There’s still currently the need of a server to synchronise data between Allume clients (Mac + iPad + iPhone companion app), but it is completely useable offline on one device. Adam Wulf, the now solo developer of it, mentioned that a local P2P sync is in the pipeline.

> But why subscription for local-only software?

I assume that they decided the business model and user experience separately. It's generally harder to build local-only software than stuff that just uses the cloud for all the hard work, but it's a better user experience. I'd be willing to pay more for local-first, but yeah it certainly does feel weird.

This is a subject that will come up more often now that self-hosting becomes more common. The developers still need to get paid though, but should that be a subscription or a one-time fee? I honestly don't know, but I feel like a subscription that supports the developer without locking features is a good thing?

If you only pay a one-time fee and no future updates, that is also an option, but that price will be higher because you will need to cover all the features that were developed up to that point. So what are the options here?

Developers deserve to be paid for their work. Adam's work on Allume is ongoing, so he deserves ongoing income.

Seems like a subset of LiquidText

https://www.liquidtext.net is more PDF-focused, but the workspace is cool.