Theres some good points here.
As an end-user, I simply don’t have the cash available to go and get all the individual packages available and then repeat that figure, (or a large percentage of it) each year for ongoing maintenance. I really wish I could though. In most cases it is easy to recognise the talent and that a large amount of time has gone into the product.
Im fortunate this year since I know I will use quite a few of the plugins in the bundle, but next year becomes the dilemna.
Do I opt for next years bundle, or renew several of the plugins from this years bundle where I use them a lot, or something else ?
I’ve mulled over the changes for Xojo itself, and I’m one of those for which the cost has increased. The desktop edition looks great for smaller projects of course, but the database access means I need the next one up, so $299 for that. I dont have an issue with that btw, I think it still represents value for what you get access to.
Now considering that I could only ever spend a set amount per year on all my Xojo licences, plugins and the like, thats where things change. If I said upto $100/month, the Xojo license takes away the first 3 months, and leaves me approx $900 for the rest of the year. The bundle cost is $399, which again is good value, that now drops me to $500 for the rest of the year. This is where I have to think long and hard about which plugins are the most important and which ones I will use the most, and see if there is enough left in the kitty to cover them on an individual basis for the next 12 months. Or, do I forego the bundle, and leave myself $900 to cover the cost of plugin renewals.
If I was doing all of this on a professional level, then the above considerations simply wouldn’t be an issue. As an end user though, its different. I want to use the plugins, I want to support the developers for their hard work by subscribing/renewing, I dont want to get to the stage of asking for price reductions or some special package because I couldn’t afford it otherwise; I’d consider that quite an insult, and its not the developers issue that I only have a limited amount of cash to spend on my plugins and purchases to begin with.
Hmm. Its not so straight forward when you dig down into things.
At least for now I have the next 12 months or so to see which ones I use the most.