from Hacker News

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

by jilles on 11/18/20, 3:32 PM with 28 comments

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.

  • by java-man on 11/18/20, 3:37 PM

    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/

  • by billylo on 11/18/20, 5:21 PM

    Divvy: Super efficient window management https://mizage.com/divvy/

  • by ng-user on 11/18/20, 4:39 PM

    YNAB - it seems unnecessary to some.. but I've got into an awesome routine after using it for 4+ years.

  • by potta_coffee on 11/20/20, 12:47 AM

    Reaper DAW has been phenomenal and is quite affordable. I've used it constantly for probably 10 years now. https://www.reaper.fm/download.php

  • by striker_axel on 11/18/20, 9:22 PM

    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/

  • by scott31 on 11/18/20, 3:36 PM

    A donation to GNU project was the best money I spent on software

  • by O_H_E on 11/19/20, 5:12 AM

    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.

  • by cotsog on 11/19/20, 1:52 PM

    TextSniper[0]: allows you to copy/paste text from images

    aText[1]: keyboard shortcuts app

    Super cheap (~5$) and can't work without them!

    [0] https://www.textsniper.app/

    [1] https://www.trankynam.com/atext/

    Edit: formatting

  • by dalacv on 11/18/20, 5:03 PM

    A few that come to mind:

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

  • by HomeDeLaPot on 11/20/20, 4:50 AM

    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.)

  • by MoYasse on 11/22/20, 1:49 PM

    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

  • by dredmorbius on 11/18/20, 3:47 PM

    $10 or so for a Red Hat Linux book circa 1996, which included an install CDROM.

  • by flytram on 11/18/20, 11:37 PM

    iOS app Photo Pills (https://www.photopills.com/) to plan for Astrophotography.

  • by larrykubin on 11/19/20, 4:35 AM

    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

  • by NumberCruncher on 11/19/20, 11:11 PM

    https://cvcompiler.com/ high ROI investment

  • by 2rsf on 11/19/20, 10:01 AM

    I hardly ever pay for software, but my best one was a very subsidized MS Office one time purchase.

  • by Tw9875 on 11/20/20, 1:31 AM

    Anyone bought a bot for buying high demand items online? Is it worth it?

  • by raptorraver on 11/18/20, 6:00 PM

    Ableton Live and Dorico for making music. Both worth every penny.

  • by ystad on 11/18/20, 5:54 PM

    Jet brains license, Viscosity, Sublime, Lastpass, Little Snitch

  • by deostroll on 11/18/20, 4:00 PM

    Tasker.

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

  • by animesh on 11/18/20, 6:10 PM

    Nova launcher, pro version.

    PyCharm

  • by diehunde on 11/18/20, 9:06 PM

    My favorites:

    - Jetbrains software

    - 1password

    - Divvy

    - Dash (for docs)

  • by runawaybottle on 11/18/20, 4:02 PM

    Very little is coming to mind, so much good free stuff out there.