Show HN: Non SaaS – Directory of Non SaaS Apps (opens in new tab)

Thanks I couldn't find any other info on it except what Chamath had said on a podcast, so I gave a link to the "fake" site since it explains the concept behind 80/90.

On the contrary. Handwaving "oh bring your own DB" is drastically more complex than having a ready-made docker-compose.yml which includes said DB and whatever else is needed.

Ahh the lost art of writing installable deployable software.

Another thing I don’t like about SaaS is that most of it is a yarn ball held together by snot and twist ties that can run on only one cloud… or only one cloud account with hard coded details about that account. As such it’s encouraged a generation of developers to write this slop.

I've built server applications that ship as a single binary and I'm still running them as Docker containers on my home server.

You’ve answered your own question, because I could very reasonably disagree with your assertion of which is the bigger ask, there.

I mean if they're really into non-saas, it's just natural that there is this overlap in interest. Developing them and collecting information on them.

Maybe you should use a quick Directory builder non-SaaS instead. See if there are any there.

Because he's probably associated with it in some way.

9 of the sites listed are using the same thing and link to each other in the footer as "Mars Verse".

I love the design and the site loads very fast for me

What would you suggest instead as a better alternative for this type of project

>> The product should be priced as per the effort and time it took to develop

When I started programming I costed projects like this. Now I price things based on their value to the customer.

There were a number of reasons for the switch;

Firstly in the earlier model all I'm selling is my time. All time I don't have work is lost, and I can't make it back. This resulted in years of being underpaid because a month of no work was lost forever.

There are lots of things you need to do running a business test are not "billable". Finding new eork is one of them. So costing just the time you spent on the app is naive.

Pricing based on effort also allows no opportunity to grow. If I hire an employee I now need to find work for her as well. And so on.

Lastly, when making products (to sell over and over) you can't base price on cost because we don't know up-front how many copies we'll sell.

So we look at the value to the customer. Things that offer them higher value cost more. Sometimes there's a surplus, and that allows new, less certain, products to be developed. Sometimes it takes years for a product to return the investment.

We moved some (not all) products to a subscription when it became obvious that it was not possible to support all existing clients from only new-sales revenue. We needed to hire full-time supporters and since they add value to existing customers they need to be paid for by customers.

This means that if sales dried up tomorrow , existing customers could still get support ad infinitum. This is -much- more valuable to them than some small subscription amount.

So here's my suggestion. If a service is costing you more than the value you are getting, just stop using it. By definition you will be ahead. You don't need yo feel aggrieved at how other people price their stuff. That's on rhem, not you.

The problem with one-off pricing is that people generally don't want just one drop of software. They want ongoing updates and support. Which means if your pricing model is only one payment, in that world you're going to have a future cost stream but no future revenue stream to support it.

That's why software businesses with a one payment pricing structure often end up going bust - they rely on a structure where they need constant growth in their customer base to sustain support of existing customers. The software coompany going bust isn't in the interests of customers who want support either so this model just doesn't really work for anyone.

If a one-off payment is matched by a customer expectation of a one-off software install with little or no ongoing support then that's probably fine.

That’s not how price works. Price is a function of supply and demand. The cost of goods sold is just part of what goes into price. So if you make something really compelling or scarce that people are willing to pay a lot of money for, you can charge more for it than it costs you to produce it. That’s business.

Lesson one is to never go public. As soon as you have shareholders, they're going to demand growth, and there's only so much you can do to sustain that growth before you have to raise prices.

Agree. However, people are allowed to price apps however they want (ie. SaaS model), but shouldn't be surprised if they are overcharging and someone else makes something similar and charges less.

Very naive take.

I find it very interesting that you're been downvoted for this take which I don't personally find all that wrong. But I guess different people have different ways to look at the world.

What about the effort on the selling the product, what about the risk it won't sell?

All coins have 2 sides. Paying once is great, and if uou are happy then that's good. I use a bunch of software purchased on this model.

It's worth understanding though that the seller owes you nothing after this. Not support. Not development. Not keeping up with API or whatever changes. Not bug fixes (although most everyone ships some free updates for a while.) Obviously not hosting.

And for lots of software this model is perfect. For other stuff it's imperfect (as anyone who desperately needs Google Support will sympathize with.)

You get to choose what software I'd on your business-critical path, and what is on your "can replace anytime" path.

I know some people don't like the company behind this but you might find the idea interesting: https://once.com

> What a refreshing thing it is to pay for software once and never pay again! Already I can see several SaaS subscriptions that can be replaced here.

Like adopting twenty for CRM, at just $9/user/month, so 2x the cost of Microsoft Teams, or about the same as M365!

I'm not sure about the inclusion criteria.

What do you mean by TDK? Is it Title, Description, and Keywords? Do you consider low-code tool good enough for SEO now?

Thanks for letting me know. Will fix.

Yes, I wasn't sure how to categorize these. This is V1 of the site and I will make adjustments based on feedback. There are no Non SaaS alternatives to those products, so I included them even though they are technically SaaS with a lifetime deal.

indeed. seems like a directory of pay-once saas