{"id":19174,"date":"2019-01-21T16:25:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T16:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=19174"},"modified":"2021-03-25T19:41:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T19:41:00","slug":"in-software-nothing-comes-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\/","title":{"rendered":"In software, nothing comes for free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Often in software you\u2019ll hear that you get something for free, like \u201cthe framework just gives us this for free,\u201d or \u201cif we use X service provider, we get Y for free,\u201d or your developers will tell you \u201cwe were building this bit anyway so we get this extra piece for free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is free in software.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not free because you\u2019re sitting there talking about it and you\u2019re debating if you should do it. That\u2019s costing you time for starters. It\u2019s not free in the doing of it, or the verifying it was done right, that it works, that all edge cases are workable. QA is never free.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-one\"><p>&#8220;You have to tell your customers, otherwise it\u2019s definitely pointless. Communication is never free&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s not free in the communication of doing it. If you add a feature, you have to tell your team, to tell customer support, to then tell your customers. You have to tell your customers, otherwise it\u2019s definitely pointless. Communication is never free.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not free to carry it forward. Once it\u2019s there you\u2019ll have to support queries from customers, you\u2019ll have docs, how-tos, videos, all needing to be updated.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not free to undo. Maintenance is never free.<\/p>\n<p>Think of these features like house pets. Craigslist is full of free pets, yet you\u2019re not stocking up your house for a very simple reason \u2013 there\u2019s a big difference between the retail price and cost of ownership.<\/p>\n<p><em>This excerpt was first published in &#8220;Intercom on Product Management&#8221;. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/resources\/books\/intercom-product-management?utm_source=ii-blog&amp;utm_medium=blog-horizontal-cta&amp;utm_campaign=201810-PMBook&amp;utm_content=footer-graphic\">Head this way to read more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Often in software you\u2019ll hear that you get something for free, like \u201cthe framework just gives us this for free.\u201d But you&#8217;ll quickly discover there is always a cost, because nothing is ever &#8220;free&#8221; in software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[5],"tags":[162,251],"coauthors":[348],"class_list":["post-19174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-and-design","tag-software","tag-software-development"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In software, nothing comes for free - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Often in software you\u2019ll hear that you get something for free, like \u201cthe framework just gives us this for free.\u201d But you&#039;ll quickly discover nothing is ever &quot;free&quot; in software.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In software, nothing comes for free\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Often in software you\u2019ll hear that you get something for free, like \u201cthe framework just gives us this for free.\u201d But you&#039;ll quickly discover nothing is ever &quot;free&quot; in software.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Intercom Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/destraynor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-21T16:25:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-25T19:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/DesTraynor-Profile.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Des Traynor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@destraynor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@intercom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Des Traynor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Des Traynor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eca2beed88876408030509097abe63c2\"},\"headline\":\"In software, nothing comes for free\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-21T16:25:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-25T19:41:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/in-software-nothing-comes-for-free\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"software\",\"software development\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Product &amp; 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