This is the only valid and reasonable criticism I've seen here so far, kudos to you.
299 is, indeed, inaccessible for many people. But, the devs live in places where things cost more, so its also a tiny price compared to the relative value that they provide.
I do think that some sort of geo-relative pricing structure would be worth looking into, but how does one even implement something like that? Is there something that makes it all "just work"? I suspect not. Moreover, the devs have already given away so much of their time - it doesnt make much sense for them to invest even more of it into designing a pricing system like this, from which they are going to possibly earn only a negligible amount from. Perhaps this is a problem that you might like to address yourself?
Anyway, the devs are very clear that most people should never need the Pro license. 95+% of the functionality and value is available for free in the open-source library. Use it, enjoy it, learn from it, profit from it!
What I've done in a project once is use Purchasing Power Parity: basically, there's an index for purchasing power, and you adjust your pricing based on that. It's implemented in some major payment platforms, like Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/help/article/327-purchasing-power-parity
Datastar author here, neat idea. Join the Discord and talk to us about how to implement. We're just a few guys and just don't have the cycles to explore every option for every facet of the project. Some of this is pure overhead
Yeah, something like PPP seems to be the way to do it. But it seems non-trivial to implement in reality. Gumroad consequently charges 10% fees.
I think it is very unlikely that Datastar would implement something like this - but just as a matter of limited time, rather than lack of empathy with the situation.
Still, people are welcome to bring it up in their discord - perhaps they will actually do it!
And i say all of this as someone who lives in central america, and am building a nonprofit project for which i have zero funding assistance. I already bought the pro license (which is 60% of my monthly cost of living...), mostly just because i see huge value in it all and wanted to support them.
Oh wow, glad that somehow my idea of purchasing power is implemented by something like gumroad
I had checked literally everywhere including even thinking what if the devs publish it on steam or epic games but that would be weird and steam for example takes 30% cut
I had forgot to check out on gumroad but today I learnt something new thanks to you so thanks!
It seems that the dev of data-star have also commented on this and it would be lovely to see if they could implement this or any other ideas that I or the community is stated, it is nice to hear that they are taking feedback which is really nice!
> Is there something that makes it all "just work"?
Stripe?
You can geolocate via IP as a first pass for the frontend, check the card’s country code for the order, and then the billing/shipping/account address if it’s really that important (like when your service has different costs depending on locality).
I’m sure there are services that can handle it for you but it’s so simple to implement price discrimination to whatever threshold you want that I’ve never checked. The hard part was always figuring out the false positive/negative rate and the frontend flow when the different steps disagree on location, but those are edge cases that don’t really matter with zero marginal cost digital goods.
I pay for a lot of software eg I used Screen Studio a couple of times, liked it, dropped a couple hundred bucks for it. Good work from a solo dev.
Datastar have basic functionality in the pro license. Basic UX capabilities like animation and copy to clipboard.
The devs aren’t “very clear” that most people should never need the license. That’s just PR. They’ve picked a bunch of features that even a teenage hobbyist might want to use as part of a trivial application. There’s no relationship between the locked features and their value or complexity.
I would avoid any web framework that might get in my face like this, at some random moment working on a pet project to try out a new thing, with an invoice demanding payment if I want to use random features.
“Perhaps this is a problem that you might like to address yourself?”
No I’m good, thanks. The Datastar community needs some work, going by the attitude of their defenders in this thread. Someone else is saying the way they charge money isn’t a monetization strategy. It’s nonsense.
Nothing wrong with charging money. Just be honest about it, take it in the chin when people don’t want to buy, and ideally have a pricing strategy that makes sense.
They literally don't care if people want to buy it. They tell people not to. So there's nothing to take on the chin.