How many and what type of subscriptions do you have?
Maybe this post will help makers understand how much people are willing to spend, what products are useful to them, and what the main motive for buying is.
I personally try to keep track of how much and what I spend. Before I invest in something, I consider:
what will be the return on it (i.e. whether I will earn something by buying/investing in a product),
whether it will be profitable for me in the long term,
whether it will save me time.
I don't have many subscriptions, to be honest, only:
Twitter Premium – annual (~€80)
CapCut Pro – annual (~€120)
(and that's all) 😅 ... the other subscriptions are paid for by the company... like Visual Eletric, MixPanel, ChatGPT etc.
How are your subscription plans?
E.g. what products you subscribed to; (budgeting – optional); what do you consider when purchasing (your why).
Replies
Honestly, there’s only one single reason why I keep getting subscriptions:
To be better. To handle the things I need to do more effectively.
I have annual subscriptions to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Pro (Gemini), X/Grok, Claude, Canva and Typefully. From time to time, I subscribe to tools I specifically need: Cursor, Lovable, Bolt. I probably have another 10 or so subscriptions I’m forgetting.
How do I decide how much to spend?
Very simple. I’ve set a monthly percentage of my income that goes toward tools. It’s like a productivity tax I pay. And I just know that each month, I can allocate that amount toward tools.
Is it worth it?
Absolutely. Clients and partners see that I’m able to handle an incredibly wide range of tasks at a high level. That increases my value.
Also, a lot of things are easier when you can just do them. We start a new project: I immediately show them what I imagine the landing page to look like. I don’t need to rely on their developers/designers/frontend engineers to share my vision. We need content on all sorts of topics: I don’t have to wait on someone else to get it done.
Gemini also helps me in business relationships. In different cultures, negotiations and communication play out differently. I feed it our conversations and it tells me how to negotiate, how to act, and points out red flags in the people I’m dealing with.
When I research a project, I hand it over to Gemini DeepResearch and it gives me a 25-page report with 150+ links. I end up knowing more about the project than people who’ve been in the industry for over 10 years.
So yes, I probably use 20+ subscriptions regularly each month. But I wouldn’t cut a single one because they help in every aspect of my business. I’m more valuable to myself, I make better decisions, and the people I work with also get value that would be impossible to deliver without these tools.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@byalexai Wow, but how do you handle them? Isn't it too much (distraction)? :D
Doraverse
I usually prefer monthly subscriptions over annual plans. Here are the ones I’m using:
YouTube Premium Family — about $5
GPT Pro — about $5
LinkedIn Premium — $29.99
X Verify — $8
Canva Pro — $15
Google Drive — $9.99
Brevo — $18
Plus several others like Snap (game), Netflix, Hulu, and mor
minimalist phone: creating folders
@hwiidg But you overpay it, don't you? When I am confident enough that I will be using the product long-term (e.g. more than 5 or 6 months), I will pay for the whole year.
Doraverse
@busmark_w_nika I actually think your approach makes a lot of sense.
It's just that I'm currently running a startup, paying off a mortgage, and dealing with bank loans. So I have to be really careful about my monthly cash flow.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@hwiidg Understandably. Tho, for sure, try to count how you could potentially overpay for paying monthly separately.
Released
@hwiidg in what country is YouTube Premium Family $5?
Doraverse
@jschumacher Haha I just shared with my friends
Released
minimalist phone: creating folders
@hwiidg @jschumacher I think that in India, Turkey and Argentina are the lowest prices.
Yes, it's very cheap in India, with the student plan, it's only a dollar a month
Triforce Todos
It makes you pause and think about where your money goes every month 😅
I try to keep it lean, too. Right now, I am paying for:
ChatGPT (mainly for content help + idea validation)
Notion AI (for notes, writing, and staying semi-organized)
Canva Pro (worth it just for quick social graphics)
Netflix... because, well, mental health matters 😄
When I consider a subscription, my first question is always: Will this either save me time or help me make more money? If the answer is yes, I usually give it a shot (with a reminder to review it later so I do not forget and let it charge me forever 😬).
minimalist phone: creating folders
@abod_rehman To be honest, I wouldn't leave money for Netflix because I cannot see the return value. (for me it is too passive). 😀 My only luck is that people joined/invited me in the family plans for useful things like DuoLingo)... but considering a YouTube subscription because those skipped ads would help me to save a lot of waiting time.
