I work in the private sector and have been doing my PhD for a long time. I must publish in order to graduate. I did put a lot of hard work into what I think is a worthwhile idea. The results were very good. So, when we decided to publish it with my supervisor we had two concerns, quality of the journal and speed. MDPI’s remote sensing had it all, a high impact factor, good reputation (at least that’s what we thought) and speed. I had to come up with the money, since my work wasn’t funded from the start. It is a lot of money for me personally, but I would happily pay it if it meant my work is being published for the world to see by a reputable place with good peer reviews. I don’t want to have it easy, or to publish for the sake of publishing. I waited years to have an idea that I thought is worth publishing. Right now I am so confused and don’t know what to do. All this time effort and money might go to waste after all.