> I can only speculate that the abysmal state of self-hosted software for the general public is because there is not enough money to be made in terms of recurring subscriptions or constant inflow of data.
That's exactly what it is. Some software charges a subscription for self hosting. You maintain everything like a sysadmin and pay a huge per user per month subscription fee. It's insane.
Look at authentication systems to see how ridiculous the price discrimination / gouging has become. It costs $0.0055 per month for and AWS Cognito user or $0.00325 per month for an Azure AD External Identities user. However, as soon as you use Active Directory for employees it's several dollars per month per user. The P1 plans are $6 per user per month. What makes auth for an employee worth 184,000% more than it is for a customer?
I think big tech is absolutely scamming everyone, especially small businesses. They're taking "charge what the market will bear" to a whole new level and the only reason it's working is because anti-trust laws aren't being enforced. If we had fair competition the cost for a lot of tech would drop substantially IMO. There's a lot of room in a market with 2000x markup.
That's exactly what it is. Some software charges a subscription for self hosting. You maintain everything like a sysadmin and pay a huge per user per month subscription fee. It's insane.
Look at authentication systems to see how ridiculous the price discrimination / gouging has become. It costs $0.0055 per month for and AWS Cognito user or $0.00325 per month for an Azure AD External Identities user. However, as soon as you use Active Directory for employees it's several dollars per month per user. The P1 plans are $6 per user per month. What makes auth for an employee worth 184,000% more than it is for a customer?
I think big tech is absolutely scamming everyone, especially small businesses. They're taking "charge what the market will bear" to a whole new level and the only reason it's working is because anti-trust laws aren't being enforced. If we had fair competition the cost for a lot of tech would drop substantially IMO. There's a lot of room in a market with 2000x markup.