subscription software came with panic buttons. If the vendor goes out of business, it would be gracious to open existing customers to perpetual use.

By the way, Easy Data Transform is pretty cool for analysis of accounting system dumps without needing the actual accounting software itself. If you can get a CSV, you will likely have visibility to everything you need.

In the prescient words of Woodward and Bernstein, follow the money.

I own more software than a sane person ought, and over the last 40 years I recall only one case where software stopped working because the developer went out of business -- Circus Ponies Notebook. There are a few other cases where the developer opted not to upgrade to ensure OS compatibility. If a developer put a dead man's switch on the software license validity check, I think I would not buy the software, assuming he/she/they/them/it was on the way out the door anyway.

Amontillado wrote:

Sustainable development is a good thing. I wish subscription software
came with panic buttons. If the vendor goes out of business, it would be
gracious to open existing customers to perpetual use.

I think I miscommunicated. I think subscription software should continue to work in the event there is no company to renew the subscription with.

The opposite of a kill switch.

Paul Korm wrote:

< ... >
If a developer put a dead man's switch on the software
license validity check, I think I would not buy the software, assuming
he/she/they/them/it was on the way out the door anyway.

In the worst case a developer could issue a new version of the software with a permant license before he gets out of business. There was such a case in the past, unfortunately I don't remember the name.

Another way to mitigate the problem of ending a subscription could be a model like JetBrains. They offer every year a "fallback version" that will continue to work without subscription.

Amontillado wrote:

I think I miscommunicated. I think subscription software should continue
to work in the event there is no company to renew the subscription with.

I agree for desktop software.

For web software, there aren't going to keep paying the server bills indefinitely. However they should at least give you a grace period to export all your data.

--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

The end of Circus Ponies Notebook was the most graceless exit by a developer I've witnessed.

Paul Korm wrote:

I own more software than a sane person ought, and over the last 40 years
I recall only one case where software stopped working because the
developer went out of business -- Circus Ponies Notebook. There are a
few other cases where the developer opted not to upgrade to ensure OS
compatibility. If a developer put a dead man's switch on the software
license validity check, I think I would not buy the software, assuming
he/she/they/them/it was on the way out the door anyway.

Amontillado wrote:
Sustainable development is a good thing. I wish subscription software
>came with panic buttons. If the vendor goes out of business, it would
be
>gracious to open existing customers to perpetual use.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

The end of Circus Ponies Notebook was the most graceless exit by a
developer I've witnessed.

I don't know anything about that particular case. What happened?

You should treat your customers fairly, because it is the right thing to do. But even if you are a sociopath, you should treat your customers fairly, but it is business suicide not to. It is weird that a vendor would totally wreck their reputation. People will remember.
--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Circus Ponies NotebooK isn’t the one that turned into the “Together” app"?

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792109

He writes science fiction now too.

Development and support stalled without explanation; support forums filled with spam. Then there was a, possibly intended as humorous (it wasn’t) communication with a cryptic reference to Alphabet. Then the website and all content disappeared. The (many) users didn’t even get the most basic “Sorry it’s come to this but …”

The app kept working for a while, until OS updates stopped it.

I think “graceless” is absolutely spot on.

Andy Brice wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
The end of Circus Ponies Notebook was the most graceless exit by a
>developer I've witnessed.

I don't know anything about that particular case. What happened?

You should treat your customers fairly, because it is the right thing to
do. But even if you are a sociopath, you should treat your customers
fairly, but it is business suicide not to. It is weird that a vendor
would totally wreck their reputation. People will remember.
--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

rafael costacurta wrote:

Circus Ponies NotebooK isn’t the one that turned into the
“Together” app"?

No, IIRC Together was an older Mac app called Keep It Together, which then morphed into Keep It, then got overhauled and renamed Together. Might've gone through more than one developer. But it was being sold over a decade ago.

Different developer.

https://reinventedsoftware.com/about/

I'm pretty sure it's now called Keep It https://reinventedsoftware.com/keepit/

NickG wrote:

Development and support stalled without explanation; support forums
filled with spam. Then there was a, possibly intended as humorous (it
wasn’t) communication with a cryptic reference to Alphabet. Then
the website and all content disappeared. The (many) users didn’t
even get the most basic “Sorry it’s come to this but
…”

Graceless indeed. He certainly burnt his bridges as a vendor.

No worse than many I have seen. Even to closing the forum and website apart from the bits leading to the buy button which usually seemed still to work when everything else has gone.

Stephen, was there an app similar to the Circus Ponies notebook for Windows and/or Mac? It seems to me that there was, but I can't remember its name. Thanks.
- Daly

Andy Brice wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
The end of Circus Ponies Notebook was the most graceless exit by a
>developer I've witnessed.

I don't know anything about that particular case. What happened?

You should treat your customers fairly, because it is the right thing to
do. But even if you are a sociopath, you should treat your customers
fairly, but it is business suicide not to. It is weird that a vendor
would totally wreck their reputation. People will remember.
--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

There was (and still is) an app called NoteTaker that was contemporaneous with Circus Ponies. I'm not sure which came first, but NoteTaker 4 is still around on macOS.

https://www.aquaminds.com

Then there's Growly Notes, which was also contemporaneous to Circus Ponies and like it and NoteTaker uses a notebook metaphor.

https://growlybird.com/notes/



Daly de Gagne wrote:

was there an app similar to the Circus Ponies notebook for
Windows and/or Mac?