I think "SAAS fatigue" is a thing that needs to be considered. The SAAS model is great for startups and companies seeking recurring revenue. But the modern developer stack now involves dozens of companies gunning for a $5-10/month slice of the pie.
In isolation, most developers could easily afford the $10/month for copilot. But most developers are probably using the free tier for half a dozen services. So the question isn't "Can I afford copilot?", but rather "Does copilot provide more value than upgrading plans on some other service?". For example, if you are using the free tier on Slack, maybe upgrading to the paid tier so you can access the full chat history provides way more value than copilot.
Also, another consideration is that $10 per month is certainly small. But I generally use software I purchase for multiple years. I would guess on average I use a piece of software for 3-5 years. If Copilot was offered for a single purchase price of $300-500, would you pay for it? Because that is likely how much you will spend over the lifetime of the subscription. For me, that price point is approaching the territory of professional tools like CAD software, Photo/video editing software, etc...
I can certainly see why Copilot would be worth $10/month. But I also could see why someone might be uncomfortable with that.
The time savings win is really that marginal. I'm not sure I can save more than 3 hours per year with Copilot. And this isn't saving 3 hours in a single week, this is saving a few seconds here and there accumulated over a year.
Saving time with Copilot is itself a learning process and a probabilistic affair. Copilot can win you a few seconds at a time, but can easily set you back minutes if you aren't careful or experienced. It's the probability of a downward spike in time-win that makes it such a gamble. Such complex deals just turns on the cautious side of my brain.
I'm saying that at $100 yearly I'm on the fence of maybe yes or no. At $60 yearly I'm auto-yes without having to think in rational terms. I guess I'm just not at that place in life where $100 is the tier in which I think emotionally.
Also, if I magically knew that I could save you 3 hours yearly, but it were spread out over the course of a year, and that your savings would occasionally spike down into negative and then slowly climb up, I just wouldn't entertain such a complex offer at such low numbers. People pay insurance just to avoid such incidental downward spikes.
Copilot's biggest limitation right now is that you can't dare to allow minutes of savings per day without inviting the risk of a severe spike in debugging time, the kind that wipes out all your savings. This means you cannot spike up.
- Money is worth more to me than the average US dev because I earn less than US developers, and therefore my time is definitely worth less.
- I cannot use this for work at my current workplace and I'm willing to bet a lot of other companies aren't fine with it either. I'm not saving time where it makes me money, so I would classify as a luxury, not a tool (spending-wise).
Here's how I think about SaaS investments. If it's something I want or am curious about, but doesn't really have a tangible ROI, I decide if it's worth my disposable income and disposable time. If I have neither disposable income nor disposable time, it's not worth it, no matter whether it's $5 or $500/mo. You see, even for $5/yr my time is worth MORE than that money and the cost doesn't make my time worth any more or less.
If it has a tangible ROI, then I figure out how much my time is worth, I figure out how much time or other resource the SaaS app will save and then decide if it's worth the tradeoff. For example, I suck at graphic design, so a monthly $13/mo to Canva is worth it to me to save time, aggravation, and headache, not to mention improved quality of results. I know that I save myself much more in time than the $13/mo is worth.
On the otherhand, I can't justify paying even $15/mo for a podcast transcription tool because I still have to spend dozens of hours checking the transcription and it doesn't save me any headache. So it's not worth it to me. It doesn't matter if it's $60/yr or $100/yr, my time is still worth the same. If it's not worth it at $60/yr , it's not worth it at $100/yr.
Maybe this thought process is different for others, but with so much SaaS out there, it's important to focus on what will drive high value. Incremental "auto-yes" spending at any price point can get you into trouble.
