Hacker News Reader

My bank account is filled with SaaS products. Want to read the news, get a premium “bank” account, automate stuff, watch TV or movies, etc? pay up buddy. It’s only a few more of your dollars a month.

It’s at a point where most consumers have to decide between one SaaS or another; it muddles retention. A one-time payment business is better these days (or a hybrid) especially if you have a product consumers are willing to come back for.

View on HN

For me, it's the same problems but the opposite conclusion -- unless you're my rent, utility bills, a handful of subscriptions to print magazines or professional bodies (or my mother), you will not get a subscription out of me. I will simply not do it. One-off payments are fine, but the expected cost of a subscription is huge over my lifetime and the value of your product probably isn't worth it.

This sentiment is common enough that it spawned the "build a B2B saas" advice.

B2B SaaS have a much clearer/easier value proposition than B2C.

There's already a cash flow and profit motive in a business, so if a SaaS can demonstrate that it enables more value than it costs, there's a tangible advantage to paying for that service.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com