Gridapps Testimonials
I’m a developer, so I try to keep my subscriptions focused — only tools that help me ship faster or stay mentally organized.
My current paid stack:
ChatGPT (daily dev + writing help)
Cursor AI (love the VS Code-like AI experience)
ClickUp (lightweight project tracking for solo/small teams)
Framer (super quick for landing pages)
Notion AI (for async docs with my remote team)
Before subscribing, I always ask:
Will this save me time or cognitive load?
Will I use it consistently in my dev or product workflow?
Will it help me build or ship faster?
I skip anything that feels like a “nice-to-have” but ends up collecting dust after a week.
Really love threads like this — they give a real-world view of what people actually pay for, not just try once and forget.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@gowthamshankar Hopefully, you reflected all your subscriptions and declutter those unuseful ones :D TY for sharing :)
Conduit AI
Personal
ChatGPT Pro ($200/mo)
Cleanshot X ($29 one time)
Aqua voice ($8/mo)
Company
Cursor (enterprise)
Notion (enterprise)
Superhuman (enterprise)
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@punn_kam Have heard about Aqua voice for the very first time, so I tried to look it up on Google, and the video from my friend jumped on me:
:)This is a great question. So many free tiers that you build up a workflow from a template in n8n that has perplexity and you just get the free license. But, if you build something substantial then you're into a paid account. TL;DR too many options and licenses.
I use the following tools consistently:
OpenAI (API and Chat)
Claude
Gemini
n8n
Pinecone
Google Search API
Google Workplace
Descript
Random signups that I probably won't keep
Airtable
Perplexity
Zapier
Lovable (I do like this one)
Bedrock
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@tinyorgtech But do you pay for all of them? :D
@busmark_w_nika no. In fact I'm going through them next week to thin out the herd. It gets confusing what I have. I enjoy the exploration but gotta keep a solid list so I don't go broke.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@tinyorgtech Yeah, rather keep your savings than spending them on tools you will not use at all :D
A few but not a complete list and
@OpenAI
@Figma
@Gamma (super useful)
@Fitbod Weight Lifting Workout (a truly great product)
@usebubbles , can't live without, I like the permissions and the way the notes are presented vs other ai notetakers, big boost to productivity
@Notion
Gamma isn't perfect, but it gets me over overthinking slides and it is done in five minutes. I am really looking forward to what the future might be presenting data etc.
who is going to make the ai tableau?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@usebubbles @howell4change What for is usebubbles?
Nowadays, so many useful tools are creating which needs subscription so it's hard to decide which subscription plans is fit to my budget because of unstable income. Probably many people suffer from same issues with me. As an intern at a LegalTech company, I think that the issue is deciding the parameter, for instance lawyers must use the parameter as time and money comparison. If they see, they can earn more than the subscription fee in the saved time thanks to LegalAI, the buying is definitely beneficial for them. Need to think about the parameters for deciding it's worth or not.
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@efebiyikoglu Do you have any subscriptions?
@busmark_w_nika Of course, but not too much
-Netflix
-ChatGPT
-Twitter premium for Grok
-Spotify
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@efebiyikoglu All of these are still a huge amount of money. 😅
Same here, only keep subscriptions that either save me time or actually pay for themselves. I’m currently on:
* ChatGPT (€300/year): for instant code ideas, troubleshooting and quick docs lookup
* Helm (€30/year): makes App Store Connect workflows a breeze (I’d gladly pay more)
* RocketSim (€60/year): spins up simulated devices in seconds so I can test UIs and animations without the wait
* GitKraken (€60/year): a git repo manager with a clean, intuitive UI
* Canva (€150/year): to create my apps assets
Each one pays for itself by speeding up my work or helping me avoid mistakes ;)
minimalist phone: creating folders
@lienmt You made a wise choice when you invested yearly :) Money savings can be used for any other tool you will decide to add into your portfolio :)
Varies by month or a three month period for new AI products.
I've gotten consistent use from Claude and ChatGPT but I'd rather pay for Claude only.
As for graphic and video subs, I've cut them down drastically to one off payment products and kicked Canva due to template overbloat.
I would ramp this up if I were to work on a project solo and AI could help me cut those inefficiencies of onboarding/offboarding because finding a partner to work with is always hit and miss.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@suebozkus Why would you choose Claude over GPT?
@busmark_w_nika Because it has more use cases for my work and tends to be more accurate.