A few weeks ago I read Steph Anglo’s post on paying for quality software. It got me thinking about the software I do and don't pay for...

I have subscriptions for Proton Mail and Bitwarden. I own (now quite old versions of) Pixelmator and Affinity. I used to have a subscription to Termius when ssh-ing into servers was a regular thing for me. Whilst it's not exactly software, my domains are with a small UK hosting company rather than a big beast.

Steph's post helped me feel better about spending money in this way, framing it as like buying high quality locally produced food rather than mass produced low quality highly processed food, that's full of things that are bad for you.

Until now I've always felt irrationally opposed to paying for an RSS reader ("I'm reading free content!?"). I've used Inoreader for free for a long time, even though it's buggy, confusing and not really designed for personal use. But Steph's food from the farmer's market reframing, combined with my own post about my dislike of App Defaults has made me finally see the value of $5 a month to Feedbin.

It's something I use every day, so want it to be high quality and work well. I'm now a subscriber.

Also, if I calculated a ratio of the attention I give it vs the amount it costs, and then compare that to other subscriptions like Spotify or Disney+, it holds up pretty well, even before adding a "quality software" multiplier.

I'd like to think about some of the other "free" services I'm using - which ones do I value highly and use frequently? These are the ones I should upgrade to higher quality, healthier software. Cough... Google Photos... Cough.

p.s. I now also have a very well priced Black Friday subscription to Filen which is probably where my photos will end up, neatly organised in folders.