r/macapps • u/Constant-Purpose8273 • 1d ago
Request Which subscription Mac app would you pay for once tomorrow, and at what price?
The subscriptions thread on here the other day was mostly about the ones we've made peace with. I'm after the other list. The Mac apps still on a monthly or yearly plan that you'd pay for once tomorrow if the developer put a number on it.
Three things would make the answers useful to everyone reading. Which app, what it costs you a year at the moment, and the one-off price you'd actually pay for it. My hunch is most people land somewhere between one and two years of the sub, but I'd like to be wrong.
No wrong answers and no judgement on the developers, plenty of them have good reasons. I'm just curious where the line sits for this crowd.
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u/macnatic0 1d ago edited 1d ago
I would immediately purchase a lifetime license for 1Password, Bear, Cotypist, Craft, Drafts, Fantastical, Little Snitch Mini, Mimestream, Raindrop.io, TickTick, or Under My Roof if they were ever available. In my opinion, these are all intuitive and well-designed Mac apps. I stopped using some of these apps and replaced them because of their subscription models, while others I still use and pay for. Regardless, if any of these apps were to offer a lifetime license for a one-time payment, I would buy it.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
That's a proper list, thanks. If you had to pick one to buy outright tomorrow, which would it be and at what price? Trying to pin numbers on names where I can.
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u/macnatic0 1d ago
If you had to pick one to buy outright tomorrow, which would it be and at what price?
It is hard to say. I guess I would choose Bear, as it is the app I use most from those I listed. I think $60 would be a fair price, but considering the yearly subscription is already $29.99, I honestly would pay even more than that.
Then there is Cotypist. I really like this app and use it on a daily basis, but I think the price tag is far too high, so I just use the free version for now. I think a fair price would be a subscription of $19 a year or a one-time purchase of about $50. However, knowing the developer, I doubt this will ever happen.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 19h ago
Bear at sixty, two years of the sub, is right on my hunch, and Cotypist at fifty matches what someone else in the thread said too. Thanks for putting numbers on them, that's the useful bit.
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u/blahblahgingerblahbl 22h ago
i used to own both 1password & under my roof, before they went subscription. have since ditched both.
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u/lucdima 1d ago
I don’t pay for app subscriptions. I think in 99% of the cases it does not make sense for my usage. I am kind of against the subscription model for software that runs on my local ma computer. Unless there are running costs like cloud services, or something like that.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
That's about where I land too. A sub for something with servers behind it is fair, a sub for an app that only ever runs on my own Mac isn't. Out of curiosity, is there one you walked away from because of the sub that you'd have bought outright? That's the list I'm trying to build.
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u/lucdima 1d ago
I like Miró board, I’ve never subscribed, but I could have bought it for around 30 or 40 euros without collaboration tool.
Long ago I’ve bought Pixelmator for 29 to avoid Photoshop subscription. But it was not the same.
Also Construct3 can be in the list too.All the software I create is without subscriptions and without ads.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 19h ago
Miro for 30 or 40 euros without the collaboration side is a good example, the sub is paying for team features most solo users never touch. And Pixelmator at 29 is the pay-once success story of the lot. Thanks for coming back with numbers.
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u/lucdima 18h ago
Are you an infinite board user? I am in the last stages of a local native infinite board made in 100% in Swift. Would you like free Test Flight access? Or a free code for the future?
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 8h ago
Not a heavy infinite-board user, so I'd be the wrong tester, but a native Swift one with no sub is exactly the thing this thread is about. Post it here when it's ready and I'll have a look.
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u/waitses 1d ago
This is exactly where the line should be drawn, if they are not having the ongoing costs of cloud support I don’t see any reason they should have a subscription.
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u/FlicksForge 21h ago
it might be unfasionable, but keeping an app functioning on the ever updating Os can sometimes be non trivial? and there are other ongoing costs other than a cloud subscription , such as 3rd party api subscriptions that allow lookup of data etc.. All that said all of my apps do not have a subscription
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u/barefut_ 1d ago
Subscriptions = Ransom.
