AI is making software abundant. Our distribution and pricing model should evolve with it.

Compute costs and software value should be decoupled.

AI has made it possible for almost anyone to build useful, creative, highly specialized software. But every developer shouldn’t have to become an infrastructure operator just to distribute it.

As the number of apps grows, paying a separate subscription for every piece of software doesn’t scale either. Subscription fatigue will only get worse.

The traditional SaaS model also shapes what gets built. Developers have to design around compute costs, usage limits, pricing tiers, and unit economics. That can lead to artificial product constraints and makes developers financially responsible for infrastructure as usage scales.

If users pay directly for the infrastructure they consume, developers can build more powerful and extensible software without carrying that infrastructure risk. Growth can’t outrun revenue when the developer isn’t the one buying the compute.

But traditional self-hosting isn’t the answer either. Most users don’t want to manage servers, deployments, databases, security, backups, and updates.

A better model sits between SaaS and self-hosting:

Users provision and pay for the infrastructure they consume. A common platform abstracts away the operational complexity. Developers build software and charge for the value they create.

Pay infrastructure providers for consumption. Pay developers for software.