In your example, you've just paid for 3 unnecessary months of use between when you "decided it wasn't for you" and "changed your mind." In a subscription model, you'd just resubscribe.
I can understand your unease given how subscriptions have been abused by unscrupulous parties in the past, but there's much less friction in cancellation these days. Ultimately I'm just finding it hard to understand why you'd deliberately create a fixed cost for yourself. I'd rather have the ability to consume a product when I need, and pay for that and no more.
I'd rather have a fixed cost than a continuing cost. Why is it better to be paying for a tool every month rather than to own the tool, outright? I'm not seeing the argument for having to keep paying for a tool that you'd be using, if you choose to use it?
If your argument is that the subscription model allows uncertain developers to get involved, I would argue that tools like this should be purchased by those who are certain they are going to use them. Otherwise, the only benefit is to the tool-maker - and that's the case here. The subscription model only really benefits the producer of the product - not the user, who is ultimately only able to keep using the tool as long as they are paying for it, on a regular basis. Meh. No thanks!
Hi, another dev here. Thanks for sharing your views, I can see that subscription is a big pain point for you and I understand your frustration. There is always a trade-off when choosing between a subscription model versus a fixed price model and when looking at where we wanted to take the app, subscription made more sense to us. Thanks for taking the time to give the free trial a go despite your reservations. If you like it, we're happy, if not, we appreciate you taking the time to give it an evaluation and welcome any feedback you may have :)
My feedback: your subscription model has completely soured me to your product.
I get that you have your reasons for choosing the economic position to support your own continued developments; I think you're passing the problem on to your customers though, and that just makes me think less of your effort as a whole.
I'll enjoy checking PencilCase out, but I definitely won't be purchasing it.
I can understand your unease given how subscriptions have been abused by unscrupulous parties in the past, but there's much less friction in cancellation these days. Ultimately I'm just finding it hard to understand why you'd deliberately create a fixed cost for yourself. I'd rather have the ability to consume a product when I need, and pay for that and no more.