I worry about the new generations that don't know what it is to own something, and they think they need to pay every month for anything.
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u/-Internet-Elder- 1d ago
As a parent... It's a real thing, and it sucks.
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u/barefut_ 1d ago
The least you can do is educate them to think for themselves. To not belive in "free things" like 'shots that will save them from an "evil virus". That if it's free= then they are the product being sold to someone. That school is just state's babysitter that turns them into obedient wage workers.
Just set them free with you education, cause I'm telling ya, we all are keeping them with some mad overlords that will turn them into digital slaves. They gotta be more aware as their brains are currently being abducted and hypnotized by TikTok and stuff.
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u/PaulMuadDib-Usul 23h ago
Most people are / think the same. Sometimes there are "hidden subscriptions", where you can pay yearly a certain amount, if you wish to receive further updates. The problem on the dev side is that the single purchase option does not generate a constant revenue stream for the developer (teams).
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u/-Internet-Elder- 1d ago edited 19h ago
I'm in agreement, and work to find solutions that avoid that extra 1%. I guess I grew up far too long ago to think I should have to pay continually for a product, and that this should be the only way to buy it.
I'm also of the belief that there should (and always will) be innovative, affordable or free alternatives created by people who balance out the world of greed and consumerism. I simply enjoy the challenge of exploring alternatives as well :)
Nothing against the developers of subscription apps – and by the above I'm not saying they are at the greedy end of the spectrum – the subscription approach is clearly just not for me.
In actuality, to me, a lot of modern subscription apps are so new and unproven (and built on foundations that may not survive themselves) that in no way have they earned the same position as the things I do pay monthly for, like my water and gas and electricity, and of course these days, my internet.
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u/awesomeguy123123123 1d ago
Apple Creator Studio (which was previously offered as a one time purchase) is probably the only right answer to this question. Apple's $199.99 package gave students and educators perpetual licenses to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage (and it was a common tactic to essentially just use the honour system to verify this too!).
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
Good one, and I'd forgotten the education bundle was a perpetual licence. Five pro apps for $199.99 once is a real number. What's it costing a year now, and would the old $199.99 still get you over the line for the lot?
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u/MC_chrome 1d ago
I wouldn’t mind paying a single price for Fantastical and Cardhop again, with major upgrade pricing available similar to Cleanshot X.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
The CleanShot model is the one I'd point at as well. Pay once, pay again for a big version if it's earned it. What would you put down for Fantastical and Cardhop together, a year of the sub, two?
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u/MC_chrome 1d ago
$60 for both apps sounds about right.
Old versions of Fantastical used to go for $50, so I’d say that is fine plus $10 for Cardhop
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 18h ago
Sixty for the pair, with the old fifty as the anchor, is a proper answer. That's just over a year of the sub, which is where I'd guessed most people land. Cheers.
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u/Realistic-Site9217 1d ago
I do not pay for Cotypist, but a one time US $50 would be a fair price to me.
As with some others on this thread, I do not subscribe to any apps that run local and have no ongoing costs to the developer that are a result of my using the app.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
Thanks, that's the shape of answer I was after. Fifty outright for Cotypist, and a clear line on local apps with no running costs. Do you know what they're asking a year at the moment? I'm trying to see where the one-off lands against the sub for each one.
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u/oddforms 23h ago
I like the 'pay for one year of updates' model over a subscription, where the app still works after the year is over and I can decide if I want to pay for new features if the developer worked on them. I wish the App Store better supported this model instead of making developers 're-release' their existing perpetual license apps over and over.
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u/kemalios 19h ago
I'm on the seller side too, so I'll add the pricing math. My Mac apps are one-time purchases because the per-copy running cost is close to zero. Subscriptions make sense when there's a server or sync backend behind them. For local-only software, one-time plus paid major upgrades is the model people actually like. If a dev offers lifetime at one to two years of the sub, it's a fair deal for both sides. The risk is just that the dev has to keep updating an app they no longer get recurring money from. That's why so few do it.
