What paid software is absolutely worth the money? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by early_riser@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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For me, that would be Secure CRT. I have yet to find a terminal emulator that matches its feature set. If you regularly manage hundreds of machines using various connection protocols (serial and ssh mostly in my case) It's worth the $$$, and so far there hasn't been any subscription nonsense. I liked using it at work so much I forked over the dough to have it at home.

None of the free alternatives do everything I need.

I'll also mention a few iOS apps. One is Sun Surveyor. It's an AR app that shows you the position of the sun, moon, and galactic center at any given time. The other would have to be Radarscope. It's a weather radar app, but it's a really good weather radar app.

EDIT:

This one's debatable, but I use it all the time. Plasticity is 3D modelling software that attempts to bridge the gap between practical CAD programs and software meant for 3D artists like Blender. It's not cheap considering Blender is free, but it's buy once use forever, and at (I think) $150 it's within reach of an individual hobbyist who knows what they want and is willing to pay for it.

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[-] gigachad@piefed.social 2 points 3 months ago

MakeMKV

[-] sakphul@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 months ago

This. I don't if there even exists a FOSS solution which is as reliable as MakeMKV

[-] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 2 points 3 months ago

Excluding mobile apps that I've paid to make ad-free, there's only two that I'm subscribed to so I guess they're worth the money.

Other is Protonmail and other I wont tell.

[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

package disabler pro. I have a samsung phone and disables the bloat. It has to be side loaded.

[-] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Try Canta and Shizuku. It's a pair that work together and allow you to remove anything.

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[-] svtdragon@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Personally: Synergy (a formerly OSS software KVM). GlassWire.

Professionally: IntelliJ. Datadog.

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[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

For art on a Mac Sketch and Pixelmator are awesome and have fully replace the Adobe products I used to pirate to rely on.

[-] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 months ago

If you use Android I highly recommend Niagara launcher. It's different in the best ways and very polished. I tried it for a while and happily paid for the lifetime license.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bitpit.launcher

[-] finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

+1 for Niagara. I don't care about how many different ways I can lay out my apps and widgets, I just want an app drawer and and a few favorites.

[-] edg@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

RadarScope for Android and iOS. It's a professional grade weather radar app for the US (and Canada?) and is worth every ~~penny~~ nickel.

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

PDF-xchange

Who knew a PDF editor would become so useful.

I'm pretty sure the free version has more features than adobe reader.

And if you don't want to pay, you can demo all of the paid features. Saving the file will put a watermark on every page, but if you print-to-pdf before you save, no watermark. Great if you just need to merge a few files or do some quick stuff once in a while.

[-] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

mine was voicemeeter. so much nicer manipulating audio on windows with voicemeeter and never looking at windows settings again.

wish it worked with Linux tbh, but I'm making due

[-] scytale@piefed.zip 1 points 3 months ago

Mullvad VPN.

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[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I paid for Ardour, but it is also free.

[-] theherk@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Anything that you like can be worth a cost. I prefer FOSS wherever possible, but really don’t mind paying for good stuff. One example is wooshy. This piece of software lets you use the keyboard in macOS for nearly everything, and it is the best use of the accessibility api’s I’ve ever seen. There are similar things but this software is unparalleled in my view.

[-] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I don't normally do the whole trolling thing, but I gotta say I was tempted to write "Windows" with no explanation just to see how poorly it would go.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

windows are good for letting the fresh air in but it's no software so you missed the point here

[-] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Bitwig. Excellent DAW that has a native linux build. I tried to like Ardour and many of the other open source alternatives, but they all felt cumbersome and not very mature.

[-] diablexical@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Anki ios app. Developer doesn’t charge for desktop or web app. Well worth the $25 to support.

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this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026

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