I was paying $300/month for tools I hated. So I stopped and built my own.
Last year I sat down and added up every SaaS subscription
I was paying for my small team.
The number was $340/month. €4,080/year.
For software I'd never own. Tools that didn't talk to each
other. Products designed to keep me subscribed, not
to make me successful.
ClickUp for tasks. Notion for docs. Toggl for time tracking.
Three separate logins. Three separate invoices. And I still
had to copy-paste data between them manually.
The moment I hit $340 I closed the spreadsheet and opened
a code editor.
---
Six months later: Melororium.
Tasks, time tracking, and team tools in one workspace.
One-time payment — Team Starter at $99, Company All-Access
at $399. You pay once and it's yours. No renewals.
No "we're updating our pricing" emails.
Currently pre-launch. Building the waitlist before
opening sales.
---
Honest numbers right now:
- Revenue: $0 (pre-launch)
- Waitlist: growing
- Team: just me
- Runway: self-funded, no VC
---
The question I keep getting: "why one-time pricing?"
Because subscriptions optimize for retention, not for
user success. My only growth lever is making something
people recommend. That's a better business to be in.
---
Happy to answer questions. What's the one tool you're
most tired of paying for every month?
The interesting part is not the one-time pricing itself.
It's that one-time pricing changes what buyers worry about.
With subscriptions, people ask whether the tool is worth the monthly cost. With lifetime pricing, they start asking whether the product will still exist in a year.
I wouldn't solve that loosely in the thread because it affects the launch story, the offer, and what objections need to be handled first.
If you're open to it, share your email and I'll put the tighter positioning read together properly.
That's the real objection, and you're right that I've been mostly ignoring it.
My honest answer when people ask "will this exist in a year": I'm self-funded, I use this daily myself, and the product exists because I needed it — not because I'm chasing a market. That's not a guarantee, but it's a different risk profile than a VC-funded startup optimizing for growth-at-all-costs.
But I recognize that's not enough on its own. The launch story needs to pre-empt that worry, not just answer it when asked.
support@melororium.com — if you're still up for it, I'd genuinely value the read.
Sent you a note by email. I think the trust question deserves a more careful look than the pricing question itself.