More and more, it is clear to everyone that when the software you use is free, you’re the product. Free software products make money by serving ads and selling your data. The most common alternative is a subscription, and you see more and more subscriptions and paywalls nowadays. And people complain about that. It is simply not doable nor affordable to have a subscription for all and everything.
Some people have found a solution: move away from the big, bad tech giants who try to keep us under control and squeeze all our money out of us. Instead, embrace open source software. It is just as good as the mainstream alternatives. It is free. It doesn’t track you or sell your data.
In practice, most of us find a “sweat spot” of using free software most of the time, using free-tiers where possible like for Slack or Dropbox, and using ad-blockers when the ads really get annoying. We have subscriptions for some things we cannot get around like our internet and Netflix. Unless we can get Netflix for free via someone else’s account. We don’t think much about it. But we loudly protest as soon as Netflix starts doubling down on misuse via account sharing. Or when WhatsApp, which always was free, starts experimenting with ads. Or when YouTube is trying to do something against ad-blockers. But do we actually have the right to protest these actions?
So, what is the elephant in the room here? The thing nobody is talking about?
We’re greedy.
Yes.
Greedy.
We, the users, are greedy. We just want to get all our software for free. Without compromises. Without ads. But the thing is, it costs money to develop software, and it costs money to run servers and infrastructure. I hear you say: but open source is just free, right? Well, large part of open source is developed by enthusiastic developers without getting any compensation. Is that fair? Monetization of open source is a difficult and unsolved issue. If you want to let someone paint your house, you’ll have to pay the painter. If you want to take a taxi to the trainstation, you’ll have to pay the taxi driver. If you want to have a croissant, you can buy one at the baker’s. Why is it that we find it totally normal to pay for stuff in the physical world, but not in the digital world? Digital things can bring just as much value to our lives as physical things. Why don’t we want to pay for it? Is it fair not to pay for software?
And on the other side: we, the software companies, are greedy. Suppose that you have a software product with a $5 per month subscription and 10.000 users, and you make a good living out of it. Now, suppose the number of users doubles. Typically, most of the costs is development and not infrastructure, so this would give you a huge profit. You could lower the subscription fee to $3 for all users and still make a good living. Or… you could just leave the prices as is and get rich. Nobody would complain, right? But is it fair?
Now, I know, the monetization of software is complex. It often feels unfair. This is a chicken-egg problem: if every user would be willing to pay, you could charge a very small fee to each of them. But in reality, maybe only 1% or 0.1% of your users is willing to pay. So you’ll have to ask them 100x or 1000x more to cover the bills. I’m sure many of these online subscriptions of $5 or $10 per month can get much cheaper if more users are willing to pay. Imagine that most subscriptions would be just $0.50 per month. That would really change how we look at them, right?
So what do we do now?
Change your mindset. Take some time to think about all the value that your favorite software brings to your life, and appreciate it for that. Would you miss it if it didn’t exist? Accept that software costs money. Give the developers some compensation to show your appreciation.
And to developers and software companies: please be fair and transparant with pricing. Offer a paid version as an alternative to ads. Please focus on developing the best app ever, and not on squeezing as much money as possible out of every user. Optimizing your application for your own income is at ods with optimizing it for the best user experience. It is tough. I know from practice, making a living as an open source developer.
Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!
I dream of a fast, clean, ad-free internet, where all people pay a small and fair fee for the software they use. Where software companies have fair pricing. Where software developers are compensated for their work, open source developers included. Where developers can optimize for the best user experience instead of optimize for revenue. That will benefit all of us.
Are you in?