Hmm. I own a couple of the apps in their bundle. I paid I think $50 for Ulysses, and maybe $10 for HazeOver. Not sure if the value is there for me vs. just owning things outright.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New Mac App Subscription Service 'Setapp' Offers 60 Mac Apps for $9.99 Per Month
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As an app publisher this is what attracted us to the model. A one time purchase w/ free for life updates is not good for the consumer or publisher especially for niche apps like ours that provide tremendous value but aren't necessarily used on a daily basis to warrant a subscription pricing model on their own.
Right, but I think at this point it's reasonable to expect that you can buy a major revision of an app, then get updates for a while that keep it working under OS updates. Then, down the road a couple years, you pay to upgrade to a bigger revision with more features, etc.
It's a subscription of sorts but you've also got the option, should you choose, of just leaving your system as-is and working with things as they are. I spent a lot of years in graphic design and production, and you'd be surprised at how long a lot of service providers will freeze their software to stay off the "one upgrade leads to another leads to another" train.
My comment has to do with 'Apps' in general. I have reached the point where I have no more room on my iOS devices for any more. I'm maxed out. I have my 'favorites' and just uninstall everything else. I know that on the Mac side, storage space is less onerous. But even there, I have my core 'Go-To' Apps and everything else is just never used. So I don't know if the population is 'Apped Out' or what. But in my case, how many 'photo editing' Apps does one need?
Using one of the Setapp apps does require a subscription, so access is revoked if a subscription is canceled. An online connection is required for updates, but all software can be used offline.
For developers, Setapp aims to provide a steady stream of revenue. The company offers 70 percent of the total revenue generated by their apps, which is based on which applications customers use during a billing cycle. Two-thirds of the remaining 30 percent is also given to developers as part of a partner fee based on the value of each subscriber brought to the platform.
Setapp can be downloaded from the Setapp website for free starting today.
Article Link: New Mac App Subscription Service 'Setapp' Offers 60 Mac Apps for $9.99 Per Month[/QUOTE]
Using one of the Setapp apps does require a subscription, so access is revoked if a subscription is canceled. An online connection is required for updates, but all software can be used offline.
For developers, Setapp aims to provide a steady stream of revenue. The company offers 70 percent of the total revenue generated by their apps, which is based on which applications customers use during a billing cycle. Two-thirds of the remaining 30 percent is also given to developers as part of a partner fee based on the value of each subscriber brought to the platform.
Setapp can be downloaded from the Setapp website for free starting today.
Article Link: New Mac App Subscription Service 'Setapp' Offers 60 Mac Apps for $9.99 Per Month[/QUOTE]
Soon the world will be full of subs and people are paying without owning something seems just wrong.
Monthly Phone bill
Internet bill
Car rental
Netflix
Spotify
Sports packages for people still using a cable subscription
Monthly Phone bill
Internet bill
Car rental
Netflix
Spotify
Sports packages for people still using a cable subscription
Last edited:
There's a few threads in the forums that talk about the app *OVER* cleaning their macs, resulting in weird behaviour and apps crashing/no longer opening. Although it's been awhile since I've used it, I'd recommend Onyx over CleanMyMac.
The desperation is palpable. The money is not in desktop or mobile apps. It's in the enterprise. Start writing software for people who write million dollar checks, not people who want to pay $2 per app per year.
[doublepost=1485372093][/doublepost]
How are you "out 600 bucks" in that scenario? The only way you could lose that "investment" would be if you never listened to any music during the period where you spent that $600.
[doublepost=1485372093][/doublepost]
How are you "out 600 bucks" in that scenario? The only way you could lose that "investment" would be if you never listened to any music during the period where you spent that $600.
it's worth it to note, the subscription is valid on only one mac. unlike apps purchased from the App Store, which can be installed on any of your macs. so if you rent one of the setapp apps, and want to use it on your iMac and MacBook, you need two subscriptions - $20/mo ($240/yr) and so on.
While I understand views that software subscription models are bad for consumers, there are two points being overlooked that cause me to disagree.
1. "Lifetime" App purchases are almost never lifetime. They last until the next "major" upgrade, and then you have to pay again anyway. There is no such thing as one-time cost software anymore -- devs can't afford it (unless you're Apple, but even then, major upgrades to Logic/Final Cut Pro cost money). A sub like this means perpetual support from the developers of the apps, which you don't always get (1 year free support, anyone?) The nice thing is that while your access to the software depends on you paying your subscription fee, your willingness to pay that recurring fee is contingent on a developer's customer support and availability.
2. Software ownership is an illusion. You no longer own a piece of software, only the rights to use it. Software's purpose is to solve a problem for the user. If you have a steady income of any kind and you plan on upgrading your OS/computer in the next 5 years, I would wager that you will get more estimated value out of paying monthly.
The only reason to purchase it is to satisfy your ego or if its cost is decidedly less than the utility of the software. The piece of the puzzle people are missing is that the 12 months / $120 you paid last year for a subscription to Spotify did not cost you $120. It actually cost you $120 - the cost to buy every song you listened to - the opportunity cost of the money you would have had to spend up front for the songs + the opportunity cost of the number of times you would want to listen to those songs after that one year had passed.
Not as black and white, now, is it? Add in the high availability of cloud-based services versus software being trapped in 1-2 machines, and all of the sudden, the subscription economy makes sense for a lot of people.
