Anyone else think developer tooling is too expensive?

I think we're pretty lucky as developers considering there are open source tools for pretty much everything, including things like measuring test coverage. I could get started as a 9 yo with just a computer and a 56k modem and I keep going today on a basic laptop.

I don't think $10/user/month is that much considering the cost of hiring an engineer.

Yes and no, some software I think is underpriced and some overpriced. I guess it kind balances out for me.

Yes, I definitely think that developer tooling can be expensive. However, I think it is important to weigh the cost of the tool against the value it brings to the company. In my opinion, if a tool is helping to increase productivity

I fully agree. And the simple economic dynamic behind this is that there’s (for a lot of tools) simply not enough competition to prevent regular price increases from happening.

It’s something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Webflow is a popular tool among Indiehackefs, and they’ve pulled a huge pricing increase late last year.

I don’t want to self-promote in this post, but since it’s fairly related I think it’s worth mentioning that I’m working on an independent nocode hosting provider to combat monopoly pricing from happening. It’s called Flowly, and the first offer is Webflow hosting – I’m offering the same hosting plans for half the price.

For anyone interested, here’s the IH link: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/host-webflow-sites-for-half-the-price-c37afd2a40

Is it cheap to sell but expensive to buy? I wouldn't be surprised if it seems expensive as a customer yet most of the vendors in the space still aren't making money.

Yep it adds up real quick. Especially with all the AI stuff coming out these days which seems insanely expensive. If you just get Copilot and a couple other tools to e.g. post on social media live Feedhive / copy.ai you are down about $100/mo.
I can't be much of a fan of this new subscription economy. Some tools should be sold as a one-time fee. For example, my color picker app is asking for $2 / mo, my clipboard manager is about the same - not to mention VPN, Figma - woah I'm getting dizzy now 😃🥴

For that reason I am trying to build most of my things as free with a one-time fee to unlock. I understand why subscriptions work better but there must be space to make decent revenue without obsessing about MRR and subscription models.

Because niche is complex and need regular updates and maintenance.

Also lots of opportunities for newbies to create competitor products.

Not just developer tooling, any of the stack – like Airtable – often it feels like they're priced entirely for enterprise users who can afford to throw whatever money for every single seat at it.

Whenever a tool gets too expensive, is a good opportinuty to create an alternative with a lower price.
So, what other tools should we replicate?