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    Is Subscription Fatigue a Real Thing?

    I've been thinking about this for a while now — subscriptions vs non subscriptions. Listen, I get why businesses do it, but I'm personally so tired of every platform having a subscription model. Sure; it's cheaper in the moment, but I'm not sure if I'm all for it anymore, especially for certain types of products that it just feels straight up unnecessary. Do any of you feel any differently? The same? Also, I'm curious if you see any possibility for a shift in the marketplace, or if this model is here to stay…

    Is Subscription Fatigue a Real Thing?
    byu/JustBrndxn inFrugal



    Posted by JustBrndxn

    15 Comments

    1. Strong_Letterhead638 on

      Absolutely here to stay as long as the middle class continues to go extinct 

    2. Best-Ad-2091 on

      Yes… I am tired of every other company out there wanting a subscription for anything. I’ve started to self host all my services and slash the subscriptions left and right. At one point, I received 3 emails within the span of one month of services that were raising their prices and realized that I was at the mercy of these subscription companies. I had enough.

      There are few subscriptions out there that are worth it for me, and I happily pay for those.

    3. Comfortable-Shoe9543 on

      If it has a subscription I avoid it as much as possible. Idgaf I will do without

    4. midwinterpath on

      I only have one, and that’s because easy access to music improves the quality of my life considerably, so I make do with Spotify. I could get rid of it if necessary. In the overwhelming majority of cases, I can find a way to secure a product or service without recurring payment, and if I can’t, I can probably find an appropriate alternative.

    5. GirlFriday360 on

      I experienced this 100%. Decided to jump ship (for the most part). I keep one streaming service at a time and switch from one to another when I feel like it. Zero music services and just listen to the radio or YouTube.

      And I have an Amazon account that I pay for annually. That’s it.

    6. FapFapkins on

      Subscription-based models are becoming more prominent because they’re effective in profiting off of people who don’t pay attention. Financially illiterate people forget about the subscriptions and they make more money off of that than anything else.

      You see these ridiculous ads for things like Rocket Money where people talk about $400 worth of monthly subscriptions going unnoticed. How could someone not notice that? Then you realize that many people do not look at their bank balances with any regularity and just assume everything is okay in there.

      I hate it, but all I can do is say no to them for myself and my finances.

    7. BelmontIncident on

      You’re tired of dealing with subscriptions, so it’s obviously possible to get tired of dealing with subscriptions.

      I deal with steaming subscriptions by refusing to do that and instead having a secondhand laptop with a DVD drive.

    8. lesluggah on

      It is definitely a thing. I only have one subscription. I buy the lifetime version. I’ve even made sure to not update my apps anymore, because they’ve started putting basic features behind a subscription. For example, one of my sketchbook apps added a subscription for choosing a pencil/pen. Or I find a competitor that doesn’t do a subscription model.

    9. Purple_Antelope_8338 on

      100%. I cut out all of my subscriptions. I hunt eBay for cheap dvds/blu rays, download mp3s on my phone instead of using Apple Music, use free streaming services like Tubi and Pluto etc. 

      I think it’s here to stay because people are more willing to spend a few bucks a month on something than a lump sum, and if they forget to cancel it they will be getting more money from people. 

    10. wulfzbane on

      I hate it. Like Photoshop, I do not want constant updates, the old versions are fine for my purposes, and I use it a few times a year, I’m not paying $30/month. I think they did the same thing for Microsoft Office. At least there is open source alternatives to most things.

      They are 100% going to stay, it’s way better for companies to charge a subscription than release a new version and try to guess how many are going to switch the the new one. Plus, like gym memberships they count on people forgetting about it and still paying, or otherwise using it minimally, and still raking in cash.

      Plus TONS of people don’t budget, or audit their financials. $8 here, $3.50 there, doesn’t seem like much but times that by 4.5 (American average) and it adds up fast.

    11. sbinjax on

      Subscriptions are just a way to extract money from customers. I can count subscriptions I have on one hand, and that includes Costco and Walmart+, which may as well be subscriptions. Online, only 1 newspaper. On my phone, I pay for a service that blocks robo-calls. That’s it. Everything else is pay per use. I spend a whole lot less that way.

    12. Snow11white on

      I feel you. I find myself scrolling through the different platforms to shows and movies that I don’t really want to watch, and I end up just rewatching a show or moving to YouTube. Sometimes there’s a movie I haven’t seen in a while and it’s only available to rent.

    14. DrunkBuzzard on

      I know it’s just a commercial for a financial app but in the we’re checking on a girl and it said she had 25 subscriptions costing her over $300 a month and she was surprised. How can you be so stupid as to not know $300 a month is going out of your account every month. It’s exactly what the companies are counting on that you sign up and forget about it.

    15. octocode on

      i only run one subscription at a time, usually just rotating through free trials or $3-for-3-month promos.

      i don’t have a need for any SaaS products that require a subscription, as there’s almost always a decent alternative (ie photoshop vs affinity)

      any physical product that requires a subscription is an instant dealbreaker for me.

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