I have a hard time buying products online because I either feel like I can build something instead or I shouldn’t spend too much time on my computer. If I’m paying a product, I’ll try to do it for small software and show my support. In this list I have:

• middleclick: $9 to be able to tap with 3 fingers on a Mac trackpad to simulate a middle click (open link in a new tab, close tab). I don’t even know how people do without it.
• bartender: $22 for the longest time I could get away by tweaking MacOS preferences in the terminal, but the ability to do so shrink in the last few versions. Edit (Dec 31, 2024): Bartender got acquired by an unknown developer which raised questions about privacy and what they’ll be doing with the app. I decided to switch to Ice. I’m just missing the conditional feature to show the battery icon.
• alfredapp: $75 (I probably paid less at the time) and these applications are forever (or at least I can use a specific version for ever)

I’ve been avoiding subscriptions, but the latest buy is for Pocket Casts and I found out their pricing pretty sweet:

1. $20/year for the first year. I won’t feel back not listening for podcasts for one month, and paying $4/month
2. The free application is great. You get access to the mobile app, and the experience is amazing, no ads, no subscribe button everywhere. Just subtle enough (vs. Duolingo which is annoying when not paying with ads and popup asking you to subscribe everywhere).
3. The paid plan gives nice features: bookmarks (I was taking screenshots before) and listen podcasts on desktop (through a website). There are more features which I’m less interesting in.
4. Payment through Apple which let me trust the cancellation process through iOS.

Pocket Casts pricing is the sweet spot with having nice small paid features and perfectly usable free app. I’m not sure I’ll be paying $40/year next year but at least they got me for 1 year.