What are some subscription services done right? (lemmy.umucat.day)

submitted 1 week ago by xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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This question just came to me while I was buying a subway pass. It's priced very well, provides a very good service, doesn't suffer from enshittification, and its price increases very rarely.

What are some other services which people don't mind subscribing to?

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[-] Thoven@lemdro.id 7 points 6 days ago

Mullvad VPN. $5 a month for 5 concurrent high speed connections. No fake sales, no BS.

Music streaming services are close. As I understand it the artists don't get a great deal, but as a consumer ~$12/m is on the high end of reasonable for unlimited access to high quality music. And unlike with television streaming services there's very little exclusivity bullshit. You can listen to most anything most anywhere.

[-] xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day 1 points 5 days ago

And unlike with television streaming services there’s very little exclusivity bullshit. You can listen to most anything most anywhere.

If services are on the spectrum of good to enshittified, music is currently in the middle. But don't know what will happen to them by the end of this year.

[-] hyacin@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Coffee delivery. I use a fairly consistent amount, so I don't get as overloaded/running out as some other things I've tried to subscribe to - and it lets me bypass "big grocery", and get better quality product directly from the roaster/blender.

[-] xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day 1 points 5 days ago

That sounds interesting but hyper-specific. But recently, I have switched to buying consumables directly from the producer. Skips the middle man like Amazon.

[-] EpicMuch@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 week ago

Dropout.tv Great content, rewards creative talent, more than fair price

[-] nfreak@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

I've been loading up my Jellyfin server with their shows for a while and I've been meaning to grab a subscription purely to support. Great people and great content.

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

What shows do you recommend? I watched the first episode of Very Important People a while ago and it was fun

[-] MurrayL@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Game Changer is their flagship show, and has been consistently great at reinventing itself and surprising season after season. It’s a game show where the game is different every time and the contestants have to try and figure out what’s going on. It goes places.

If you enjoy long form TTRPG, they have dozens of Dimension 20 campaigns with all kinds of settings and genres.

Smartypants is a show where comedians get to give PowerPoint presentations on anything they want.

Play It By Ear is a personal fave - each episode is an entirely improvised musical, which feels like an incredible magic trick when they pull it off.

Um, Actually is a nerdy quiz show where contestants have to interrupt the host with factual corrections about video games, anime, sci-fi, etc.

Gastronauts is a cooking challenge show with professional chefs trying to fulfil unhinged requests from comedians.

There’s way more on there besides all that, but thought I’d share some highlights.

[-] zakobjoa@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Make Some Noise for me is always peak.

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

They sound like a blast, thank you so much for the recs!

[-] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I loved Um, Actually a lot when Mike Trapp hosted. It was formatted well for people to play along with at home and the trivia spanned a greater gamut of nerd culture.

Now that Iffy is hosting, the format seems to have become more like "watch them play the game" with shiny questions that are physical interactions they contestants perform like shoot the character we photoshopped with nerf darts or hurry and put these things on different walls based on some category and see who got more. They show less and less of the art or games so we can't even try to solve it along side the contestants.

Also, the content has narrowed with a significant increase in anime questions. And a sharp increase in making "themed" or special episodes.

I feel the direction has focused more on what Iffy is interested in rather than what they viewers are interested in. It's turned me off of the show and a lot of my family as well.

[-] KittyKatty@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Definitely GameChanger and Make Some Noise. Although, Make Some Noise starts off pretty mid in my opinion.

[-] bigboismith@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Electricity and water. Those actually have a real cost to provide, unlike software

[-] Thoven@lemdro.id 1 points 6 days ago

Not universally. I live in Alabama and the privately owned power company is very corrupt. We have some of the highest power bills in the US, with the biggest difference being not cost but profit margins. Water in my county is fairly priced IMO, but I've heard other counties aren't so lucky.

[-] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Most software with a subscription has some kind of backend resource that is being consumed, even if that's not obvious to the user. The software companies are getting rich too of course, so yeah it should cost less.

[-] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Some services, like social media, require backend resources and there's no way around it.

