If it were $60 yearly it'd be an auto-yes for me.
In isolation, most developers could easily afford the $10/month for copilot. But most developers are probably using the free tier for half a dozen services. So the question isn't "Can I afford copilot?", but rather "Does copilot provide more value than upgrading plans on some other service?". For example, if you are using the free tier on Slack, maybe upgrading to the paid tier so you can access the full chat history provides way more value than copilot.
Also, another consideration is that $10 per month is certainly small. But I generally use software I purchase for multiple years. I would guess on average I use a piece of software for 3-5 years. If Copilot was offered for a single purchase price of $300-500, would you pay for it? Because that is likely how much you will spend over the lifetime of the subscription. For me, that price point is approaching the territory of professional tools like CAD software, Photo/video editing software, etc...
I can certainly see why Copilot would be worth $10/month. But I also could see why someone might be uncomfortable with that.
Can you name most useful ones? So far my only subscription is Idea. I'm considering to try Copilot as I've heard many good things about it.
Saving time with Copilot is itself a learning process and a probabilistic affair. Copilot can win you a few seconds at a time, but can easily set you back minutes if you aren't careful or experienced. It's the probability of a downward spike in time-win that makes it such a gamble. Such complex deals just turns on the cautious side of my brain.
- Money is worth more to me than the average US dev because I earn less than US developers, and therefore my time is definitely worth less.
- I cannot use this for work at my current workplace and I'm willing to bet a lot of other companies aren't fine with it either. I'm not saving time where it makes me money, so I would classify as a luxury, not a tool (spending-wise).
If it has a tangible ROI, then I figure out how much my time is worth, I figure out how much time or other resource the SaaS app will save and then decide if it's worth the tradeoff. For example, I suck at graphic design, so a monthly $13/mo to Canva is worth it to me to save time, aggravation, and headache, not to mention improved quality of results. I know that I save myself much more in time than the $13/mo is worth.
On the otherhand, I can't justify paying even $15/mo for a podcast transcription tool because I still have to spend dozens of hours checking the transcription and it doesn't save me any headache. So it's not worth it to me. It doesn't matter if it's $60/yr or $100/yr, my time is still worth the same. If it's not worth it at $60/yr , it's not worth it at $100/yr.
Maybe this thought process is different for others, but with so much SaaS out there, it's important to focus on what will drive high value. Incremental "auto-yes" spending at any price point can get you into trouble.
