I’m not really asking about movie streaming services (but you can include those) but I’m wondering about software purchases that you felt are vastly superior to the freeware versions to the point where you felt it was worth paying for the paid version, or because there is no free version that can do what the paid version does.
For me I’d include:
Filebot (to rename video files)
internet download manager (downloads videos)
Swipefy (lets you sample endless music in short 30 second bits
Google One AI Premium plan (access to more advanced AI tools and more cloud space)
For me that’d be ChatGPT (probably my single favorite program ever), Spotify, and the IDE (computer programming software) I use for work. I also reluctantly pay for Parallels and Crossover, which let me run Windows-only apps on my Mac. And video games, of course.
I used to pay for the Adobe Suite when I was a student and could get their educational pricing. Not anymore.
I don’t pay for much else. Seems like there’s usually a freeware or open source solution that’s “good enough” for most things. To download videos I’d use a browser extension or yt-dlp. For renaming files or any generic batch operation, the AI could probably write a simple shell script for you to run.
Edit: Forgot I also pay for (and love) GeForce Now, which lets you stream PC games and play them without a gaming PC.
Bbedit - so extraordinarily useful and functional in its never-expiring free trial version that I gladly paid for a full license to support the developer.
I just pay for Roboform, the Adobe suite, ChatGPT 4o, and Midjourney. But, I think I’ll cancel Midjourney since ChatGPT’s image generation is top-notch and consistent.
Everyone and their brother uses Winrar for free. I bought a license over 10 years ago. .rar is superior because recovery records are available, unlike .zip and unlike the open source .7z. That protects you against bitrot and various transmission errors. Compression quality is a lower priority than data integrity, though rar’s compression is decent (and rar5’s is better than decent).
If .7z offered a recovery record, it would be unbeatable. But for some reason this hasn’t happened despite requests made years ago.
On the subject of AI, another program I pay for is Poe. Its an AI conglomerate (for lack of a better term) that combines endless AI tools. You buy points, and you can use those points to try different AI systems.
I pay $5 a month for 10,000 points a day so I can try out various paid AI programs in smaller doses.
Like GPT-4.1 is 67 points/1k tokens, and 195 points per bot message. o4-mini is 37 points/1k tokens and 293 points per bot message
Its a nice way to experiment with different AI tools, and its convenient to have them in one place.
EVER? Like if I paid for Photoshop 3.0 to run on my MacOS 7.5 computer back in 1996 and felt like it was worth it, I should list it? Or just the ones that are on the computer I regard as my main computer these days?
Parallels Desktop
GraphicConverter
PhotoSweeper Lite
Excel
FileMaker Pro
NetFinder
Timbuktu Pro
Splashtop Business
Sound Studio
XLD
Capto
SoundConverter
Audio Hijack Pro
Nisus Writer Pro
Carbon Copy Cloner
Default Folder
DiskWarrior
No-IP .com Updater
QuicKeys
Remember?
Super Get Info
Electric Sheep
Eudora
Aida64 integrates with the display on my keyboard and lets me see my CPU/GPU usage & temps, RAM/VRAM usage, clock speed and FPS at a glance and without a screen overlay. That was worth a purchase for me.
VideoRedo TVSuite is a great program for my needs in video editing.
Unfortunately, the creator died some time ago and it hasn’t been maintained. The program can’t handle an increasing number of types of video encodings.
I find free programs like VirtualDub2 to be nowhere near the same level of ease of use.
It’s mostly replaced search engines for me, at least for the initial part of research. I still ask for and double check citations for anything important.
I frequently use it for work (computer programming), making example images of a rough concept, translating to different human languages, having it perform a deep analysis where it searches and summarizes multiple sources, formatting Markdown and other text, etc.
I also use it for fun, generating trivia questions or using it like a smarter Wikipedia to learn about new concepts, summarize PDFs (though NotebookLM is better for that), talk about cats, and other inane stuff like that. More examples from other threads here:
There are two I pay for. The first is a highly programmable editing program Kedit that I have been using for over 40 years. Since the creator retired, the program is still available on his website. He asks for a donation, but makes no attempt to enforce it. I cannot imagine using Word as an input for LaTeX, but I cannot imagine doing that. Since I do everything from a command prompt, I also pay for Take Command, a highly programmable command program. But the main use I made of it is for navigating directories. If I type in the name of a directory, it brings up a list of all the directories with that name and allows me to choose it.
Davinci Resolve Studio - the free version is incredible, but the paid version has some very useful features like voice isolation that made it completely worth the money -it was about £250, but it’s a lifetime licence and it literally paid for itself by enabling me to rescue some footage that would have been difficult to reshoot, but was otherwise ruined by background noise.
Microsoft Excel/Word/Outlook. I had Open Office for years and grew to hate it because it felt so limited…Excel popped up on sale on Amazon one day, and I snatched it up.
