No, AI will not kill SaaS

(This post has originally been published on LinkedIn and has been cross-posted here for conservation and accessibility.)

Everyone’s talking about how AI will kill SaaS businesses. The argument goes: why pay for specialized software when AI can do it all or easily build you exactly what you need?

Here’s the thing though - the software I pay for is so damn good that I don’t see myself dropping any of it. Not now, not when the next AI model drops. The value is too clear.

(My employer covers most of my software needs, but I’ve been paying for software since before the App Store existed - back when you bought serial numbers and hoped the install disk didn’t corrupt.)

Here’s what I still pay for out of pocket:

🔐 1Password ($72/year) — Nearly 20 years as a customer. Security needs to be handled by people whose entire business depends on getting it right. Their incentives are better aligned than mine ever could be. (Probably the first “professional” software I paid for myself in school)

🧑‍💻 JetBrains IDEs (€100-300/year) — I paid out of pocket for this before employers would cover it. Still would. It’s that much better than the alternatives.

📱 Overcast ($20/year) & Instapaper ($60/year) - Marco Arment’s (former) apps are how I consume content while mobile. Podcasts and long-form articles are literally my daily business. Day one customer of both.

🎬 Plex, Inc. (€230 lifetime) - 15 years of organizing home media across everything from Raspberry Pis to proper NAS systems. Best money I’ve spent on software.

📖 DayOne ($50/year) — Software that keeps your data safe and private and makes you actually want to revisit it. I can’t count the memories stored in there. Literally priceless.

Now for the AI situation everyone keeps asking about:

✨ Google Gemini (free tier) covers what used to be “quick ChatGPT check” territory - research, analysis, basic tasks. NotebookLM and their CLI are legitimately useful. If you’re in the Google ecosystem already, it’s the path of least resistance.

🟠 Anthropic Claude ($20/month for Pro) is where I go for serious work. Claude Code alone justifies the cost. I’m not paying for this myself currently, but I would without hesitation.

There’s more software I use regularly, but these are the ones where the value is so clear that price becomes almost irrelevant.

❓ What software do you pay for out of pocket? And more importantly—why that one specifically?