How We Keep Master Packager Pricing Affordable
Toms Knostenbergs
31 July 2024
Last week, I was at my home office desk, giving a Master Packager demo to a large enterprise packaging team. They were looking for a new application packaging solution. Their current packaging software had become too expensive and bloated with features they did not use.
A few minutes into the demo, one of the packagers couldn’t wait any longer and asked a question.
How is it possible that Master Packager software can solve all these problems so well, but at the same time, only cost a fraction of our existing solution?
For us, the reasons are obvious, but at that moment, I realized that it isn’t clear to everyone. For them, it may even look suspicious. How is it possible that this low-cost software can do all this work better than more expensive software? There must be a catch. Could it be that there are some shortcuts made to keep the price so low?
After hearing their question, I smiled, took a deep breath, and without thinking, told them our way of working to build better software while keeping the price significantly lower than others.
Here are the four reasons:
1. Master Packager is a product designed for packagers. No one else.
In theory, software developers and packagers can share similar features when building installer packages. But developers are building packages with different workflows than IT Pros/App packagers. There are many issues why software developers and IT Pros should have their separate packaging solutions. Building a product for many different target groups makes it more expensive. And it feels more expensive because these groups need to pay for the other group’s features they do not use. Master Packager is built for IT Pros.
However, Master Packager Dev is a separate product, designed and priced specifically for software vendors to build installer packages directly from their source files. Separating products enables us to make products better and keep the price low for the specific user group the product is built for.
2. Focus on problem-solving, not features.
We have more than a decade of experience in application packaging. We know what works and what doesn’t. You get that experience when working daily for hundreds of organizations all over the world. Over the years, we have fixed a ton of different issues for thousands of applications. We did that so that organizations could deploy their applications silently together with preset configurations to help their business needs.
But most of the time, there is more than one way to fix a specific packaging problem. Therefore, we learned which options offer the greatest value. Then we make these options available in the software. It makes the software clean. Clean software means it is not confusing for users. The best option is presented, and you do not need to read the documentation or Google around to choose the right option from many. As we have fewer features that solve the same number of problems, the product is more attractive to more users. Especially IT Pros who just started learning app packaging. Fewer features mean less maintenance. Therefore, we can keep the team small and effective.
3. Small team with passionate founders.
We’re packagers building software for packagers. We know your packaging problems inside out. That makes us build a product that works. But also it means fewer questions from the users. If we receive repeated questions about the software or packaging issues, we develop a solution to integrate into the software so we never get that question again. All that enables us to keep the team small. Plus, smaller teams are more effective. But when it comes to pricing—smaller teams can afford to ask less for their services and products.
As one of the co-founders of Master Packager, I know that feeling of exhaustion when an organization cannot afford quality software to do the important job of an application packager. The situation when you are stuck with low-quality products. When you are slow or bring more risk to the table when not equipped with the right tools. That is why, we, the founders of Master Packager, have promised to keep the price as low as possible for as long as possible. We want all organizations to afford high-quality packaging software. And for a long time, it wasn’t available.
4. No investors.
We have been bootstrapping Master Packager Ltd. from day one. We are profitable since day one. When a company is driven by investors or stakeholders whose primary goal is to earn more money, there is no chance that the best product on the market can be priced at the lowest. Investors think about doubling their profits. We, on the other hand, focus on improving your application management while at the same time keeping our business sustainable.
Summary
If you find yourself using software that shares features for many different target audiences. Software that is bloated with features you do not use. Software that is built by a big team. Software backed by investors with the sole purpose of getting more money. Software where you have no clue who the founders are and why they built the software in the first place. Then it might be the reason why this software doesn’t work so well and is confusing while being priced so unfairly high to the problem it solves.
We have built the best application packaging software for ourselves. We believe it is the best solution for all application packagers - experienced or beginner. We know Master Packager solves all major application packaging problems, as we have used it to overcome them ourselves for years. You do not need any other paid solution to build high-quality app packages. We and our customers have proven that. We love application packaging. Application packaging is an art. Let us help you become a Master Packager so that you can build better Windows application packages that end users love, enterprises want, and Windows OS needs.
