{"id":17001,"date":"2017-01-25T16:26:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T21:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=17001"},"modified":"2018-02-01T14:00:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:00:35","slug":"setapp-goes-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/25\/setapp-goes-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Setapp Goes Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Setapp<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Setapp gives you a growing suite of hand-picked apps in one signup. There’s no store — just a folder on your Mac, and no hidden costs — just a flat monthly fee.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

There’s no need to dig through hundreds of App Store listings, search for reviews, and compare prices: with Setapp, you always have the best app for the job. It’s like getting all the apples, while someone else does the picking.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Setapp gives you access to shiny new software versions without charging any extra for upgrades. Every app you see on Setapp is yours — and we do mean the app, not just the current version.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a developer, I’ve declined to participate so far, for a number of different reasons, but it will be interesting to see how this goes. Revenue based on usage could work very well for some types of apps and very poorly for others. As a customer, I already own a few of these apps, and it doesn’t seem to make sense to subscribe on the chance that I’ll need others in the future. I’d also be a little worried about developers pulling out right before an upgrade.<\/p>\n\n

John Voorhees<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

For a flat subscription fee of $9.99 per month, customers can download any of the 61 apps and use them as long as they continue to make monthly payments. After MacPaw receives a 30% cut of customers’ subscription fees, developers who participate in Setapp are paid based on a formula that accounts for the price their apps are sold for outside the service and whether customers use the apps each month, which MacPaw tracks.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

If Setapp helps developers build sustainable businesses by attracting new users, I’m all for it, but I’m skeptical. There’s a tension here. Customers are being offered an all-you-can-eat buffet of apps. The more apps that are used, the better the value for customers. At the same time, the more apps a customer uses, the less each developer of those apps gets paid. 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? […] 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Using one of the Setapp apps does require a subscription, so access is revoked if a subscription is canceled. An online connection is required for updates, but all software can be used offline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Marcus Fehn<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We see Setapp as an interesting opportunity for a certain kind of user, and we want to be part of that opportunity. […] For us, Setapp is just another way to get Ulysses into the hands of users. It’s an option.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2017-01-26): Adam C. Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So let’s take the sample set of apps I mentioned above and see how that breaks out (with round numbers). Of a single user’s $10, $7 goes to the developers and $3 goes to MacPaw. That $7 is distributed among five apps that cost $291 proportionally by list price, broken out into 17 price tiers with individual multipliers. Assuming I’ve understood MacPaw’s documentation right, each app in this example would earn about 30 percent of its list price in a year. The more apps you use, though, the less each developer will earn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2017-02-09): Dan Counsell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You might also be wondering what happens if a developer removes their app from Setapp as this has potential to be catastrophic from a users point of view. The good news is you get to keep the app installed at its current version. I think this is an extremely well thought out feature. It’s reassuring to know that an app you rely on won’t suddenly disappear from your Mac when you need it most.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The only real downside from a developer perspective is that every release has to go through a review process, just like the Mac App Store.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2017-06-29): Adam C. Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Nearly halfway through Setapp’s first year, it’s time to take a look and see how it’s doing. Most notably, the number of apps available to subscribers has grown from 60 to 77 (from 69 developers), providing users with lots more functionality without sacrificing quality or providing many nearly identical apps.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Setapp now has 10,000 paying users and another 200,000 people who are using it in the free 30-day trial mode, which can be extended by encouraging a friend to sign up. Those aren’t Apple-level numbers, of course, but they’re respectable for just a few months.<\/p>\n

I polled a few developers who are participating in Setapp, and although all of them remain optimistic about Setapp’s potential, Setapp hasn’t contributed significantly to the bottom line for any of them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2018-02-01): Setapp<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Nevertheless, one year later we have 107 apps on the platform with over 300,000 users and $1.5M in ARR. And we are growing fast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Setapp: Setapp gives you a growing suite of hand-picked apps in one signup. There’s no store — just a folder on your Mac, and no hidden costs — just a flat monthly fee. […] There’s no need to dig through hundreds of App Store listings, search for reviews, and compare prices: with Setapp, you always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101,30,32,1381,1466],"class_list":["post-17001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-business","tag-mac","tag-macapp","tag-macos-10-12","tag-setapp"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20393,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions\/20393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}