Subscriptions caused Adobe’s once-loyal user base to turn on and hate their product.
Is it possible for a SaaS to sell their product without monthly subscriptions — How?
Previously, you’d buy a software licence for $X00 or $X,000 and after a year or two you’d either stop receiving security/feature updates or you’d have to spend another $X00 or $X,000 all over again. You’d also only be able to use the software on one machine - period.
The move to subscriptions means that cost is spread further over time.
Subscriptions aren’t necessarily bad - if your software provides a monthly service, like cloud storage or access across multiple devices, then it’s a reasonable pricing model.
Likewise, if you are airing continual features, then users are getting the benefit of constant updates, then again subscriptions are reasonable.
If you really want to go down a single cost route, you aren’t selling a SaaS. It’s just software, and it’s probably not a web app.
If you really want to go this way, you could accept payment for an annual licence, the Oscar future releases, so a user would have to get another year “upgrade” to get more features. But this is probably more complex and less desirable than a simple subscription.
You pay as normal for a monthly or annual subscription to one or more of their products. It's fine if you just want to subscribe for a month or two.
But if you purchase an annual sub, or just keep a monthly one active for 12 months, you get a forever license for that version of the product. Even if you cancel your subscription, you can keep using it for as long as you want. You just don't get further updates to new versions.
You also get some long term sub discounts, like 40% off after the 2 year mark.
Thank you, Jetbrains.