Others, dare I say most, are backend by the company's choice and usually to the detriment of the user.

Some require backend resources purely for DRM and so that they can pull the plug on it whenever they please and screw over everyone who paid for it. Like most single player games these days. Or as a means of holding your in game items hostage to get more money out of you (Pokemon Home comes to mind).

[-] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Updates alone have no way to happen solely on the local machine. There are many reasons why using someone else's computer would be required, which have nothing to do with social media. Just off the top of my head:

Image/video/audio processing that requires more compute than you can reasonably except from average consumer hardware.
Antivirus and other forms of security which require near real-time fingerprinting and/or new definitions.
Licensing/certificate servers
Servers which receive and process telemetry data
Resources for submitting/processing/securing legal/government forms/documents

And a lot more I can't think of right now. Most of this shit makes me want to vomit in my mouth. I'd much rather spend my time and money sourcing, building, and configuring my own hardware and running everything locally. But that's just because I'm an idealistic nerd with an uncompromising bent towards digital liberty - most users and softwares are not built for that.

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[-] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Even software that does not require back-end resources has a cost if it's actively supported and/or receiving new features. These hours the developers put it are often unpaid when talking about open source, but it's not something anyone should take for granted.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago

I honestly think there are very few things that make sense as a subscription service. Basically all software that runs on your computer (Adobe, Office, etc) make 0 sense being a subscription. Honestly, most web software could just be made to run on your computer. Things like email, cloud storage, phone service, that have ongoing non-development related costs make sense.

Media is the worst offender. Just let me pay for a download and watch/listen to something.

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[-] Today@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Our art museum is free but for 100/yr we used to get a subscription that got us 4 free tickets per day to visiting exhibits that are normally $16 each, plus free parking which is normally $10 and it's across the street from a big park with food trucks and activities.

Also, the zoo and botanical garden memberships that offer reciprocity with a bunch of other zoos or gardens.

[-] Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Zoo membership is clutch with toddlers. 100% worth it. Same with the Children's museum.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Not just toddlers! My best trip to contiguous America involved the zoo and the aquarium in Atlanta, as well as the Fernbank.

In about a decade, when America is safe for outsiders again, I'm totally going back ... after Hanauma Bay, that is.

[-] Twanquility@feddit.dk 15 points 1 week ago

Mail provider. There are very cheap and privacy friendly options. Like 1 euro pr. month.

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Similarly I always think that a domain name with unlimited mail forwarding addresses (aka aliases) is amazing; a .eu domain costs me around 6-7€ a year with Bookmyname - old timey interface but all I need it for is to add more and more aliases :)

[-] NanoooK@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Which service do you use to have the alias? I use mailbox.org but the number of alias are limited.

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I use the mail service included with the domain at Bookmyname, they give you 2GB that you can split between multiple mail accounts, and unlimited aliases that can also send (they are called Identities in K9mail and other programs, you have to add them to send).

The aliases still end with your domain name - for more privacy you can nest them for example one alias to receive simplelogin mails, another for 33mail, ecc.

BTW mailbox.org is a great choice too, probably simpler to use but it costs a bit more.

[-] NanoooK@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I also have a domain with bookmyname but I didn't know about the mail service included. I'll have a look, thank you.

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[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

dropout
beacon
pbs passport
my local library

[-] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

My state has a special state parks license plate with a parking benefit. Free parking at almost every state park. This includes beaches, nature reserves, mountains, hiking areas, skiing areas, etc.

Having the plates on means you just park and go, no kiosks or paper slips, putting money in a box or dealing with someone.

Parking is $5 and up, and the plate is only $40 extra (on top of normal vehicle registration fees), so it can pay for itself many times over the course of a year.

[-] xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day 3 points 1 week ago

That's actually great. I think that the savings in time alone pays itself. May I ask which state this is?

[-] incompetent@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago

Not OP but California started offering them about a decade ago.

I don't know which other states offer them though.

[-] prettygorgeous@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Debrid services

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[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Where I live, the subway is expensive :(

I used to never see people hopping the gate but now I do every time.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026

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