
Ask HN: What is the business model for desktop software in 2019? - msvan
Everybody hates subscriptions, but subscriptions are convenient for businesses that need to continuously maintain their software. SaaS companies use subscriptions and explain it by saying they have servers to run. Desktop software that tries the same gets lambasted, even though the big cost is continuous development and not servers. Nobody wants to use unmaintained desktop software. How do you charge for a desktop application in 2019?
======
mimixco
The lines between desktop/server/mobile are going away. At the end of the day,
the user doesn't know or care where the app runs, only _that_ it runs and is
supported.

The future of desktop software is the same as the future of enterprise hosted
software and open source: It's all about taking care of your customer. If you
focus on providing the bug fixes, documentation, upgrades, customization, and
support that your customers want, it doesn't matter if it runs on the desktop
or elsewhere.

------
PaulHoule
One business that really impresses me is Riot Games (maker of League of
Legends.)

The conventional AAA game involves a long expensive development process and
then you hope the game will be a hit and it pays back. Maybe you make a sequel
and repeat -- if you are real lucky you end up with something like Assassin's
Creed.

LoL, on the other hand, was developed incrementally starting from a mod on
World of Warcraft (thus proving the concept before expensive development.)
They realized that they didn't have a real business based on somebody else's
platform, so they made their own.

Now they are always tweaking the game, adding more champions, getting more
players, etc. The game doesn't get tired any more than live sports gets tired.

LoL is free to play, but not pay to win. (With the caveat that dropping $10 or
$20 on rune pages will really help) However if you play a lot you will get
emotionally attached to the characters and find the skins really appealing.

Someone who wants to collect all champions and skins (I bet they are out
there) could spend a staggering amount of money on the game. If you spent $10
a month on skins (attending to discounts) you could build a great collection
over time at a rate that wouldn't seem painful but would lead to a whopping
$120 month ARPU (like buying 2 AA games.) If you compare the hours of
entertainment to a seeing a movie, watching cable, or a Netflix subscription
that's favorable, but it is a huge amount of money for the game devs.

------
wesammikhail
> Everybody hates subscriptions

There is no evidence that suggests that or even hints at that. You´d be
ecstatic to pay $5 for something that nets you multiple X of that in value.
The issue is, most applications AND sites do not even offer enough value to
justify a measly $5 price tag so they have to rely on other business models in
order to compensate for their lack of product-market fit.

> SaaS companies use subscriptions and explain it by saying they have servers
> to run.

SaaS companies don´t need to explain "it" or justify "it". The user isn´t
paying you so that you can cover your cost. They are paying you because you
are offering them good value in return for that cash. If your costs are
covered or not, the user is mostly indifferent to that as long as he gets what
is promised. If better options are presented to the user that are cheaper or
better (read better product-market fit) then the user will most likely move in
that direction.

> Desktop software that tries the same gets lambasted, even though the big
> cost is continuous development and not servers.

This is mostly a misunderstanding on the part of desktop app developers and I
can say that with authority considering that I have built multiple desktop
software products/companies that have successfully generated great revenue and
exited.

> How do you charge for a desktop application in 2019?

Ask for money in return for your product offering. There is no magic sauce. If
your product is of value people will pay, if it is not, no one will.

That said, if you have a good product developed that you need help figuring
out how to monetize, feel free to reach out to me and I´ll try my best to help
you out (email in profile)

------
thedevindevops
As to what PaulHoule alluded to, the type of software drastically changes the
pricing model.

Business software tends to fall back on a licencing or updates/support pricing
model but the scale of the price is proportional to the scale of the business
problem your software is designed to solve. Alternatively there are models
which depend on mostly-free but with 'Pro' features turned on for subscribers.

