September 29, 2020
Of Nova and nines
There’s an old pricing trick to make things seem cheaper than they really are. You take it down to a nine.
For example, instead of charging $10, you charge $9.99. That way, it seems (if you don’t think about it too much) like you’re paying $9.
This old trick is used for pricing Nova, the amazing new Mac-only code editor from Panic. It costs $99, which seems a lot less intimidating than $100, but is actually just one dollar less.
It even translates well (at this writing) to Canadian dollars — $129.98. This is a lot more than $99 or $100, but still apparently less than $130.
There’s a reason for all this agonizing over price. As much as I love Nova, I can’t make myself pay $130 when VS Code is free. Yes, I have to put up with cross-platform compromises, and I have to grudgingly make nice with Microsoft. But still, it’s pretty good. And free.
One day I may give in and buy Nova. After all, I paid for Panic’s FTP client, Transmit, despite the fact there are free alternatives.
Today is not that day.