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Apps that shouldn't be Subscriptions (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 11 months ago by kirk782@discuss.tchncs.de to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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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.

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[-] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Beside mentions of Jetbrains license model, I would like to mention the license model of a note taking app called Agenda[1].

It has a subscription wherein the customer retains the software and all of its functionality even after the subscription expires. One may resume the subscription down the line if they see a new feature worth having.

The creators of the app liken it to a magazine subscription wherein the customer retains the magazines even after the subscription lapses.

From my own experience of using it, I purchased the license for a year back in 2021 and let it lapse as I did not find the any of the new features to be worthwhile. I still keep an eye on their updates as it is my daily driver.

[1] https://agenda.community/t/get-all-features/21

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 7 points 11 months ago

I second that this kind of licence seems very reasonable.

I find subscription licences to be frustrating but kind of reasonable, because those let the developers to focus on improving the product rather than making stuff broken on purpose to make the user pay for an upgrade. But that's really controversial even in my own mind, don't know if there's a good solution but "magazine subscription" licence looks really good