Ditching Hourly Joel Clermont - The Pros And Cons Of Selling Software Development As A Subscription
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Oct 28, 2025 Joel Clermont, a Laravel developer and SaaS subscription expert, dives into the transition from hourly billing to a subscription model for software development. He shares insights on launching his all-you-can-eat dev service, discussing initial pricing experiments and unexpected demand. Joel highlights the importance of managing client expectations and effective onboarding strategies. He also addresses challenges like context switching and finding the right client fit, offering valuable marketing tips for developers in the process.
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Test A Fixed Monthly Dev Subscription
- Try a fixed monthly dev subscription instead of hourly or per-project pricing to handle small ongoing tasks and improve cash flow.
- Price it high enough to avoid sandbagging work and to match client expectations for steady progress.
Retainers Reveal Latent Subscription Demand
- Many clients naturally opt into a small monthly retainer after a bigger project ends because they need ongoing polish and bug fixes.
- That latent demand can be the seed for a subscription business if you package it simply.
Market Where Your Niche Lives
- Promote your offering in communities and newsletters where your niche gathers and make the offer novel and clear.
- Leverage credibility (speaking, open source, endorsements) to amplify organic sharing.