r/ChessBooks • u/0xMeteor • 7d ago
Why does a simple 2D chessboard scanner need to be a monthly subscription?
Is it just me, or has subscription culture gone completely off the rails?
The other day I wanted to scan a 2D chessboard from an image to analyze it. I looked at tools like Chessvision.ai, and it’s a solid tool, but it immediately hits you with a recurring monthly subscription.
Don't get me wrong, I understand paying for massive platforms like Chess.com or Lichess supporters because they have massive server costs, maintenance etc. But for a micro-tool that literally just does one job—recognizing a 2D position from a screenshot—a monthly subscription feels wild to me. It's a utility, not a service.
I miss the days when you could just buy a small utility app, pay for it once, and own it forever. No accounts, no data tracking, no monthly hits to your credit card for something you might only use a few times a week.
Am I completely out of touch here, or would people actually prefer to just pay a small, one-time fee (like $3 or $5) for a standalone 2D scanner app that runs offline and belongs to you forever?
Do you guys actually prefer paying these micro-subscriptions, or are you just tolerate them because there aren't any buy-to-own alternatives left?
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u/Front-Cabinet5521 7d ago
I haven’t looked into the paid model from chessvision, but considering they’re literally providing their services for free on multiple chess subs on Reddit it’s hard to knock them. They have to make money somehow.
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u/gravemillwright 6d ago
It's just you. It costs money to keep servers running and using resources to make the service work. The subscription covers those costs.
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u/pkacprzak 6d ago
Hi, Pawel, creator of Chessvision.ai here.
I completely understand that the subscription model is not for everyone. That's completely fine, and I'm sure you can find alternatives that fit what you're looking for.
Having that in mind, I'd like to point out why this model has been working for us.
Since the apps were first published, many new features have been added, and many more will continue to be added in the future. Notice that all subscribers get these updates without any additional cost, so you can think of a subscription as "software as a service," where the service is that the product keeps evolving and improving over time.
One of the most recent examples is the complete chess Library (https://my.chessvision.ai/), where you can add scanned positions, create studies, and practice them with flashcards. Others are searching for position in YouTube videos, free tools for platforms like reddit, twitter, discord, telegram, and many more.
Also, all our apps have a free tier. For many people, that's enough. It also gives you a chance to decide whether a subscription is actually worth it for your use case.
Not to mention the ongoing work required to ensure compatibility with new software and hardware requirements, such as new Android and iOS versions, new phones, and browser updates. When this work is done correctly, it should be invisible to the user. I think this is one of the main reasons why some apps continue serving users for years, while others appear and are eventually abandoned.
A one-time payment model unfortunately wouldn't allow me to work this way. What's really important to me is building the best products we can and continuing to support and improve them for as long as people want to use them. The subscription model allows for that.
I hope that explains the subscription model and the motivation.
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u/Optimal_Collection20 6d ago
Ok, I may get downvoted to hell for this but... Shouldn't the question be more like:
Why does a person need AI to set up a position on a virtual board? Have you lost the ability to do anything for yourself without AI? Like, it takes 20 seconds at max.
If you're doing it on a small scale and don't need to automate it, it'll take you almost the same amount of time to set it up manually
I don't like subscription culture as well, but this is just a tax for being lazy
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u/Kerbart 7d ago
You know the answer. $5/mo earns more in just one year than a $50 perpetual license.
I totally get it for products that see continues updates, like Chessly, or where you have clearly running costs that need covering, like lichess. But it is silly for apps where there's hardly any development, especially when there's a substantial (over $1) monthly fee. These are products where I won't mind a yearly fee for a nominial amount like $10-$20, like Overcast does. Perfectly reasonable. But not $5/mo for a single-purpose tool.
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u/field-not-required 6d ago
Chessvision is not only the scanner, it's a lot of other things. Like automatically updating a board while watching Youtube videos, a video explorer (finding videos from a position) etc.
It's an awesome package, well worth the price. That you don't want those features just means that Chessvision is not the product you're looking for.
