Ask HN: What vendor you'd switch out if a better option was available?

We all pay for things. Either personal (like Spotify) or at your company (Slack).

Out of those, which one would you swap if a better thing was available?

5 points | by jviotti 18 hours ago

11 comments

  • w0de0 5 hours ago
    Presumably all of them, as this is the simple definition of “better.”

    Ah, literate humanity, I’ll miss you in my dotage.

  • dieselgate 15 hours ago
    Switched from Spotify to Deezer. I prefer Slack to alternatives, Teams is miserable.
  • mtVessel 14 hours ago
    I would replace Teams in a heartbeat. It's not about availability, it's about license structure and bundling.
  • theguysudo 15 hours ago
    i prefer soundcloud i have switched to it a while ago its better and free as well as you tend to get more freedom exploring content from new artist more slack is pretty good already so wont prefer swaping it
  • sejje 16 hours ago
    inference providers

    spotify for sure, working on that

    kinda anything. why wouldn't i switch if there's something better?

    i have that kind of brand loyalty with local small shops maybe, where there's a relationship. but not corporate online brands.

  • faangguyindia 8 hours ago
    Cronometer MyFinessPal
  • dasefx 11 hours ago
    Adobe
  • HenryBemis 14 hours ago
    From Deezer to Spotify many years ago From Opera to Firefox many many years ago From Winzip to WinRar many many years ago From Gemini to ChatGPT a couple of years ago

    I wish there was an alternative to Carbonite (unlimited storage, my encryption) that doesn't hide the VAT until the checkout so they don't trick on the pricing (for us Europeans)

  • carlosjobim 15 hours ago
    Any of them of course. Why wouldn't you swap to a better option?
    • paulcole 13 hours ago
      They didn’t say the better option’s price. Or how much better it was.

      Gmail + all the Google shit I get for $16/user/month + the hassle of switching would be very hard to get me to move away from for something that is anything but monumentally better. Even then I’d be super skeptical. Google is good enough and I probably wouldn’t switch.

  • toomuchtodo 16 hours ago
    I would replace them with an open source solution if at all possible. Replacing a vendor with yet another vendor is a waste if I run into the same problems of a vendor controlling the solution. It's all companies chasing moats and cashflow to build value for their shareholders or to sell to private equity. Is one vendor better than another? Maybe, for a while, but it never lasts.

    Through LLM tokens we work towards digital sovereignty. The goal is to have someone else host it as cost efficiently as possible, with an exit path always available to self hosting if needed.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification