Ask HN: What software subscriptions are worth paying for?

- Kagi for search and translation.

- rsync.net for backup (although I took their lifetime subscription offer so I no longer actively pay them).

- Self-hosting related costs (rented servers and domain names).

- Buttondown for sending out blog updates. (I was generously gifted a lifetime subscription, but had I not been I would likely have paid for it eventually anyway.)

- The Economist for moderately-biased news spanning the entire world.

I also pay for Spotify, though I increasingly doubt whether it is giving me more value than purchasing the music I want directly. I suppose I do it out of convenience rather than economic gain.

This feels like a very HN set of subscriptions...

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Things I don't pay for:

- Excalidraw: I didn't even know that was possible.

- Google Photos: it keeps bugging me to, and I keep intending to exchange it for Immich.

- YouTube: I'm not a heavy YouTube user, but NewPipe and adblocker goes a long way.

- LLMs: I find API credits to be better value.

- VPN: I run OpenVPN on the closet server. That said, I have moved and I don't trust the new home ISP as much so this might change.

- Password manager: KeePassXC and SyncThing is sufficient.

- Notes: Org and Orzly and SyncThing is sufficient.

- Cloud storage: SyncThing and a closet server is sufficient.

Subscription based software - it's what I do for a day job but I'm not interested in any more monthly money drains than the bare minimum - ie mortgage, rates and utilities.

Google One. Google photos is just magic, cheaper storage elsewhere just doesn't cut it. Also why I won't be switching to ios anytime soon. First party solutions always feel better.

Youtube Premium.

Google (for Deep Research, Gemini and NotebookLM)

ChatGPT (For ChatGPT and Codex)

GitKraken

CodeRabbit

Novelcrafter (for fiction)

Wondercraft (wrapper around Elevnlabs and Googles TTS)

Seriously considering Elevenreader as well

Raindrop (bookmarks)

OutdoorActive (maps for hiking)

YouTube Premium

Sanebox (Email triage)

- Console Ninja. Inspect runtime values on any line of TS/JS code by putting breakpoints on the source. Inspect values, errors, and stacktraces next to their corresponding lines without leaving VSCode/Cursor. This works well with frontend or backend TS/JS, so in a NextJS app I can inspect anything without leaving the editor. No more checking console logs in Chrome dev tools. I found this tool invaluable when I switched to React and wanted insight into what data the components contained between renders. Also has a MCP server so Cursor can have access to all these runtime values and errors too. https://console-ninja.com/

- WallabyJS. Similar, but a test runner that runs tests as you type, and can display values and test failures inline. Also with a MCP server to give tools like Cursor feedback on runtime values and test failures inline data for quick iterations. https://wallabyjs.com/blog/wallaby-mcp.html

- Quokka. Similar concept, but a TS/JS playground for prototyping code. Can temporarily install and later discard NPM dependencies for trying out libraries. Snaps allow fenced blocks of prototype code to be immediately evaluated inside existing codebases, then discarded when not needed. https://quokkajs.com/

I think Console Ninja and Quokka also have free versions with some Pro features missing.

Those who have been around here for a while might remember Bret Victor presentations and the kickstarter for the LightTable IDE. To me, the Wallaby tools are effectively that. Runtime insight, inline as you develop.

Obsidian Sync (Notes)

pCloud (Cloud Backup and Sync)

Pandora (Music)

ChatGPT (Misc)

ProtonVPN (VPN)

NameCheap (Domains/Hosting)

DigitalOcean (Hosting)

Interesting... it took me longer to think through this list then I feel like it should have.