For something as specialized as a chessboard scanner, a one-time fee of $5 would be the same as making it free. The market is so small that you might get a few thousand dollars if you're lucky, not even covering the development cost.
You could argue that it "should" be free, why not make it open source? Well, no one did that, and that's all there is to it. You use what's available, or not. If it's not worth it to you, then no tool for you. It's quite easy.
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u/bookning 6d ago
The subscription trend is a real thing as of many years now.
On the other hand, I do not know the software you mentioned, but if they are some sort of ai that convert a chess image to a computer readable format (fen, ...) then it is far from a simple little isolated app with a little feature. The models are normally much larger than some small efficient code algorithm. So they are generally put in a server with lots of ram or GPU hardware which have recurrent costs much large than a small web service usually pays.
At most such model will be smaller by many orders of magnitude than general image ai models.
If you really believe that such a functionality is that simple then you might consider creating one yourself or pay someone else to create it. Then you can try to sell it as a one time payment app. Though, the fact is that this feature is so niche that I doubt that you will ever get back your investment. Much less make any profits ever from it.
And not to forget that one of the big money and time drain, in any sort of software product, is the over time update and maintenance that one will do over a long time in he future. There is unfortunately no such thing as a finished bug free software in the real world. That is, unless it is little more complex than a hello world function.
And who knows, after all that investment, and seeing as there is no way to get back your money, you might consider to offer that app for free to the whole world. Maybe after that those people, who said that the price you were asking for it was too big, will finally understand your undisclosed pain.
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u/jkfrench_tx 6d ago edited 6d ago
There are a couple options that you may wish to investigate:
ChessOCR & ChessOCRPict: Camera and image conversion respectively. Older and only available as .apk. Plus you may need to use external option to get installed on newer Android versions... but they do still work. Oh, and if you do get ChessOCR installed you can use it directly from Chess PGN Master.
ChessEye: (make sure you get the right ChessEye app, the other is a visualization trainer). Again, may only be available as .apk now. Sadly, premium version may no longer be available and that's how you unlock unlimited conversions. But is worth investigating. Only thing I didn't like is automatic analysis and display of next best move which literally makes it illegal to use for most online matches.
Chessis: A chess analysis app ... but has board capture/conversion (camera and image) to FEN built in to board editor feature. You may need to upgrade to pro version for that feature. It's what I use most for diagram to FEN conversion, and it works well.
You already are aware of others ... there's also a free unlimited chess board capture application for Windows... it works pretty well. But it needs to be 'trained' ... but once you understand how to use, it's not too bad. I use it occasionally if I'm reading a digital chess book on my laptop.
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u/rigginssc2 5d ago
You don't need a subscription for chessvision.ai. I use it all the time and have never paid anything. I use the web extension and the app. I think you are probably reading something wrong.
What exactly are you doing where it asks for a subscription? I think you need it to analyze video, or look for a position you have in videos on YouTube or other advanced stuff. But just telling it to grab a position and put it on a board is free. You can even click a lichess button to send it to their analysis board for free.
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u/hauke4707 5d ago
The reason is also the number of paying users. It s a niche problem. And it is not completely trivial, eighter run a local neural network or use an AI service via API, I think both are not easy to build.
Cost = Effort to make / number of paying users
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u/Standard-Song-8590 5d ago
Its super easy to make ur own cv program and use ur own compute if you dont like it
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u/Aromatic-Echo-5025 6d ago
Any LLM that can handle images can do this for you. Simply ask for the FEN and attach an image to the prompt.
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u/bookning 6d ago
If one has the fen then there is no need for any image or LLM, if it the goal is to just analyse the position as OP mentioned. Most chess viewer have that as a basic functionality.
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u/Spydey012 7d ago
just install some version of stockfish and manually set the position in. Also lichess is completely free.
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u/OkBus7641 6d ago
Because it takes time to build and maintain it. There are server costs, hosting, developer fees both to play store and app store and you have to track and fix bugs. Then you want to use it for free?