[h1d]

So why don't you pay once and keep that version for as long as you want? It's a perpetual license.

If you want major updates, it's not weird to be asked to pay for it, which means continued subscription.

[wyqydsyq]

Except if they decide they don't have any updates to release for a month you just paid them for a month of nothing.

The issue with a subscription for self-hosted or locally ran software is that you are obligated to pay an ongoing fee, without the provider being obligated to provide the service you're paying for. Their terms do not require them to adhere to any release schedule or anything showing that by paying a subscription you're getting X. It's basically a recurring donation in hopes the software you paid for gets an update.

[h1d]

At least you can know how it has been and JetBrains has been releasing several updates yearly for most of their tools.

If they quit updating to abandon (which is unlikely when they're making quite a ton from the subscriptions), you can quit paying.