Paying for software subscriptions is my passion

I think it is worth it to hand over money for software and apps that saves me time and effort, or improve my life in some way. I have paid for one-off software, and have a number of ongoing subscriptions. Just off the top of my head, I can think of

• 1Password
• Evernote
• YNAB
• Things
• Alfred
• Fantastical
• Tower
• iA Writer
• Waking Up
• SWEAT
• Plan to Eat
• Quickbooks

No doubt, there are more that I am forgetting.

Sometimes, I’ll see software moving to a monthly subscription model, or introduce a higher price, and people’s response will be like “I really like this software and it has been very useful, but I can’t justify spending $10 a month on it”. I can’t relate to that mindset. I spend $30 at the soft play centre for just 2 hours of entertainment for my kids (and peace for me). You best believe I’ll hand over $10 to something that is genuinely improving my life or workflow for an entire month.

I could be a little biased, since my job and salary is made possible by people paying for a Software subscription. But I’ve always felt like this. I remember when I was a student living week-to-week on casual hospitality work. I would use Photoshop on the university computers because I couldn’t afford to buy it. Everyone else would just pirate it. That didn’t feel right to me. I was so excited when I won a prize that gave me an Adobe CS5 license! When they switched to a subscription model, I started paying for it.