Why Jotcal has no subscription

Aston Gilliland · What you pay for, and what I might charge for later

Look at what a calendar app does for you. Your events already live in iCloud, Google or a CalDAV server. The app reads them off your device and draws them on a screen. Now put a monthly price on that and ask what you're renting.

I don't think there's a good answer. The work was done when the app was built, and nothing on my side costs me anything each month to keep your calendar working. A monthly price would be charging you for the app continuing to exist, and I don't think that's the right way to sell software that works on things you already own.

When a subscription makes sense

When something costs money every month to deliver, like a server that stores and syncs your data, or a live feed. A calendar that reads events already on your device doesn't have that bill.

What I'm doing

Jotcal is a one-time purchase, and everything in it works on your device with your own data. Handwriting, the layouts, widgets, calendar sync, all of it. There's no Jotcal account and nothing on a server of mine to keep paying for.

Weather is the one feature that calls an outside service, so it's the one place I pay something for each person using it. At the moment that's very little, and it's included in the one-time price.

What I might do later

I might add features that need outside data and have a running cost for me. If I do, I'd charge for those as a subscription, because that's the case where it's fair, and I'd say what the money covers. Nothing is decided, and I might decide it isn't worth the complexity.

Weather is the most likely place for this to start. It might be a subscription for more frequent weather updates, priced to cover what the weather data costs. Or, if enough people use Jotcal that the weather bill outgrows what I can cover, weather itself might move to a subscription. Neither is needed now, and I'll say so here if that changes.

What I won't do is move the things that run on your device with your own data behind a monthly price. Your events, handwriting, layouts and widgets stay in the one-time purchase. The line is whether something costs me money every month to deliver.

I could be wrong about whether one-time pricing can sustain an app for years. If I change my mind about any of this, I'll write it down here.

Related

• Working without an account, which is why there is nothing to bill for
• Why I built a calendar for the wall