TE
科技回声
首页24小时热榜最新最佳问答展示工作
GitHubTwitter
首页

科技回声

基于 Next.js 构建的科技新闻平台,提供全球科技新闻和讨论内容。

GitHubTwitter

首页

首页最新最佳问答展示工作

资源链接

HackerNews API原版 HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 科技回声. 版权所有。

Free lifetime software upgrades are bad for customers

14 点作者 aepstein将近 15 年前

4 条评论

dangrossman将近 15 年前
Good advice for one-man shops. I was in the same situation and came to the same conclusion. Sold ~$200,000 in licenses to my software before sales started slowing down. I promised free lifetime upgrades so lost motivation to do a major new version:<p>1) I couldn't sell it to my existing customers, they're getting it free<p>2) Many of the existing customers came from a handful of niche websites where the product/audience fit was great, but their audiences are only so large so I've already sold version 1 (with the free upgrade) to most of them<p>Eventually I put the product up for sale on Flippa and took $90,000... which if I stopped development is probably all I would have earned over a longer period.<p>Plus, it's a long term capital gain, so I'll end up paying less tax on the sale versus earning it over time as ordinary income.
geoffc将近 15 年前
This is why the Saas model works so well. Churn rate is everything in a subscription business so your motives are closely aligned with your customers. You continually improve the software to keep the customers happy and the churn rate low.
eekfuh将近 15 年前
I am going through this problem right now.<p>I told customers the price and it would not move and all updates will be free, however I am about to release the second version of the product.<p>It is significantly more stable, faster, more features, better designed, and one of the best applications I've ever made.<p>I want to recoup the time spent on it, not to mention my sales from v1 have started to drop and I want to bump that up again. Maybe I'll release it as version 2 for pay but initially at a discount? I do not know. Suggestions?
评论 #1403021 未加载
obsaysditto将近 15 年前
Valid point but should all upgrades be non-free? The most notorious free upgrade systems are the open source communities. They are mostly back by a company (eg Canonical, Red Hat) with paid developers, but take for example RHEL, who benefits immensely from the open source version Fedora where the community of non-paid developers have a passion for the project.<p>I guess if you have passion, does the amount of money matter?
评论 #1402791 未加载
评论 #1402707 未加载