For me, that would be Secure CRT. I have yet to find a terminal emulator that matches its feature set. If you regularly manage hundreds of machines using various connection protocols (serial and ssh mostly in my case) It’s worth the $$$, and so far there hasn’t been any subscription nonsense. I liked using it at work so much I forked over the dough to have it at home.

None of the free alternatives do everything I need.

I’ll also mention a few iOS apps. One is Sun Surveyor. It’s an AR app that shows you the position of the sun, moon, and galactic center at any given time. The other would have to be Radarscope. It’s a weather radar app, but it’s a really good weather radar app.

EDIT:

This one’s debatable, but I use it all the time. Plasticity is 3D modelling software that attempts to bridge the gap between practical CAD programs and software meant for 3D artists like Blender. It’s not cheap considering Blender is free, but it’s buy once use forever, and at (I think) $150 it’s within reach of an individual hobbyist who knows what they want and is willing to pay for it.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
    471·
    16 days ago

    In the world of music production Reaper is an insanely good deal with a fantastically refreshing licensing system.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.world
      2·
      16 days ago

      Same with Renoise, though I haven’t bought it yet myself. Pretty cheap by Western standards, especially compared to the big DAWs, but excellent for its particular workflow, i.e. a tracker. It’s actively developed too.

  • boletus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    40·
    12 days ago

    Bitwarden. It’s free and open source, but you can pay for a subscription if you don’t want to self host for synchronisation between devices. It’s very cheap and no doubt worth it.

    Also Aseprite, for pixel art and custom format exports.

    Edit: looks like both these programs are just straight up fully featured and freely available now.

  • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
    372·
    16 days ago

    TeraCopy if you move lots of data around.

    However, even with a pro license, I still got an ad notification in my task area recently pushing their other software. Fucking hate advertisements that go out of their way to interrupt you.

    • 11111one11111@lemmy.worldEnglish
      221·
      16 days ago

      Fucking hate advertisements that go out of their way to interrupt you.

      The rest of that sentence literally defines the procedure of advertising.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
      1·
      16 days ago

      I’ve never seen ads and I use the usual free TeraCopy at home. Are there supposed to be ads? (I don’t have a pihole or anything that’d be blocking the ads at the network level)

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        15 days ago

        No, I could have just kept using free. But I was using it a lot and felt like I should pay for it, otherwise free software may not be available in the future. I think it was like $20.

        • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
          1·
          14 days ago

          Fair and reasonable. I don’t use it often and have nearly finished moving entirely to Linux, otherwise I may have done the same (its Windows-only).

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
    33·
    15 days ago

    Immich https://immich.app/

    Absolutely amazing and it’s technically free, but please donate if you can, they fucking deserve it.

    Being able to host your own photos and have ai to help identify faces WITHOUT internet or giving your private photos to the tech giants is worth every penny.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
      2·
      15 days ago

      I love Immich, but I’m afraid to donate because they’re part of FUTO which looks sketchy and I know there was some drama about them.

    • Tiger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      14·
      16 days ago

      Another happy Kagi user here, and I also hate sounding like a shill but I’m really so glad I use their product. Not having to parse through ads and AI slop when I’m busy and looking for info is so helpful when I’m trying to work.

        • Fit_Series_573@lemmy.world
          6·
          15 days ago

          DDG still does top ranking of advertisers even though they aren’t directly targeted to you. Kagi puts the most relevant information to your search regardless to what it is you search. You’re also able to uprank and downrank different sites you want to see more or less of in your searches. For example if you’re someone who looks up a lot of medical terms for work or something you can completely block sites like WebMD from taking over the results making it harder to find more relevant information to it. Not my exact use case but have been a Kagi user for probably 8 months now and it’s 100% worth it for the rankings as well as Kagi Translate since it has a proofread feature that replaces Grammarly for me as a dyslexic that has to write a lot of emails.

          • texture@lemmy.world
            2·
            14 days ago

            thanks very much for this info. i can see the appeal of personal ranking. appreciate the details.

        • FunkyCheese@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2·
          12 days ago

          I like ecosia

          They have ads but… they donate their profits to help the coimate

          They even have a breakdown of their economy on their site

        • Tiger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          11·
          15 days ago

          I don’t know, I never personally used DDG much pardon (I should have, can’t recall why I didn’t).

      • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
        22·
        16 days ago

        I think it might be one or both of:

        • people are sick of seeing it mentioned. I’m not a shill, I just really like the product.
        • they are indignant about Kagi occasionally using Yandex when it compiles search results

        In both cases, meh. I’m answering the OP question with my opinion, and hopefully somebody finds it useful.

        • Ok_imagination@lemmy.world
          2·
          16 days ago

          Thanks so much! I wouldn’t have known about it had people not talked about it. It’s only been a much or two since switching to kagi and I’ve been happy with it.

      • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
        13·
        16 days ago

        I didn’t downvote, but probably because they’re a young USA-based search engine that requires login to use - which is usually a huge red flag for privacy, and their privacy of user searches is claimed but has never been verified by any kind of audit - another significant red flag.

        Why trust another for-profit Palo-Alto search company with your search data, assist their (potential) tracking by logging in, and pay for it in the process?

    • BromSwolligans@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      16 days ago

      I’ll be a lifer for Kagi. I still twitch my way to Google sometimes from a lifetime of habit and every time, it’s like a little check-in, and I think, “oh, god, it can’t have gotten this much worse since last time, can it?”

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        IntelliJ basically killed Eclipse as a major IDE and the reaction from most of its users was “good job”. It’s funny how such a widely hated IDE was dominant for so long.

        (Though to be fair, Eclipse helped kill itself with its UI changes)

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    23·
    16 days ago

    I paid for a copy of the Torque app on android. It lets you use bluetooth OBD2 adapters to connect to your car’s ECU for reading live engine data and trouble codes. The pro paid version unlocks a lot more customization for data logging screens, allows you to save live data logs to your phone, and enables a wider range of readable codes… Makes a huge difference diagnosing weird engine issues in cars 1996 and newer.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
      7·
      16 days ago

      I paid for a license of obd jscan for my vehicle since it is specific to Dodge/Jeep it can do everything, including activation of features and access to all data in the vehicle. I had to buy a more expensive vlink adapter, but it was only $20 or so. It has saved me tons of money so far. I was able to program keys, activate remote start (had to install a hood switch), and have been able to diagnose several issues with things like tpms and abs.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Used the free version, don’t know why I updated to paid, WORTH IT ($5). I’ll never not have a BT adapter ($4) on my car computer and Torque on hand. Worth it just to read check engine lights.

      Wife’s car occasionally throws, and sometimes clears, a minor emissions error, kills the cruise control. The passenger can reset it rolling down the interstate and we’re back in business.

    • logjam_tizzy@sopuli.xyz
      5·
      15 days ago

      Yes. This. 100%.

      Even if it wasn’t the most reasonable to license, it’d still be the most flexible and “hackable”.

        • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
          1·
          15 days ago

          Yup. A price that respects their user base. On that basis alone I have had (and will continue to have) no issue paying for another license if needed.

          When I switched to Linux I just bought a new copy instead of figuring out how to transfer the license I had for my Windows PC because the Reaper team just straight up deserves the money.

  • smh@slrpnk.net
    14·
    16 days ago

    BeyondCompare. I’ve used it for all my Windows text comparison needs for decades. It also handles comparing spreadsheets and directory structures.

    • binom@lemmy.world
      71·
      15 days ago

      I’m sure BeyondCompare is much more powerful, but have a look at WinMerge if you don’t know it yet. I keep being impressed by it for being free and OSS.

      • smh@slrpnk.net
        3·
        15 days ago

        Thank you for the pointer. I’ll try it out and see if I can recommend it to my colleagues. (I’m the library techie, so if a coworker has a problem, I’m the one they’ll ask for help. So, I should at least play around with it a bit first.)

    • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
      2·
      14 days ago

      I’ve tried so many other open source or free software for diffing and Beyond Compare is still the best, if only I could convince my company to pay for a license for it

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    12·
    16 days ago

    donate the money to somebody who runs a fediverse server. running servers costs money every month, and that can’t be eliminated either because hardware can’t be optimized out of existence.

  • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca
    10·
    16 days ago

    mine was voicemeeter. so much nicer manipulating audio on windows with voicemeeter and never looking at windows settings again.

    wish it worked with Linux tbh, but I’m making due

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksMEnglish
    7·
    16 days ago

    Bitwig. Excellent DAW that has a native linux build. I tried to like Ardour and many of the other open source alternatives, but they all felt cumbersome and not very mature.

    • Krusty@feddit.it
      2·
      16 days ago

      I’m looking forward to learn Bitwig since it looks reslly cool. Do you have any way to learn using it and music production in general you found useful?

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksMEnglish
        2·
        16 days ago

        My experience with ProTools and Cakewalk 20ish years ago came in handy. Other than that, there are some really nice youtube tutorials available.

        One thing worth mentioning is their excellent customer support. I signed up for the trial period, but then life happened, and I contacted them an explained my case and they were more than willing to reset my trial period so I could have a proper go.

        After buying it I had a support request and they were both helpful and quick to help me resolve the issue.

  • thesohoriots@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    16 days ago

    Just a teensy iOS/macos extension, but Vinegar is awesome for watching YouTube.

    I would have said the Affinity suite of stuff, but they recently sold out to Canva, and fuuuuuuuck them.