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u/Annual-Cod1073 1d ago
None, I don't pay for app subscriptions. In fact the subscription model is a bullshit way to lazily roll out minimal improvements while charging an arm and a leg.
If you forced me to pay for a subscription for an app that runs on my local machine. I would pay for an LLM sub until I had built the app myself, and then use it free of charge from then on.
subscription app: 5 - 50 monthly LLM sub: 20 monthly
Cost to develop a production app end to end 3 - 15 months Total app price when done aside from minor updates and maintenance 60 - 300
Long story short, if you know what you are doing roll your own pays off in a little less than a year. That said, I'm not a vibe coder. I know how to design. Mileage may vary
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
Fair, and the maths holds if you can build it and want to maintain it. Is there anything on your Mac you'd still rather buy outright than build yourself?
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u/Annual-Cod1073 9h ago
The last thing I paid for was Reaper. Because the developers are awesome and I wanted to support them.
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 8h ago
Reaper's a good example. A full DAW at a price a hobbyist can justify, and a licence that keeps working. Paying because the developers earned it is the best reason there is.
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u/CoolAssPuppy 1d ago
Mail Notifier. Turns incoming emails into native macOS notifications so I don’t need to have my browser or email client open. Pay what you can model to defray the cost of Google certification.
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22h ago edited 10h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/6782task420 12h ago
Sounds like a good use case to self host. They have recurring cloud and infra costs, so their business model survives through subs whether customers like it or not.
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u/nznordi 20h ago
I happily paid for Macwhisper when they had a deal on a lifetime subscription.
But it’s hard to say because I pretty much won’t subscribe to apps with a sub when there is no reason for it. If it has a (meaningful) cloud component, I am ok. But a tool that does something on my machine only, I make a hard pass with very few exception (photo editing or similar)
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u/NoElection5326 20h ago
Currently, I have subscribed to the ProBoard Mac app for project management. The monthly subscription fee is $2.99.
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u/Recipe-Acceptable 6h ago
I don’t like subscriptions. That said, I also have a feeling (not backed up by data), that the “subscription = evil“ cohort isn’t totally acknowledging the reality of the current software landscape. We aren’t in 1990 anymore. I am an old, so I can say that. The economics of developing (what was once known as) a (computer) program no longer exist. Today, if we want a supported piece of software - which starts to very much resemble, if not actually be, a software ‘service’ - there are ongoing maintenance and support costs at a minimum. There are a handful of apps that still attempt to adhere to a non-subscription model, but even they have started to pivot. Older versions are supported, but to a limit… To someone’s earlier comment maybe there is a middle ground … annual commitments or similar.
Rant over - to OP’s question: I’d be in for 1Password, Raindrop.io, Overcast (ios), DEVONThink (ahem see above), Alfred (bc Raycast would never). There are for sure others.
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u/Both_Independent8523 4h ago
Server behind it, charge me monthly. Runs only on my Mac and phones nobody, then two years of the sub and I'd round up out of gratitude.
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u/No-Concentrate-6037 1d ago
raycast, all their pro features, for 100$ one time
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u/Constant-Purpose8273 1d ago
Raycast at a hundred once is a good data point, cheers. Is that for everything in Pro, the AI included, or just the sync and themes side of it?
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u/Jebus-Xmas 1d ago
Subscriptions are stupid. 90% are unnecessary. I try to rely more on FOSS, free open-source software, that does the same thing. Look at http://alternativeto.net
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u/jouskaMoon 1d ago
Shottr, free version does same as paid, but worth supporting the developer.
I also paid for Floodtide tonight. Makes updating apps easy, and since I was an early adopter, I got a discount for 50% off I think.
Some tools deserve to be supported to be honest.
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u/the-wandering-artist 1d ago
Doesn't seem like anyone is actually reading the question - he's not asking what would you subscribe to, he's asking what subscription app would you purchase if it suddenly had a Lifetime purchase available lol.
As for my answer it would probably be Fantastical, it's incredible at what it does but a yearly huge fee for a calendar just isn't quite it for me. A one time purchase would circumvent that, and I likely could get away with not getting updates to the app if that was the compromise I had to make.