Would you buy a subscription for a VS Code extension that is not a SAAS?
I made a VS Code extension for AWS DynamoDB and CloudWatch logs.
Screencast of DynamoDB GUI: https://serverlessconsole.com/webm/dynamodb.webm
I'm now trying to figure out could this be a sustainable monetized project by "locking" some of the premium features?
Since many people told me that "selling to developers is hard", my fear is that people will not buy a subscription to an offline app. Also, most of the VS code extensions are free which makes it even harder.
What do you think? Would you personally buy an extension like this one?
Also, what do you think about the price? I was considering lowering it from $4/m to $3/m for individual users
As with anything I think it's about ROI. If I can get more value out of it then what I invest in it, I'd pay for it. One of the things I hate about Cloudwatch is the searching functionality. Cloudwatch insights made it little easier but it's still a pain. If you can perhaps improve that and make it realtime or something and I can see all the logs right in VS code, now that's something usable. Hope that helps or at least gets you thinking about what would add value :)
I made it possible to read and search for CloudWatch logs. You can even sort them per stage (I needed that for my lambdas).
You can see it here (even though there are some changes from that screencast):
https://serverlessconsole.com/webm/lambda-logs.webm
https://serverlessconsole.com/webm/search-logs.webm
That's great that you did. However, I'd say you pretty much took what AWS had and brought it local directly into the IDE. Perhaps, to some people, this still provides value. For me, it still doesn't provide enough value for me to consider paying. I think you'll need go beyond what AWS has done. At least for me. Just my two cents. Regardless, great job done so far. I'm sure you'll keep improving it :)
I know some people charging for IDE extensions and building a business around it. The brightest example is Cursive IDE (for IntelliJ). You can use it for free for any non-commercial projects but have to pay for commercial use.
As for the price, price it around value. If you save hours of development time then charging $3 is probably very little. If the tool is just nice to have then charging anything will be a hard sell.
I see... Thanks for the great feedback! :)