Today, traditional software development can be expensive. It takes a lot of money and time to develop software. Software development costs range from the cost of hardware to the cost of hiring contractors and even freelancers for different areas of expertise. To make software development less costly and more sustainable, we need to think beyond the traditional way software development has worked up until today. The traditional software development model depends on companies paying companies to build software for them in exchange for licensing their technology or buying a fully developed application. The new model is called the subscription model, and it’s already making its mark in many fields. In this blog post we look at what a subscription model is, how it works and if it’s right for your company or project.
What is a Subscription Model?
When you sign up for a gym membership, you don’t pay an annual fee. Instead, you pay a monthly fee. A subscription model is a form of project management that is similar to an on-demand product model such as a gym membership. Instead of paying a set amount upfront, you pay a recurring fee for a certain period of time.
Advantages of the subscription model
- Increased Sustainability – The subscription model is a sustainable model because you don’t need to spend money upfront to use the product. You only pay for the product when you use it. This is a more sustainable way of using software compared to the traditional model, where you pay a large amount of money for software you may use for only one year.
- Flexibility – With a subscription model, you can choose the length of the subscription. You might need access to the product for a certain period of time or you might need it for a long period of time. You can choose the subscription that works best for you.
- Control – You have more control when it comes to managing your budget when using a subscription model. You only pay for the product and you decide when to use it. You don’t need to account for the money spent on licensing, maintenance or support.
Should you use a subscription model?
A subscription model might be a good fit for projects that use SaaS products, which are also often subscription-based models. For example, some health-related products are SaaS-based. These products are usually subscription-based and you might even have a monthly membership fee. The subscription model for SaaS models is a good fit for some companies that want to increase their sustainability.
Final Words
As the software development and project management landscape continues to change, we will see more companies and people adopt different types of business models. We can only speculate what the future holds, but it’s likely that the subscription model will be one of the more popular models to come next.
