I’ve now had Lumen Tool behind a paywall for a few days.
Why I chose Stripe
It was quite a bit of work to get everything set up, but thankfully I made it through. I decided to use Stripe. After doing some research, it simply seemed like the biggest and most trusted option for a project like this. There are some smaller payment platforms aimed more at indie developers and smaller projects that looked interesting too, but in the end I preferred going with something established that most people will recognise. Nobody needs to wonder whether their card details are safe with some payment startup they’ve never heard of.
The uncomfortable part
I still have mixed feelings about making Lumen Tool paid. Of course earning money from something you build is nice, but there is also something really satisfying about making a useful tool that everyone can access for free.
The reality, though, is that I can’t keep spending unlimited amounts of time building this without it ever giving anything back. I simply don’t have that luxury. So that little internal battle has been going on for a while, and in the end the paid side won.
Building the Archive
The nice part is that it has also pushed me to build even more.
I’ve spent most of this week working on the Archive, the next big module. It will let you save projects, open them again, upload and download files, and keep everything together inside your account.
My current plan is to give every user 250 MB of storage. And importantly: the Archive will not be an extra paid add-on. The idea is simple: you pay once for access, and the modules and features I keep building get added to that.
Storage has limits
Storage is also a good example of something I could never realistically offer to an unlimited number of free users. I may be able to increase the 250 MB later, but I first want to see how everything behaves in real use. Photographers reading this already know 250 MB disappears fast once RAW files get involved, so consider it a starting point rather than a promise.
The Archive is almost finished. I’m hoping to have it ready within the next three days, and once it is, I’ll share a proper update about it.
The first sign-ups
And finally: the first paying users have already signed up.
If any of you are reading this, thank you. Truly. Especially for the trust. Signing up for a completely new product from an independent developer is not something I take for granted.
All I can promise is that I’ll keep building and improving Lumen Tool until nobody can reasonably say it wasn’t worth the money.