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Ask OutlinerSoftware: Subscription vs One time pricing?
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Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 18, 2022 at 05:09 PM
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.
Posted by Andy Brice
Jan 18, 2022 at 06:37 PM
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
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 18, 2022 at 09:21 PM
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.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 18, 2022 at 10:15 PM
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
Posted by Ken
Jan 19, 2022 at 04:00 AM
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