Kudos to OP for spring cleaning, but the idea of many of these being subscription services to begin with is outrageous to me.
Software as a service rarely makes sense on a scale of 1.
- 1Password (Family): $59/year. Replace with a shared spreadsheet.
- Bear: $20/year. A markdown editor for Apple devices.
- CARROT Weather: $40/year. For the weather.
- Day One: $32/year. A personal journal app that runs on "unlimited devices." Why, unless writing the journal with a team of ghostwriters?
- Lost It!: $28/year. Supposed to be Lose It!—a weight-loss app? Replace with books: The Blue Zones, Spark, Self-Directed Behavior.
- Habitica: $63/year. Habit tracking, gamification. Replace with books. These are tactics, not technologies. Learn the tactics once and use them for life.
- Ulysses: $67/year. A writing app for Macs. What could justify a recurring fee?
- Squash 3: $41/year. A batch photo editor for Mac for resizing photos. Like the free IrfanView or many others.
I really do not suggest storing passwords and sharing them with family members in a spreadsheet. Of all of the services on this list, a system that provides end-to-end encryption, autofill, generation, and sync for passwords across a family, is a fairly good rationale for a subscription. They at least offer a server side component that has to be paid for somehow.
A shared spreadsheet doesn’t even come close to matching 1Password’s features.
> I really do not suggest storing passwords and sharing them with family members in a spreadsheet.
Why not? Password-encrypt the spreadsheet if you want. The browser can do the "last mile" of autofill.
Realistically, a family's going to be just as safe with an encrypted spreadsheet on OneDrive or a home file share as they would entrusting their passwords to a centralized service that's highly visible to attackers.
Alternatively, just write them in a notebook. A family isn't webscale.
- 1Password (Family): $59/year. Replace with a shared spreadsheet.
Saying (Family) doesn't mean they only use it for sharing. In our family we're using it for our individual password management, sharing is just an add-on. Having it as a family plan is just cheaper. Please don't replace your password managers with spreadsheets (unless you really really know what you're doing and few people do).
People work hard to develop and maintain all of those applications, and other people find more utility in them compared to the free alternatives. What's the problem?
People can develop what they want and people can pay for what they want. I'm with you there. But the developers' hard work doesn't necessarily create value. I may work hard on composing a song, but that doesn't mean it's any good.
To me, there are better alternatives than paying monthly for these kinds of services.
Hasn't value been created by the fact someone got a service in exchange for money? Like I don't see how 1Password doesn't create value just because free spreadsheet tools exist. Similarly, with your example, if you compose a lousy song, but people enjoy it enough to spend money on it over the other songs on the market, you've created value.
Sure, enjoyment is valuable. And if someone enjoys my terrible song, that's their prerogative. The same for these services. I'm not trying to tell anyone they can't use them if they like them -- I'm just expressing disgust with their subscription pricing models, which I think are outrageous for what limited value they add compared to perpetually licensed software.
Software as a service rarely makes sense on a scale of 1.
- 1Password (Family): $59/year. Replace with a shared spreadsheet.
- Bear: $20/year. A markdown editor for Apple devices.
- CARROT Weather: $40/year. For the weather.
- Day One: $32/year. A personal journal app that runs on "unlimited devices." Why, unless writing the journal with a team of ghostwriters?
- Lost It!: $28/year. Supposed to be Lose It!—a weight-loss app? Replace with books: The Blue Zones, Spark, Self-Directed Behavior.
- Habitica: $63/year. Habit tracking, gamification. Replace with books. These are tactics, not technologies. Learn the tactics once and use them for life.
- Ulysses: $67/year. A writing app for Macs. What could justify a recurring fee?
- Squash 3: $41/year. A batch photo editor for Mac for resizing photos. Like the free IrfanView or many others.