I wanted to voice (as a small business owner) that I wouldn’t be adverse to $5/month for Hubitat usage, be that in the form of premium support or something like that.
I think that a recurring revenue stream in this day and age is needed for sustainability.
Each time I contact support I feel the tiny $99 i paid for the hub being used up and profit can’t be significant for a great team with growth ambitions.
Thoughts?
I'll tell you the same thing I tell people that say we should pay more taxes - no one is stopping you from sending them a check. 
That said, I pay for many subscriptions that I feel give me value. So I'm not violently opposed to that model.
Over and all I'm against the "Sustainable subscription service" It has plagued the SW industry and the only objective that it truly serves is Shareholders.
Besides HE does not provide any (Read until the end before crucify me) Ongoing Services.
It sells a kit of HW that as an associate TMS (Time and Materials Services), this means that they need to provide warranty and support for at least 1 year from time of purchase (2 Years in EU). To each they charge X amount, all the costs for TMS for the duration of the warranty is included on the sale price. This is one of the reasons why HW costs vary per region.
But that model is not sustainable over the 2/3 initial years as market share costs, R&D, Marketing, operations, growth, manufacturing & Supplychain, etc enter into play.
My humble suggestion is for Hubitat to create its own Ecosystem with an app store. Only Drivers and Apps that would be installed through the store can be used. Each developer would develop their drivers and apps for HE and would request for them to be added to the store. After validated by the HE team they would be available for purchase. HE would take a cut (10% for Example) of all sales. Additionally HE could also charge a submission fee to the developers to support the costs of checking code compliance and validating the submission.
I believe that this model on the long run might be more sustainable.
Anyway that's not for us to decide but for @bravenel and the rest of the HE team.
That model has certainly worked for Vera (along with much higher prices for the software/hardware).
As a customer I hated that model though, and it was one of the reasons I left it for SmartThings.
Regardless, I'm sure the Hubitat guys have a plan, and will keep moving forward.
Maybe they can follow the footsteps of Ubiquiti Networks. They are offering their software for free for their APs and Protect line up and still manage to remain profitable
This is the operating model of the higher end Home Automation systems. This allows them to stay profitable, grow and provides incentive for developers to develop for their platform.
All I know is it's a good thing the community is here to help them run their business. I bet they haven't thought about any of this yet since they have been too busy developing features that the we didn't even get a chance to vote on!
**edit - I keep deleting and undeleting this, when I re-read it sounds a lot more snarky than it sounded in my head when I wrote it. I'll leave it up but with this qualifier attached.
Oh no.. they've thought about it....
I'm not worried about it.
And this may sound 'jerky', but while I'm 100% rooting for them, if they can't keep it going for some reason - or move to a business model I can't live with - then there will be other options to move to. I have no specific emotional attachment to the product at this point.
Life as we know it will not end.
That's one I wouldn't have expected anyone to drop into this thread as an example model. I have quite a bit of Ubiquiti equipment, and I do use UniFi, which is free, as you state, and their Technical Support is great, so I can't fault your choice!
But the Pricing. Wow. You pay a serious premium for their equipment, and I'm dreading the cost of replacing my AP's, when the new WiFi standard is approved and starts flowing out....ouch.
I can only think Ubiquiti is able to do that because of their massive corporate market penetration. We consumers just benefit as a side effect .
I gotta think for HE to sustain the UBNT model, their market penetration would have to rival that of Hue or Nest (in this space).
S.
Based on other similar threads, they really don’t seem interested in soliciting input from the community on core components of their business plan. That is fine with me, I’m a consumer of their product, not an investor or consultant.
As the speculation gets wilder and wilder, threads like this often get closed.
Just a couple of observations.
Everybody meet me in the board room, I've got an idea.
*Edit: I'll include the same disclaimer as @destructure00 here.
They could become the home automation division of Lutron. Marrying their hub with Lutron's lighting solutions.
Download the Hubitat app
