HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on software?

12 points by jilles ↗ HN
I pay for a few services such as 1Password and Fantastical. Both these services are very much worth the money for me. I was wondering if there is any other paid software / SaaS that is a must have for some.

30 comments

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scott31
A donation to GNU project was the best money I spent on software
stockkid
Interesting point. While I sympathize with the cause, I personally wouldn't find it the best money spent, had I donated, because it is impossible to measure the impact of the money spent.
java-man
Beyond Compare (a cross-platform file/directory comparison tool) [0] is an absolute marvel. Extremely useful, and a very user-friendly license.

[0] https://www.scootersoftware.com/

the_only_law
Huh, we have licenses for this at my job, but I haven't used it much so far. I'll have to look more into it.
dredmorbius
$10 or so for a Red Hat Linux book circa 1996, which included an install CDROM.
deostroll
Tasker.

But, it's an android app. Helps automate your phone.

runawaybottle
Very little is coming to mind, so much good free stuff out there.
ng-user
YNAB - it seems unnecessary to some.. but I've got into an awesome routine after using it for 4+ years.
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fiftyacorn
Have u looked at buckets? It's the same principle but it desktop software. I think it lacks bank integration
digianarchist
YNAB bank integration isn't anything to write home about. Barely works in Canada.
dalacv
A few that come to mind:

FullConvert - for automating database conversions Beyond Compare - for comparing Folders, Files, Tabular Data

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ystad
Jet brains license, Viscosity, Sublime, Lastpass, Little Snitch
raptorraver
Ableton Live and Dorico for making music. Both worth every penny.
animesh
Nova launcher, pro version.

PyCharm

diehunde
My favorites:

- Jetbrains software

- 1password

- Divvy

- Dash (for docs)

striker_axel
Synthesia: Piano midi software

During the lockdown i thought of learning the piano and this software really helped me. Since all the classes were online now.

https://synthesiagame.com/

larrykubin
Pixelmator ($39, one time) - for image editing

ScreenFlow, ($129, one time) - for recording/editing videos

Sublime Text ($59, one time in 2011) - have since moved on, but used for many years

O_H_E
Little less than a must have, but Sublime Merge (from the makers of SublimeText) has been a great Git GUI. Especially since Linux lacks an initiative snappy one.
2rsf
I hardly ever pay for software, but my best one was a very subsidized MS Office one time purchase.
Tw9875
Anyone bought a bot for buying high demand items online? Is it worth it?
marm7
Yes, but building one is better.
HomeDeLaPot
Fastmail, to remove a fat Google dependency from my life. It's been great. Its aliasing features are cool.

Bitwarden has met all my password management needs for several years now. (Donation/pro version, can't remember.)

MoYasse
Adespresso

Might be the only digital marketer comment here, but it was defiantly worth the 39$, saves tons of times and generate a lot of data that is needed for my testing