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Comment on Ask HN: Would you pay for a UI framework?

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It depends on how much the framework costs. I spent 3 years of my career using Sencha ExtJs[0], a framework you could use commercially by paying a license. I was in India back then, and could not afford the license to use it for personal projects I hoped to turn into a side business. By the time I came to the US, they changed their pricing model so that you now needed to buy a 5-pack license to be able to use it.

There is a lot to like (and a little to dislike) about the Sencha family of frameworks, but the licensing alone made me look at alternatives inspite of being familiar with it.

[0]: https://www.sencha.com/

I see Sencha strategy used elsewhere in the industry. For example, Netlify recently changed their pricing model and introduced a minimum of 5 users in paid plans. From this standpoint, I understand why that is happening. If you divide an amount equal to several developer monthly salaries with the expected number of licenses sold per month, you get a pretty high number. A large framework is a big battlefront as each widget needs to be tested, documented, and accompanied with examples.

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