Ask HN: How to sell SaaS without selling subs?
We don’t like subscriptions. Nobody likes subscriptions.
Subscriptions caused Adobe’s once-loyal user base to turn on and hate their product.
Is it possible for a SaaS to sell their product without monthly subscriptions — How?
Why don’t you like subscriptions?
Previously, you’d buy a software licence for $X00 or $X,000 and after a year or two you’d either stop receiving security/feature updates or you’d have to spend another $X00 or $X,000 all over again. You’d also only be able to use the software on one machine - period.
The move to subscriptions means that cost is spread further over time.
Subscriptions aren’t necessarily bad - if your software provides a monthly service, like cloud storage or access across multiple devices, then it’s a reasonable pricing model.
Likewise, if you are airing continual features, then users are getting the benefit of constant updates, then again subscriptions are reasonable.
If you really want to go down a single cost route, you aren’t selling a SaaS. It’s just software, and it’s probably not a web app.
If you really want to go this way, you could accept payment for an annual licence, the Oscar future releases, so a user would have to get another year “upgrade” to get more features. But this is probably more complex and less desirable than a simple subscription.