[Fede_V]

I wish this was on the GoodNotes/SublimeText model: pay once for a premium version of the app, and then never worry about subscriptions. The moment something requires subscription my threshold for buying it goes up 1000 fold.

[goerz]

I'm usually not too fond of subscriptions either, but I have to say that Muse has the most ingenious subscription model I've ever come across: If you're using it casually, the free version is plenty (Remember that you can always archive stuff by exporting it, and 100 cards will go a long way. Plus, you can stop paying and still have read-access and even limited editing for your existing boards).

If you use it heavily as a daily driver, then the $3.99 or $9.99 should be a drop in the bucket. It scales very naturally between casual use and the paid tiers. Personally, I could probably do with the $3.99, but I'm choosing to pay the $9.99 since I want to support their ongoing research. Their podcast shows the enormous amount of thought they're putting into this, and it shows! Together with Blink (an SSH app with similar focus on UX design) this is by far the most productive iPad app I have.

[wilsonnb3]

Is that how most app subscriptions work? People usually call it “freemium”.

[Arubis]

Especially true for any sort of note taking/reference tool. If I’m on the hook for a subscription to access part of my brain, that is a _problem_.

Edit: granted, Muse looks gorgeous and I don’t mind paying for things. Just echoing subscription fatigue.

[_jal]

Exactly.

I have documents I wrote 30 years ago. Looks like this allows export as PDF, at least, but there is no planet on which I will voluntarily rent access to my own documents.

[rchaud]

Agreed. Subscriptions make sense if it's a "business" app, i.e. something you are using to run your business, e.g. Adobe CC, Office 365.

But this one looks like personal app, with little in the way of corporate functionality (Kanban boards, todos, etc). Why not charge a flat fee for 1 year of updates, and make updates optional after that?

I have the same beef with the makers of MindNode, a mind-mapping app for MacOS. It's $2.99/mo which is not much, but I chose to go with SimpleMind Pro because it was a flat 25 EUR.

Developers know the term "write once, deploy anywhere". How about "charge once, use forever"?

[adamwiggins]

I get your metaphor, but I think it falls down because "write once, deploy anywhere" was a slogan for Java and it never really fulfilled that promise.

And yes, like anything in life there are top-quality options which tend to be more expensive and lower-quality options which fit a smaller budget. MindNode is a lovely app and worth paying for IMO.

[tomtheelder]

> The moment something requires subscription my threshold for buying it goes up 1000 fold.

I agree, but unfortunately it's the opposite for most folks. Subscriptions are here to stay.