frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Why do users happily use my AI tool but refuse to pay for it?

https://www.zolly.dev/
1•Parameswar•1h ago

Comments

Parameswar•1h ago
I built an AI app builder because I was frustrated with how hard it still is to turn an idea into a real working product. No code tools feel limiting very fast and full code feels too slow when you just want to test something.

The product works. People describe what they want to build and they get an actual usable app, not a mockup. They can iterate on it and make changes without starting over.

People are signing up on their own. They build things. Some even message me saying it’s useful or cool.

Then they leave.

No one upgrades. No one pays.

From the outside it looks like things are going fine. There is usage. There is interest. But it feels like I built something people enjoy trying, not something they feel a strong enough need to pay for.

I’m trying to understand where I went wrong. Is the problem not painful enough? Is the audience wrong? Do builders just avoid paying for tools like this? Or does the value only show up at a scale most users never reach?

Upscale AI Nabs Cash to Forge "SkyHammer" Scale Up Fabric Switch

https://www.nextplatform.com/2026/01/21/upscale-ai-nabs-cash-to-forge-skyhammer-scale-up-fabric-s...
1•rbanffy•1m ago•0 comments

Subagents, Commands and Skills Are Converging

https://www.vivekhaldar.com/articles/claude-code-subagents-commands-skills-converging/
1•todsacerdoti•1m ago•0 comments

GB Renewables Map

https://renewables-map.robinhawkes.com/
2•robin_reala•5m ago•0 comments

Offshore wind farms can enhance the structural composition of coastal waters

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425005840
1•PaulHoule•5m ago•0 comments

Reflections on Re-Reading Dostoevsky's the Idiot (1976)

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23040-reflections-on-re-reading-dostoevsky-s-em-the-idiot-em
1•wslh•8m ago•0 comments

How to Steal Any React Component

https://fant.io/react/
1•SouravInsights•11m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Perspectives – I wanted AI to challenge my thinking, not validate it

https://getperspectives.app
1•Jamium•11m ago•0 comments

Sometimes Dropbox is just FTP: building a link shortener

https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/sometimes-dropbox-is-just-ftp-building-a-link-shortener
1•KronisLV•11m ago•0 comments

Drowning in information but still missing everything?

1•akhil08agrawal•12m ago•0 comments

AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/20/ai-boom-could-falter-without-wider-adoption-micros...
1•latexr•14m ago•0 comments

I Gave Claude Code 9.5 Years of Health Data to Help Manage My Thyroid Disease

https://medium.com/data-science-collective/i-gave-claude-code-9-5-years-of-health-data-to-help-ma...
1•sebg•16m ago•0 comments

Will Google Become Our AI-Powered Central Planner?

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/will-google-organize-the-worlds-prices
1•verisimi•17m ago•0 comments

More than 200k UK workers switch to four-day week since 2019 (2025)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/23/uk-workers-four-day-week
1•robtherobber•17m ago•1 comments

UK holds off joining Trump's Board of Peace over Putin concerns

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9jj1j74ggo
3•treadump•19m ago•0 comments

I replaced my ChatGPT subscription with a 12GB GPU

https://www.xda-developers.com/replaced-chatgpt-subscription-with-12gb-gpu-never-looked-back/
2•0xedb•22m ago•0 comments

More sovereign US bases? I dont think so

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/01/22/more-sovereign-us-bases-i-dont-think-so/
2•treadump•22m ago•0 comments

Google Antigravity is currently down for many users

https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/antigravity-models-are-not-loading-even-tough-my-account-is-succe...
3•maarut•23m ago•0 comments

The necessary post-Trump consensus

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/01/22/the-necessary-post-trump-consensus/
1•treadump•24m ago•0 comments

AliSQL – MySQL with DuckDB storage engine from Alibaba

https://github.com/alibaba/AliSQL
1•tamnd•25m ago•0 comments

The stable marriage problem. Or, ask for things

https://acotra.substack.com/p/the-stable-marriage-problem
1•sebg•27m ago•0 comments

Prototypes vs. classes was: Re: Sun's HotSpot (1998)

https://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/1998-October/017019.html
1•mpweiher•34m ago•0 comments

Further scarcity: World leaders allegedly reduce NAND flash production

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Further-scarcity-World-leaders-allegedly-reduce-NAND-flash-productio...
1•zhouzhao•34m ago•0 comments

Apps for boycotting American products surge to the top of the Danish App Store

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/apps-for-boycotting-american-products-surge-to-the-top-of-the-d...
2•croes•35m ago•0 comments

Garbage Collection Can Be Faster Than Stack Allocation (1986) [pdf]

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/papers/45.pdf
1•tosh•38m ago•0 comments

From Human Ergonomics to Agent Ergonomics

https://wesmckinney.com/blog/agent-ergonomics/
1•sebg•39m ago•0 comments

Trump Proposes "Great Healthcare Plan"

https://damienduncan.substack.com/p/trump-proposes-great-healthcare-plan
1•Politicrux•42m ago•1 comments

Show HN: BetterTTS – Offline Lifelike TTS Web Reader for Windows

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nbmnx7233mb?hl=en-US&gl=US
1•iqraathemanuel•46m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Crackable- a Cryptography CTF Platform

https://crackable.xyz/
1•bl4ckstack•47m ago•0 comments

The importance of humidity control in textile processing

https://www.condair.co.uk/knowledge-hub/the-importance-of-humidity-control-in-textile-processing
1•thunderbong•47m ago•0 comments

Sources: The SGLang project becomes RadixArk with a valuation of US$400M

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/sources-project-sglang-spins-out-as-radixark-with-400m-valuatio...
1•01-_-•48m ago•0 comments