The first time I remember seeing a “no use, no pay” plan was with the ProVUE’s Panorama X excellent database application for macOS.
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> Kagi can afford this because they go further than being bootstrapped and profitable: As a Public Benefit Corporation, not beholden to maximizing shareholder value.
I recently heard of a payment strategy that I liked a lot though I understand it's hard to explain to customers. John Siracusa's Hyperspace [0] app has the following options:
* Monthly, recurring
* Monthly, one-time
* Yearly, recurring
* Monthly, one-time
* Lifetime, one-time
More details in the developer's own words here [1]. The interesting options are the Monthly and Yearly one-time options. For anyone in the Apple ecosystem you can technically get this behavior by purchasing a subscription and immediately cancelling it (since you will get the full time period you paid for still). But I really like this payment style especially for an app like this where I don't want to pay-per-use (that feel punitive) but I don't really have ongoing data-deduplication needs (at least the features the product currently offers). It's a "once every year or so" and I might need to run it multiple times on different directories/different settings.
"Time-based unlocks" might be a better way to think about it. There are lots of products I would 1000000% pay for 1 month of, if it auto-cancelled, but I don't need it every month. Often I just skip using the product completely since I have no idea if I cancel if they will close my account right away and/or try to refund me. I just don't want to have to set a calendar item to remember to cancel a day before it renews.
I'm not opposed to subscriptions, developers need to make money and platforms/OS change all the time (especially in mobile) so there is ongoing maintenance. But the issue for me are apps I only need for a little bit or infrequently. If Adobe offered a "1 month, no renewal" then there is a good chance I'd still be using Photoshop instead of switching to Pixelmator Pro.
They have a Discord server where news and updates are released, hyped and discussed.
Kagi is appreciated and people like to associate with appreciated things
It also sounds like an option that reduces sales in almost all cases, so it will never be widely adopted.
Software used to all be lifetime purchases by providing you with the actual program. If you bought a copy of WordPerfect in the 90s it will still work fine today even though no one is offering it anymore.
It's the same status Patagonia has. I think it's more of a signal to investors (we won't maximize your gains) and a brand boost with the community.
Being weird enough to not use the free incumbent and pay for a niche solution instead means you share values with those people, which unites them and creates a community
I don’t disagree with you. I’ve had several “lifetime licenses”, some of which were quite costly, become varying states of useless. Some were acceptable (no more updates because the vendor was acquired/folded but the software still works and can be activated) and some were hostile (no more updates because we ran out of money and decided “lifetime” isn’t actually “lifetime” or “we folded and shut down activation servers that are required to install the app without patching out drm”)
But the solution is very simple then. Just don’t promise what you can’t deliver? Why mislead customers with fine print double speak when you could just be upfront and say “license for until we run short on cash” or whatever
I have various perpetual CAD licenses going back to the 90's.
Same for some development tools, some, or maybe just one dating back to the 80's. (MAC/65)
MSDOS
All versions of Windows I have used and or purchased.
Microsoft Office
Libre Office
SGI IRIX
And I could go on for a long time. Point is a whole lot of software runs on some sort of perpetual license. Any why not? It all does what it was written to do.
Until very recently, with the rise of software in our browsers, one could expect most software to operate this way.
When new versions are needed, AND if needed, payment for that work is obvious and entirely reasonable. And with some software navigating what happens if new is needed becomes huge pressure to get people to upgrade. And that is sometimes unpleasant.
CAD is one of those for sure.
Subscription software, in many cases --and I am speaking generally here, can be easy to subscribe to.
All good right?
Well, I tend to keep software that2, Supports my skills.
Doing that would be huge payments!
As a buyer,I expect to see software coat / licensing make better sense.