Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply, it's given me a list of things to think about and it's honestly really appreciated. Completely understand the open source side of things and avoiding proprietary tech, I'm exactly the same and only standing on the shoulders of other open source software. I'm utilising SQLite and FAISS, so just files on disk that technically _any_ frontend or whatever could display, it's your data to do what you want with.
Not heard of Alfred as I'm not in the Apple ecosystem, but yes, you've hit the nail on the head between the combination of both after doing a bit of digging.
I'll seriously think about making it open source (time to brush up on the different licenses again). I want to keep it accessible so even my grandma could use it. I'm not expecting her to go cloning a git repo and checking dependencies etc, so I'm packaging it into a standalone executable. Maybe making the source open is something for me to consider and people can just pay if they don't want to go through any setup hassle (do I put some soft donation paywall up with a $0 minimum or something - just thinking out loud).
In terms of pricing, you've landed where I was thinking, maybe more towards the $30 end. I mean I think it's pretty slick and fills a niche, but I'm conscious I may be ever so slightly biased. A lot of stuff to mull over. Thanks again, really useful.
Thanks for taking the time to think about these things upfront rather than just cynically chasing money like 99% of paid/monetised apps out there.
It will greatly increase the attractiveness of your software to me if you stick to the philosophy you’ve outlined there.
One approach that I’ve seen and have absolutely no issues with (in fact I think it’s a pretty smart way of doing things) is where a fully open source project provides code and releases on GitHub and in package managers like Homebrew, but also publishes releases as paid software on app stores.
This allows users to pay for the peace of mind of a “verified” app store install that Just Works. It also provides an easy way for the more technical among us to donate. I’ve switched to paid releases like this myself for a least a couple of fully open source projects just to give a little back.
Not heard of Alfred as I'm not in the Apple ecosystem, but yes, you've hit the nail on the head between the combination of both after doing a bit of digging.
I'll seriously think about making it open source (time to brush up on the different licenses again). I want to keep it accessible so even my grandma could use it. I'm not expecting her to go cloning a git repo and checking dependencies etc, so I'm packaging it into a standalone executable. Maybe making the source open is something for me to consider and people can just pay if they don't want to go through any setup hassle (do I put some soft donation paywall up with a $0 minimum or something - just thinking out loud).
In terms of pricing, you've landed where I was thinking, maybe more towards the $30 end. I mean I think it's pretty slick and fills a niche, but I'm conscious I may be ever so slightly biased. A lot of stuff to mull over. Thanks again, really useful.