What are you surprised that people pay for, when there are free alternatives in existence?

My coworkers will walk into work with Dunkin or Starbucks lattes... we have not only free coffee at work, but access to an espresso machine with milk steamer.

Operating systems and porn.

As an American, Turbo Tax. I've been using FreeTaxUSA for almost 20 years with no problems, without paying for filing software.

But if I weren't American, my answer would probably be: tax software.

I do not get people who still pay for cable tv. My dad pays like 120 dollars a month for it and the programming is horrible, the ads are insane, all the best sports shit is on streaming services now, I do not understand it at all.

Bottled water to drink at home.

Water

Online subscription models, gacha and AAAA price tag games.

Not everyone wants to be a cybercriminal, god knows I'm one of them, but every person has a backlog of games, an old classic that they want to experience again or community favourite that has gotten a lot of mods. And even if you want to spend money on something, why would you spend it on this year's hyped up game when last year's is still just as playable and at a discount?

That being said, I did buy Balatro full price, so I ought to know the answer.

The meal subscription services strike me as premade salads on steroids. You're paying a premium for all the labor, ingredients, (excessive) packaging, shipping, their profit, etc and you still have to put it together and cook it. It really isn't that hard to look up a couple of recipes, buy the ingredients (you'd probably be going to the store anyway) and prep for 30 or so minutes a night. If you make full recipes you'll probably have leftovers so you won't even have to cook the next day.

I was surprised to hear that a coworker suscribes to one of the streaming services to stream shows from PBS. First of all, it's free OTA. Second, I think they have an app.

YouTube premium.

Just get uBlock or revanced.

Microsoft Office and satellite radio.

Streaming services. I've been balls deep into piracy since I was a kid but I remember once I was house sitting and my friend had netflix and I Was drunk and wanted to watch He-man. I turned on their netflix and it didn't have it. I was like, why even pay for this shit whats it good for? I have been morally opposed to paying for streaming ever since. Ive been taking some classes recently and some of the Gen Z kids are like, baffled I don't have spotify. I am baffled they can't pirate songs. My friends, you dont have to pay for that single. I can download it during the span of this conversation with my phone.

Also on that note, any of WotC's D&D tools. I remember the D&Dinsider debacle. 4e was a cool game but basically unplayable without some automation. They tried downloadable software but found people had way too easy a time hacking it. So they launched a constantly crashing version behind a paywall that ran on silverlight (so it couldn't run on Mac. As a webapp.) And hackers still kept up the downloadable character builder with updates. It was more consistent, didn't crash, and is still functional to this day. I ban D&Dbeyond from my games. I encourage everyone to use 5e.tools (if they must play 5e).

Books.

Most librarians are knowledgeable and love helping you find something, or getting it in from another library.

WinRAR

Adobe. Someone said they pay $60 a month for it, and are locked in for the year, which they didn’t even know about! All for editing photos. Just editing photos.

Gray market license keys for software. The money you're paying for these will never make it to the developer, so you might as well pirate.

Operating systems

People pay for streaming and then complaining that their shows keep disappearing. Knowing full well that they are only allowed to watch the shows as long as the streaming service allows them to watch.

I truly don’t understand it. If they wanna do it go for it I’m not going to sit here and rip on them. I just don’t understand why. I say go by the disc so that way you own it. Then rip it to make your own digital file. Now with that digital file, you can do anything you want with it.

Streaming. OS's, disposable shavers/ head, prime. Very few subscriptions are a good deal and if they are a good deal thats just them cornering the market to eventually close in.

Tax return filings in the US. There are free options provided by the paid companies... So that they can prevent real changes.

Kinda like pharmaceutical companies when the public demands cheaper prices. The pharmaceutical companies fight back with "what if instead of that we set up some programs that people can use for cheaper medicine! Win win! Then you don't have to make any real changes that might hurt us?"

Same with taxes. The accounting software companies and advisors companies said "wait hold on, you don't need to make taxes simpler and tank our business. Keep them complicated and well offer free alternatives that are just as easy as our paid services that people can pick if they don't want to pay! Win win!"

Which obviously I think is a crap solution. However if you are paying for someone to do your taxes you should stop. There are a lot of easy free services out there that make it pretty much effortless. They are just as good as the paid services now.

(Conditionally) journals, studies and some books. And, for that matter, most television, film and music.

Particularly when paying is not supporting the creator, only the publisher.

Social media.

Streaming services esp for millennials considering most of fnem have the know how for sailing the high sees.

Ad-free internet stuff.

Computer Operating Systems

A lot of Software actually

• Books
• Porn
• Streaming Services
• Bottled Water (if you have access/the means of purchasing a filter)
• "Buy now, play later." Just buy it later and avoid the fees.
• A lot of "Courses." There are so many free resources online.

Windows

Porn

Antiviruses