Software Pricing Debate

The cluster discusses the value and pricing of software, debating whether it's underpriced relative to its value, why customers resist paying, and factors like sales cycles, support, subscriptions, and commoditization.

πŸ“‰ Falling 0.5x Startups & Business
4,445
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9628
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
19
2008
74
2009
119
2010
171
2011
163
2012
217
2013
170
2014
170
2015
178
2016
205
2017
208
2018
239
2019
276
2020
351
2021
358
2022
372
2023
437
2024
333
2025
322
2026
65

Keywords

IT SPSS IBM archive.is outline.com SAS insights.sei OS cmu.edu much.html software price price tag customers tag pay value enterprise commodity expensive

Sample Comments

groundzeros2015 β€’ Dec 20, 2025 β€’ View on HN

Customers are willing to pay for software

ZephyrBlu β€’ Jul 20, 2022 β€’ View on HN

Software is underpriced for the value it generates.

thejosh β€’ Apr 18, 2020 β€’ View on HN

What's wrong with selling software?

cjrp β€’ Mar 29, 2017 β€’ View on HN

Is it because the customers think they'll save money making the software themselves?

0xdeadbeefbabe β€’ Jun 15, 2015 β€’ View on HN

Well you can't pay for good software these days, so maybe they are on to something.

eru β€’ Aug 8, 2025 β€’ View on HN

Are our software companies not greedy enough? Why do they waste money like this?

bsenftner β€’ Jan 21, 2018 β€’ View on HN

Sometimes, software is worth paying for...

youngnh β€’ Oct 5, 2007 β€’ View on HN

so its cheaper for software startups only, then?

fetzu β€’ Mar 3, 2025 β€’ View on HN

I guess that’s just the price of good software..

saagarjha β€’ May 14, 2020 β€’ View on HN

Imagine paying money for software that did this.