[endymi0n]

If you have to fight for a 50$ book, you‘re probably just at the wrong place.

That being said, some developers wanted to test Notion internally, so they got an informal account with a credit card. Turns out they built an important overview in it and send the link around, so everyone who wanted to take a look at it (half the company) implicitly created an account and our CFO got hit by a 10k bill next month.

And that‘s how devs having no purchase authority stories usually start...

[rightbyte]

This is just an example of predatory pricing models and dark patterns.

There is reason many SaaS companies usually have no prepaid or fixed cost roof pay options. They are scammers.

[VS1999]

How does anything think setting up a system where you can get billed for clicking a link is a good idea? Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. The whole setup is beyond ridiculous, and it's hard to believe this is how "devs having no purchase authority stories usually start".

[maccard]

I work in a small company and we use a few services that bill for active users, and sync with g suite. It reduces the overhead of admin for me significantly as it means I know we're only paying for people who use the service that month.

> Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card.

A £1000 limit doesn't stop you from generating a £10000 invoice. It just means you need to go higher with your tail between your legs to pay the bill.

[Ekaros]

Aren't this sort of dark patterns exactly what are expected from growth hacking and getting numbers look good? Whole sub-set of companies are incentivised to use these tactics...

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

Billing by active users is quite common.

[sverhagen]

Developers (or anyone) buying tools can often also be a sort of local optimization, at the expense of the larger organization. For instance fragmentation, so that you can't find things through a single search anymore, or need to log into different teams' tools separately. Not to mention the compliance nightmare if you want to be SOC compliant while teams are all managing their own tools full of company IP.

Buying books and other learning resources is great, though.