Subscription-based services

[mrwillhorlen]

I just don't get it. Why would you charge a fixed amount repeatedly each time and expect people to willingly pay? Why would i want to spend money just so i could (lEgALly) have their convenience? This is just ridiculous, i don't want to support companies, i just wanna use their products, that's all.

[GaryStu]

- DRM
Some programs are just really hard to crack. As a digital artist, I'm very familiar with how far behind programs from Autodesk and Adobe are, in terms of pirated versions VS legal versions.

- Convivence.
pirated programs also don't automatically install updates.

- Executables.
.EXE files are the most dangerous kind of program to pirate, because they could be anything. Some will even explicitly ask you to take down your virus scanner or firewall, and this could be for benign reasons or it could really be a sneaky virus trying to trick you. they can really mess up your computer if you don't know the warning signs (dont @ me if you've never accidently given your computer a virus from a pirated exe though; its a rite of passage).

- Subscription web apps.
You can't really pirate a web app. You must find a substitution. Torrenting movies instead of using Netflix IS making a substitution, and you need to miss out on Netflix features like their algorithm or something I guess.

All together, there's a reason I made a substitution and use Blender, instead of trying to steal Maya.

- Needed for work.
If a program is needed for industry, you must use it. Freelancers have some freedom to use substitutions, but hired employees can't get away with that. This is all industries where computer usage is required. I've been using art programs as examples, but office workers will need to use the industry standard word processor (which i'm pretty sure is Microsoft Office). Most all computer industries are like this. On top of that, if you're a worker, you can get:

- Tax write-offs.
If a program is needed for work, you can usually have somebody else pay for it somehow. Work, or the government, usually. This can also be for freelancers - depends on where you live, but tax write-offs tend to be quite generous. Youtubers who joke about including an item in a video for a tax write-off are only joking about how absurdly generous tax write-offs can be - as long as their joke isn't literal and the item serves any other purpose other than just a joke about tax write-offs, they can get a tax write-off on it.

Man thats a lot of words for me to say yeah OP i'm with you. no subscription services they suck!!! ...Except my web hosting.

[irkeneon]

I honestly didn't realize until talking to people that having a lot of subscription based services especially for streaming services is normal since I've been pirating things my entire life and pirating cartoons and TV shows is incredibly easy once you find a few good websites for it. I can get it though for people who don't have a PC and need to watch that sort of stuff on their TV with a Roku or something, but at the same time my country at least is having a cost of living crisis and this might be the time to look for alternatives.

Tools like art programs moving more to a subscription model also is a huge problem for people who need those tools. I can understand why people might need or prefer them for things like Adobe being the industry standard or needing up to date features of a program, but subscription programs create a larger barrier for entry and can waste a lot of money if you experience artist block for a couple months of the year.

I can understand it for subscriptions where you get something each month like a mailing subscription, newsletter, etc, but for everything else I just prefer the one time payment and it's yours.

[windigo]

Honestly I don't get it either in most cases.

I genuinely love programs that simply ask for donations or just apps that have a 'premium' version but it doesn't make that much of a difference for an average user who doesn't need anything fancy-schmancy (neocities is a great example bc you can host an entire site for free and other things like a custom domain or having to upload a certain file type is not really important to a dude who simply wants to make a site).

I get why some services would be in need of a monthly/yearly payment. Hosting costs are a pain in the ass, depending of how complex something can be (an API/a complex site like a site that hosts a program or a site for uploading things for example), it can cost around $20-50. Aside from the financial costs there is also the issue of maintaining such a project, but that depends on how complex it is because some people just do it for the sake of fun and it works out well.
Some might even get sponsors but most of them lack the recognition they deserve.
Now these kinds of projects usually ask the user for around $1-5 per month which is pretty understandable. But usually donations or one-time payments should keep them afloat.

I think conglomerates abuse this model because they're allowed to do so. They're the pinnacle of X industry from the view of your average user. Even if many disagree with such practices, the whole ordeal might be forgotten after a few days like how 90% of internet arguments end up. The company gets to implement that practice and the user will have to adapt. For a company who uses X software it shouldn't be a problem since the software gets "constant support".

The ironic thing is that there are hundreds of projects that do almost the same things as these big subscription-funded software. Photopea is basically Photoshop but online. GIMP or even Paint.net can be used as a replacement for editing basic images. Krita/SAI paint/Fire Alpaca are great for drawing. Opentoonz is another alternative for 2D animation programs.
And these are just a few examples that I could name off of my head, I'm sure that there are other such awesome programs many other things.

I also noticed many people using old versions of programs (a thing which subscription-based apps doesn't offer or at least it doesn't offer all of them) because they got so used of them in that form. As long as that program does its job reliably and that person is pleased with it, it really shouldn't be an issue to use older versions of programs.
I genuinely don't think that "constant updates" makes a program better than its precedent version, unless it's some sort of security patch.

TL;DR It's great for small/underrated projects since it helps with basic costs but corporations have started abusing it. There are free and great alternatives for corporation software.

[yequari]

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[OppositeKeith]

the Subscription service model is abused yes but it certainly has its benefits and absolutely has its place in businesses big or small alike. Piracy, while its here to stay and will never die my opinion, its not stable and shifts a lot with only a few websites still hanging on that do piracy professionally than most that will just die off or get trashed on in just a few months, its not fullproof and unless you know where to look and how to watch yourself, you gonna wreck yourself.