Honestly, adoption isn't amazing (ie. not at Raindrop or Readwise levels which I guess is the bar these days in this product area), but I have more than enough subscribers to pay for all the hosting costs.
To be completely honest, even if I didn't have a single paying subscriber I would still happily pay to host it out of pocket (and for a long time, I did) because it is the perfect tool for my own needs and it is so deeply integrated into all written knowledge consumption in my life[1] - I will use it until the day I die (and then my wife will open source it).
[1]: I use it to save comments from HN, Reddit, Twitter etc., I use it to save highlights from web articles, I use it to save/import my Kindle highlights, I use it to highlight parts of newsletters in my email inbox - the list is endless
You'd probably multiply those numbers substantially with a little rearrangement of the content.
Even the pricing is weird. $1.99/month billed annually... Just say $25/year - if people have bought in on the value proposition here they aren't going to run away scared when you hide $23.88 as $1.99.
Also that sentence is backwards. I stopped reading after seeing the price under the false assumption that I need to pay to try the product.
Instead
"First month Free
No CC required.
If you love it, $25 per year thereafter.
And if it's not for you, no problem, thanks anyways!"
As an aphorism: Free is more fun than fee. You want the fee with the fun of free.
To be completely honest, even if I didn't have a single paying subscriber I would still happily pay to host it out of pocket (and for a long time, I did) because it is the perfect tool for my own needs and it is so deeply integrated into all written knowledge consumption in my life[1] - I will use it until the day I die (and then my wife will open source it).
[1]: I use it to save comments from HN, Reddit, Twitter etc., I use it to save highlights from web articles, I use it to save/import my Kindle highlights, I use it to highlight parts of newsletters in my email inbox - the list is endless