When you subscribe, you get unlimited access to all of the 200+ apps included in the service and their upgrades. And what’s bad for developers in the long run, ultimately hurts users too.Setapp is a service granting you access to many apps and tools for Mac and iOS for a single monthly fee. Time will tell, and I hope I’m wrong, but Setapp feels like a short-term solution to a long-term problem that I’m afraid will hurt developers in the end by driving average app prices down even further. I can’t shake the feeling that Setapp may be a symptom of, and not a cure for, the intense financial pressures that indie developers face today, even developers with highly-regarded apps. That might be fine if these are customers the developers wouldn’t attract without Setapp, but what if each Setapp user means one less full price app sale? At the same time, the more apps a customer uses, the less each developer of those apps gets paid. The more apps that are used, the better the value for customers. Customers are being offered an all-you-can-eat buffet of apps. If Setapp helps developers build sustainable businesses by attracting new users, I’m all for it, but I’m skeptical. So I’m hoping to get sustainable, subscription-based revenue, without having to eliminate my current purchase options. What clinched my decision to include Marked 2 in Setapp is the fact that I can still sell directly and via the Mac App Store. We are seeing Setapp as sort of a “special interest bundle” – it’s not so much about a new channel of distribution, as it is about giving users access to our app as part of this bundle.įinally, Brett Terpstra, creator of Marked, a Markdown previewer for macOS had this to say on his site when the Setapp beta launched: Ulysses for iOS will always be distributed via the App Store anyway, and our main channel for the Mac app will remain the Mac App Store. I also corresponded with Marcus Fehn, one of the co-founders of The Soulmen, makers of Ulysses, a beloved text editor used by many of us at MacStories, who also sees Setapp as additive to his company’s other sales channels: This way, we ensure that we reach users seeking different ways to buy apps. For instance, we offer Screens directly from our store, on the Mac App Store and now on Setapp. Setapp is just another way to have our apps available to a different set of customers. Luc Vandal, creator of Screens, a MacStories favorite for screen sharing, said: To try to get a better sense of what has attracted developers to Setapp, I asked a couple who are participating in Setapp how they feel Setapp fits with the other sales channels for their apps. If Setapp attracts large numbers of new users to the apps in its service, some developers’ apps could thrive, but that is by no means a given. The benefits of Setapp to developers are less clear. Although it is difficult to anticipate the cost of purchasing and updating apps over the course of a year or more, the subscription approach makes economic sense for users in those circumstances and is worth considering. Setapp should be a bargain for anyone interested in several of the apps it offers, especially the ones that cost the most outside Setapp. The app is installed when you click the ‘Open’ button from an app’s overview window. Double clicking the icon opens a description of the app with screenshots similar to what you find on the Mac App Store. Each icon has a little downward pointing arrow to indicate that it hasn’t been installed yet. If you look in the Setapp folder in Finder, you will see icons for all 61 apps. Apps aren’t installed until the ‘Open’ button is clicked.
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