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Another one goes subscription
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Posted by Darren McDonald
Aug 23, 2023 at 06:58 AM
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.
Posted by Darren McDonald
Aug 23, 2023 at 07:23 AM
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.
Posted by nirans@gmail.com
Aug 23, 2023 at 07:22 PM
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.
Posted by Andy Brice
Aug 29, 2023 at 06:20 PM
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
Posted by Amontillado
Aug 30, 2023 at 05:18 PM
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.