Why are plug-ins expensive?

Hi,

Fusion Studio costs $300, but plug-ins costs more than that.
Like Mocha Pro OFX costs $695 ?

What's with this pricing?

Every vendor has to set a price that makes sense for them economically.
If BMD can make money (or can afford to lose money) on Fusion Studio for $300 directly or indirectly, they can set their price accordingly.

For Mocha there is a smaller market by its very definition. Not everyone who is working in post *needs* the tools Mocha provides, so whatever they spend on development they have to recover through other ways. In their case higher prices for the software, since they have no alternative stream of revenue (cameras, control panels etc) to compensate for that.

Also, if your own revenue as a studio depends on the speed at which you can work, something that costs $695 isn't expensive if it speeds up the artist's workflow so they can get their work done quicker.
If you have a roto artis that costs $ 400 a day (I have no idea what the rate is) and they can get their work done 3 days earlier because of the speed Mocha brings, you (as the person who hires them) will have saved $ 1200. That's Fusion *and* Mocha saved within three days.

If you look at it percentagewise, you could compare it with coffee you brew at home (which is about $0.25 tops and the one you buy in a cafe (remember those?) which goes for $ 3.00 easily a 12 times increase in price for what is essentially the same product.

So the short version is: plug-ins aren't expensive, Fusion Studio is cheap.

Hi Sander,

Ah gotcha. Thanks for the perspective. I was only thinking of a single user/contractor rather than on a studio level.

Even as a single contractor it can benefit you. If you can get work done quicker, you can either handle more jobs at the same rate, or you can boost your rates, because you can handle jobs quicker.
Especially in post turn around time can be quite valuable. If you can deliver in two days what someone else can only deliver in five, you can raise your prices as well. Theoretically of course.

All of that said, Mocha is overpriced. Boris increased it by $200 after they purchased it. I still kick myself for missing the Black Friday sale in 2015. Thought there'd be another opportunity.

There is always option to code the plugins yourself, it costs nothing. Just as instead of hiring humongously expensive compers or colorists, who charge sometimes more per hour than permanent license of Resolve/Fusion costs, someones nephew would do the job for 5$

Also, that's an OFX plugin. It doesn't know if you're using it with a $10 application or a $100,000 one.