One moment, you’re enjoying the benefits of a software product. The next moment, you’re drowning in a sea of unexpected costs.
Welcome to the Venus SaaS Trap. 🥀🪰
Have you ever started using software, and you’re suddenly forced to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for licenses? Take Slack, for example. To keep your chat history, you must pay a license fee for every user. You’ll pay over $1000 a month if you have a few hundred users. 😱
A Sneaking Restriction
I’m using Airtable at work and home. It’s a great tool until its license restrictions force you to pay users to edit a form submission. The licensing model sneaks in a license requirement, and now you’re paying hundreds or thousands of dollars a month to allow basic form edits. 🤦♂️
Overly Intelligent Reporting
SaaS products love baking in sophisticated reporting. It’s a great feature until you realize you’re paying a license to use the reporting feature, and your data is held hostage by the vendor.
Beware the enticing report that could be an export away from a free business intelligence tool.
You’re A Boiled Frog
SaaS companies often cook up a tasty frog soup for their investors, and you’re an ingredient. You’re enjoying a low-cost solution to your world problems, and then BAM! They raise the price and the temperature.
Netflix is a great example. My last incremental increase was the last straw for me. Bye-bye, Reed Hastings, goodbye. 🥃
Solutions
So, how do you escape the Venus SaaS Trap?
Read the fine print
Never love a feature until you understand its licensing model.
Use GetAI to give you the rundown.
Use Open Source Software
Using Open Source software is often a better option than SaaS.
You can host open source software on your NAS or on the cloud, and you’re in control.
You can contribute to the software, and add features that you need.
You’re no longer at a vendor’s mercy.
Conclusion
It’s easy to enter your email and sign up for another software solution. My inbox is sometimes disturbed by long-forgotten SaaS signup spam. However, as the old adage goes, “If it’s free, you’re the product.”. There’s no free lunch, and all that jazz.
Be wary of The Venus SaaS Trap, and the perils of a seemingly free software solution. It may just save you or your company from a financial disaster. 💸