I'm buying this just for it not being a monthly subscription.
There's 0 technical correlation between update delivery model and billing model.
I don't think that really applies to the thread here, honestly. :/
>I used to upgrade every couple of versions. This has ended up costing me way more. But I still pay it because I need the software. So I guess they win...
So my post makes perfect sense. They were going to raise the price on you anyways, so you were going to pay more either way. With the new pricing model you're paying more and getting versions you might have otherwise missed.
That's refreshing... more often than not, latest versions are slower, uglier, and bloated. One more reason to be able to own the previous version.
Prime examples I've seen:
Google closing someone's account for using not their real legal name on Google+, locking away access to his music, documents, e-mail, and photos, all of which he'd migrated to his Google account.
Steam closing someone's account and basically cancelling a thousand dollars of "purchased" games because he broke their ToS, which makes you wonder what the difference is between purchasing and purchasing (via Steam) when the price is the same but your recourse is not.
(this is the same with movies and music btw)
Not owning it, keeping data somewhere else, stacking many small subscriptions into a big monthly bill.
> Software is never finished
But some apps are not in active development forever. You don't need to add big features endlessly to something like a FTP client:
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2012/03/thank-god...
I'd much prefer a hybrid model. Happy to pay $30 or so for a single version and then $1-$2/mo for updates. If I stop paying at least I have something.
The app Gameshow by Telestream works like this and I really like the model. It's $35 and you get one year of updates. After a year you either stick with whatever the last point release was or you pay another $35. I wish Adobe software was like this.
As an individual, I really don't like having to constantly make a judgement call if I'm still getting value out of my recipe manager or my disk usage analyzer. Most of the development was done up front, as with the risk in developing it. There's also not really continuous updates or a lot of new features always needed.
When people sit down to budget, the first things people ask about are reoccurring expenses that can be minimized or eliminated; cheaper cellphone plan, cutting out daily lattes, cable bill--even investment fees. They easily sneak in and add up over time.
"Look, you save 25% versus buying our old yearly releases every year!" they say.
But I wasn't going to buy all their yearly releases. Most software I use isn't my main workhorse. I was perfectly happy running old Adobe software for years, even after high DPI screens came out and it didn't support them. So what really happened is they took my purchase-every-five-years plan and jacked the price up 300% for stuff that I don't need.
Being required to pay for updates that I don't want (and the current version stops working entirely if you stop paying for it) takes away any pricing segmentation and tends to be a terrible deal for hobbyists.
If you're a creative professional maybe Creative Cloud is a great bargain. But it isn't for me, and neither is a $10/month FTP client. So props to Panic for not going that route.
At least Jetbrains lets you lock in the last version subscribed.
If the company shuts down (or gets acquired or simply stops supporting the software), subscription software stops working. Paid usually does not.
I've outlived too many useful products, and lost them entirely. I expect to continue to do so for a lot longer, so I avoid subscriptions-for-non-hosted-software like the plague it is.
I recently had an issue importing a logbook using arguably the most popular iOS pilot logbook app and it took a week. A WEEK! For the them to attend to my support request. A week could be 30 hours worth of flights for a pilot depending where they work.
Why do you need almost $100/year from me if you can't answer one email in 48 hours?
I've been dreaming of an open source logbook setup ever since this experience. I wish I didn't have to rely on $100/yr subscriptions to be locked into something so critical to my career.
Now I assuming that if he had a opensource logbook he could quickly find out what the problem was himself without relying one someone else.
Maybe the right counter argument would be that 100$ is not sufficient to provide a SLA to handle his support request whithin a shorter timespan. It should be prices higher ;) If this app is so critical for him I assume again the OP wouldn't mind paying it.
Subscriptions done right:
* JetBrains - big discount during the change to subscription model, perpetual license to the last version that was released while your sub was active
* Office - gives me OneDrive space, 5 licenses to use in my family, Skype minutes, yearly payment - the subscription is the best value for money.
Subscriptions done wrong:
* Creative Cloud - more expensive in Australia for no reason, no value in choosing just the app/s I need, can't use old versions if my sub lapses.
* Google Apps - holds $300+ of Android apps hostage if I ever cancel my subscription
Here's the difference:
- People who no longer use the app, will forget about it and the subscription will keep going for some time, which means free $ for company.
- People who don't really need the new features of the app and normally would not re-buy it (perhaps the Developer neglected renewing the app and it only has minor changes) still get it and pay for it through the subscription.
I honestly can't think of a single advantage of subscriptions for customers.