• Infuse, from Firecore (probably the best video player on Apple TV, iOS, iPadOS and macOS — you can throw almost any format at it)

• Owl, by Beonex (it’s a Mozilla Thunderbird extension that connects to MS Exchange and costs $10 a year)

• Bvckup 2 (Windows backup software) — this gets cheaper on renewals

On services:

• Apple Fitness+ (annual subscription is a lot cheaper than monthly), one of the best things that keeps me working out regularly

• Posteo.de for emails

[1]: https://ale.sh/r/ssdnodes (affiliate link)

Less essential: Obsidian, Kagi (this one may be bumped to the "essentials" at some point), a few VPS on Hetzner to run some projects, domain names for said projects.

Just because I like them and want to support them: Signal

I used to pay for the following:

  * Home Designer Pro (upgraded to fully purchased at some point)
  * JRebel (circa 2010ish)

  * Youtube Premium

MobaXTerm: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ (free alternative: mRemoteNG, PuTTY, Remmina)

GitKraken: https://gitkraken.dev/ (free alternative: SourceTree, Git Cola)

FreeFileSync: https://freefilesync.org/ (free, but I got the supporter edition because comfy software)

In those cases, the free alternatives are just worse than the paid tools.

Aside from that, mostly just VPSes (Hetzner, maybe Contabo if really on a budget) and domains (used to use NameCheap, Porkbun was kinda better, moved over to INWX cause EU option) which are good enough to run whatever FOSS I need instead of subscriptions, like Gitea and Drone CI/Woodpecker CI instead of other forges, Nextcloud instead of Dropbox, Sonatype Nexus instead of Docker Hub, Uptime Kuma and Zabbix and Matomo and Skywalking/GlitchTip instead of similar observability solutions, Grav instead of managed Wordpress for blogging, Kanboard/OpenProject instead of cloud Jira, RustDesk instead of RealVNC and so on. E-mail is a mixed bag: the free cloud ones are good enough for personal usage and self-hosted Docker mail server is better for no rate limits, e.g. alerts from my monitoring to my own address.

Recently, some of the AI cloud subscriptions because getting my own GPUs in my homelab is beyond my means (maybe once Intel Arc Pro B60 are available): primarily Google's Gemini model or Claude's Sonnet although lower cost options would also be quite nice, maybe ERNIE-4.5 or Qwen3-Coder or whatever. I actually used to pay for GitHub Copilot but am also looking in the direction of just using the APIs of the various providers (or OpenRouter) directly to avoid fixes fees and have more lenient rate limits.

Cloudflare domain, compute, db

Apple 50GB Storage

Google One Premium Family (Storage only, not AI)

Youtube Premium

PS Plus

Cancelled:

Spotify (youtube music is better for my needs)

Google AI

Fantastical - I came full circle to Google Calendar

I've bought quite a few useful mac and ios apps on one time payment. I'm interested in rsync.net and maybe setup a self hosting with my friends and family.

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I also pay for Google but that’s just ransom for my data held hostage by them because I have shared that email address with many.

- Raycast Pro

- Proton (mostly for mail and pass)

- Deezer

- Instapaper Premium

- Feedbin

Paid by my employer:

- Windsurf (but might try something else)

- OVPN

Mail (Fastmail), search (Kagi), storage (B2), and a few vps.

For work: Snagit, Aptakube, Jetbrains

Got a few lifetime payments too for various desktop utility apps

I pay for other ones on an as needed basis, but my tools change based on what i'm working on. Usually always have a render and supabase plan going for various hosted toy apps.

- Perplexity

and nothing more.

I get why people like to charge a subscription, but I will not pay a subscription for something that doesn't have ongoing operation cost by the vendor. If he needs to pay for a storage/servers/compute monthly it's reasonable to ask for a subscription.

However a subscription for a screenshot app? Really? It's on my computer, charge me once or I won't pay the "just 10$/month" == 120$/year for a screenshot app is waaay overpriced.

Excalidraw

ChatGpt

ExpressVPN

I pay for Mullvad for my VPN of choice, and Eweka and Drunkenslug for newsgroups (i.e. every media ever invented downloaded at maximum speed)

Bitwarden for personal password management

x.com sub to get rid of the ads

youtube pro to get rid of ads