Just because most of the apps are useless to one person doesn't mean they are useless. You could argue that you shouldn't be paying $10/month for Spotify because you only listen to one song; might as well buy the song. Fine. But a song is music, and it won't break due to future OS/infrastructure updates and isn't proprietary.
Look, if your goal is to pay as little money as possible per month on subs, then by all means, "purchase" what you need and be done with it. But it is naive to think that a "one-time purchase" is really a one-time purchase.
1. "Lifetime" App purchases are almost never lifetime. They last until the next "major" upgrade, and then you have to pay again anyway. There is no such thing as one-time cost software anymore -- devs can't afford it (unless you're Apple, but even then, major upgrades to Logic/Final Cut Pro cost money). A sub like this means perpetual support from the developers of the apps, which you don't always get (1 year free support, anyone?) The nice thing is that while your access to the software depends on you paying your subscription fee, your willingness to pay that recurring fee is contingent on a developer's customer support and availability.
2. Software ownership is an illusion. You no longer own a piece of software, only the rights to use it. Software's purpose is to solve a problem for the user. If you have a steady income of any kind and you plan on upgrading your OS/computer in the next 5 years, I would wager that you will get more estimated value out of paying monthly.
The only reason to purchase it is to satisfy your ego or if its cost is decidedly less than the utility of the software. The piece of the puzzle people are missing is that the 12 months / $120 you paid last year for a subscription to Spotify did not cost you $120. It actually cost you $120 - the cost to buy every song you listened to - the opportunity cost of the money you would have had to spend up front for the songs + the opportunity cost of the number of times you would want to listen to those songs after that one year had passed.
Not as black and white, now, is it? Add in the high availability of cloud-based services versus software being trapped in 1-2 machines, and all of the sudden, the subscription economy makes sense for a lot of people.
Just because most of the apps are useless to one person doesn't mean they are useless. You could argue that you shouldn't be paying $10/month for Spotify because you only listen to one song; might as well buy the song. Fine. But a song is music, and it won't break due to future OS/infrastructure updates and isn't proprietary.
Look, if your goal is to pay as little money as possible per month on subs, then by all means, "purchase" what you need and be done with it. But it is naive to think that a "one-time purchase" is really a one-time purchase.
The problem with that is the revenue stream becomes erratic, with customer signing up and cancelling so you ge a lot of churn and have to keep adding customers to keep some semblance of a steady, reasonable revenue stream to keep debs happy and stay in business.
Another issue is many apps offer free trials so there is no need to purchase a sub to test it out. For example, some of the apps I am familiar with - RapidWeaver, Hype, Gemini, Aeon Timeline offer trials; thought some may be feature limited.
I'm not sure they can build a business based on people using it as a trial service.
That's the challenge - get enough useful apps, keep the price at $9.95 and keep developers happy with the money they make.
Thanks, hasn't been my experience but new opinions are always welcome. I also use Onyx intermittently with CMM
The best thing about it is the way you can so easily preview an App before deciding if you'll use it. It's just a double click, then if it's useless to you, you can delete it just as easily. But with so few apps $5 a month is more realistic. I am using one app regularly and a few others very occasionally. Maybe if they had 2 payment tiers? One for up to 5 apps downloaded at any one time and another for unlimited.
What's the value of this? $1.99? $4.99? I don't know. And it doesn't really matter that much. Because what I wanted to point out is that for $9.99 every month I'd expect ONLY premium titles that are the best in their field. And that's just not the case. Not for this app and not for all of the others apps in SetApp that have a Mavericks (or even older) screenshot in their preview. I see no point in paying $9.99 every single month for apps that aren't the best in their field or already look like they are abandoned, in maintenance mode or otherwise long in the tooth. Just my $.02.
So what? When you buy software you are mostly guaranteed to get free point releases anyway.
Paying $120/yr for plain rubbish (as the list now shows) is way too much.
[doublepost=1485377017][/doublepost]
A lot but thats not the point. You are aware CMM is made by the same company as SetApp?
The big problem now is that SetApp does not provide any useful apps. And if there is one, you should buy it instead. That would make it much cheaper in the end.
[doublepost=1485377368][/doublepost]
Forklift, VMWare Fussion, Screenflow, iFFmpeg, Pixelmator, Rapidweaver, Graphic, AirMail, ... good luck getting those onboard though.
Terrible price and terrible value. If your software isn't good enough to command a user base that is willing to pay a high upfront price then you don't deserve monthly payments.
Subscription models are cancer and don't actually help the consumer to get better software, often the developers use that monthly cash to create new apps that are copies of other apps and let the paid for apps stagnate. There is no demand when you get subscriptions for them to even try and improve the software. Being connected to the internet for a heartbeat is impossible for any professional environments where access to the internet is from behind a firewall and ports blocked this causes havoc for these waste of space software.
Subscription models are cancer and don't actually help the consumer to get better software, often the developers use that monthly cash to create new apps that are copies of other apps and let the paid for apps stagnate. There is no demand when you get subscriptions for them to even try and improve the software. Being connected to the internet for a heartbeat is impossible for any professional environments where access to the internet is from behind a firewall and ports blocked this causes havoc for these waste of space software.
LOL $120 per year for an app bundle I might use but a few apps from.
PASS...
Everyone is trying to go to subscription because they recognize they make more $ in the long run than one-time sales.
PASS...
Everyone is trying to go to subscription because they recognize they make more $ in the long run than one-time sales.