Hi All,
I'm getting close to the point of enforcing licensing on my BrainTool browser extension.

I've seen some comments here and from some BT early adopters that some people will only consider one time pricing. I'd love to get some thoughts from this group.

My current model is a 1:10 ratio for monthly to yearly pricing ($4/mo or $40/yr). I'm considering adding one or both of the following:
- 1:10:25 pricing, whereby a lifetime subscription option is 25 times the monthly sub (in this case $100)
- Stop paying the sub at any time, you no longer get updates or support but keep access to the version you are on.

BrainTool is Freemium, open source (the free version will always be, not sure about paid features), and gives you full access to your data in plain text (org-mode) format. I want to compete on features and utility, not lock in. You can see the current pricing page here: https://braintool.org/pricing

Is 1:10:25 the right ratio? Does ongoing access to your paid up version alleviate the need for a one-time price?

Thanks and regards,
Tony

Personally I prefer the first option:
Lifetime always updates version.

You need to be clear what you mean by a 'lifetime' licence.

Sometimes vendors have a 'lifetime' licence where you pay once and get all upgrades free forever. This is almost certainly a bad idea (for the vendor!).

With Hyper Plan, if you buy a v2 Professional licence, then you can use v2 Professional edition forever (perpetual licence). But you only get v3 if:
a) You pay a 40% upgrade fee; or
b) It is released within 3 months of your purchase of v2

See also:
https://successfulsoftware.net/2008/09/08/should-i-give-free-upgrades-for-life/

--

Andy Brice
https://www.hyperplan.com

As someone who uses a lot of different software programs, I avoid subscription fees for any program that isn't in near-daily use. I could bankrupt myself paying for all of them! And the vast majority are not essential enough for my workflow to pay subscription fees.

So I agree with Andy's model - I will buy a 'perpetual' license for a program so I can use it whenever I want, and if I want to upgrade to a new version I'll buy the upgrade.

Ditto

Cyganet wrote:

As someone who uses a lot of different software programs, I avoid
subscription fees for any program that isn't in near-daily use. I could
bankrupt myself paying for all of them! And the vast majority are not
essential enough for my workflow to pay subscription fees.

So I agree with Andy's model - I will buy a 'perpetual' license for a
program so I can use it whenever I want, and if I want to upgrade to a
new version I'll buy the upgrade.

Same here.

I should add that I also pay several subscriptions --both professionally and personally-- which however are linked to external continuous services such as mail, external storage and backups, etc., i.e., not just to 'unlock' locally run software.

Cyganet wrote:

So I agree with Andy's model - I will buy a 'perpetual' license for a
program so I can use it whenever I want, and if I want to upgrade to a
new version I'll buy the upgrade.

More and more downloable software is going to subscription, with the charge led by Microsoft and Adobe. You can see why the vendors like it, especially for products like MS Office that (as far as most people's usage is concerned) hardly change from one year to the next. But it's not popular with most customers.

--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Microsoft and Adobe's subscriptions are linked to additional hosted services, which may provide substantial added value depending on one's situation. At my company we have purchased perpetual Office 2016 licenses and as yet see no reason to upgrade. But at home, I use an Office subscription which covers my whole family and allows me to work online, even from Linux machines. It also provides as much online storage as Dropbox at no additional cost.

For collaborative longform writing, I find Word online unbeatable, not least because just about everyone is familiar with the interface (even those who a few years back would be mailing Word documents back and forth.)

To take the example of Hyperplan, the current pricing model is most reasonable for the downloadable software. But I would subscribe to an online/collaborative version without a second thought. Similarly, an online version of Easy Data Transform which would pull data from online services and process them in real time would constitute an altogether different product.

Andy Brice wrote:

More and more downloable software is going to subscription, with the
charge led by Microsoft and Adobe.

If the app in question is primarily web-based, I will always expect to pay an annual subscription, though I would prefer not to. When the app lives on my computer, Andy's solution seems reasonable.

Andy Brice wrote:

You need to be clear what you mean by a 'lifetime' licence.

Sometimes vendors have a 'lifetime' licence where you pay once and get
all upgrades free forever. This is almost certainly a bad idea (for the
vendor!).

With Hyper Plan, if you buy a v2 Professional licence, then you can use
v2 Professional edition forever (perpetual licence). But you only get v3
if:
a) You pay a 40% upgrade fee; or
b) It is released within 3 months of your purchase of v2

See also:
https://successfulsoftware.net/2008/09/08/should-i-give-free-upgrades-for-life/

--

Andy Brice
https://www.hyperplan.com

That's kind of my thinking as well. I think that this is a reasonable compromise. It gives some incentive to the author and some choice to the consumer.

--Ken

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

If the app in question is primarily web-based, I will always expect to
pay an annual subscription, though I would prefer not to. When the app
lives on my computer, Andy's solution seems reasonable.

Andy Brice wrote:
You need to be clear what you mean by a 'lifetime' licence.
>
>Sometimes vendors have a 'lifetime' licence where you pay once and get
>all upgrades free forever. This is almost certainly a bad idea (for the
>vendor!).
>
>With Hyper Plan, if you buy a v2 Professional licence, then you can use
>v2 Professional edition forever (perpetual licence). But you only get
v3
>if:
>a) You pay a 40% upgrade fee; or
>b) It is released within 3 months of your purchase of v2
>
>See also:
>https://successfulsoftware.net/2008/09/08/should-i-give-free-upgrades-for-life/
>
>--
>
>Andy Brice
>https://www.hyperplan.com

I agree with this as well. I would add to an earlier post in this thread, that the subscription model forces one to be more selective about which tools to subscribe to. In the early days, as a confirmed crimper, I would not think much of dropping $20 or $30 on a one time purchase, often purely to support an intriguing product. But I am now very careful not to get into the situation of paying multiple separate subscriptions every month as the cumulative cost is prohibitive. So, although the subscription model may be good developers, in the long run, it may become more difficult for a vendor to build market share. Another barrier for me is the reality that many vendors a) make it difficult to cancel and b) the auto-renewal feature makes it difficult to avoid the mistake of finding oneself auto-renewed for another year for a product you haven't used for months and only realizing it when you see the credit card charge.

Ken wrote:

That's kind of my thinking as well. I think that this is a reasonable
compromise. It gives some incentive to the author and some choice to
the consumer.

--Ken

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
If the app in question is primarily web-based, I will always expect to
>pay an annual subscription, though I would prefer not to. When the app
>lives on my computer, Andy's solution seems reasonable.
>
>Andy Brice wrote:
>You need to be clear what you mean by a 'lifetime' licence.
>>
>>Sometimes vendors have a 'lifetime' licence where you pay once and get
>>all upgrades free forever. This is almost certainly a bad idea (for
the
>>vendor!).
>>
>>With Hyper Plan, if you buy a v2 Professional licence, then you can
use
>>v2 Professional edition forever (perpetual licence). But you only get
>v3
>>if:
>>a) You pay a 40% upgrade fee; or
>>b) It is released within 3 months of your purchase of v2
>>
>>See also:
>>https://successfulsoftware.net/2008/09/08/should-i-give-free-upgrades-for-life/
>>
>>--
>>
>>Andy Brice
>>https://www.hyperplan.com