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Buy once, use forever A directory of one-time purchase software

(buyoncesoftware.com)
222 points richbowen | 2 comments | 30 Mar 25 00:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | source
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ricardobeat ◴[30 Mar 25 02:01 UTC] No.43520578[source]▶
As others have also expressed, a lot of the software here doesn't really live up to the what most people mean by 'one-time purchase'.

Screen Studio: $9/month vs $220 "one-time purchase" with only one year of support.

Sizzy browser: $12/month or $499 one-time purchase.

Then you often have a one device limit - I can't be two places at once but I do have both a laptop and desktop machine.

Who in their sane mind would choose these? Note that the problem with "one-year of updates" is not that you'd want free access to a newer major version of the app, but a year+ is enough time to have a new OS version make your app unusable or subject to security updates. While companies in the before times would quickly release a patch to keep their old users happy, the one-year term just ensures you'll be left hanging.

This is just paying lip service to the idea of a one-time purchase.

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1. jwagenet ◴[30 Mar 25 03:10 UTC] No.43520927[source]▶
It used to be that one time purchase never came with any updates and a new version came out for the same price the next year. I’m all for pushing back on subscriptions, but the expectation that users should get indefinite support without paying for it is silly.
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2. ricardobeat ◴[30 Mar 25 10:40 UTC] No.43523057[source]▶
I mentioned that in my comment. You wouldn’t get new versions, but in case of security or compatibility patches you could download them for free to keep running your old version, not just for one year.