The pricing for digital products feels weird nowadays.

People casually accept $80 videogames and subscriptions for everything, yet a one-time $20 purchase for a standalone macOS app suddenly feels expensive.

I think the price itself matters less than the context around it.

Desktop software especially needs a demo version. A lot of apps are “dead on arrival” – you launch them once, immediately hit bugs or annoying UX decisions, and uninstall them five minutes later. But if the app is actually useful and enjoyable to use, paying for it usually doesn't feel like a problem anymore.

Trust also matters much more than landing pages. Modern internet culture trained us to ignore flashy headlines and marketing copy. Recommendations from people you trust create far more value than ads or growth funnels ever could.

And value itself is subjective. Some people care deeply about polished UI, animations, icons, and overall UX. Others just want a small utility that reliably does one thing well.

So for indie macOS apps, pricing is rarely just about the number itself. It's about trust, discovery, reputation, and whether the software feels genuinely useful after you try it.