[Cthulhu_]

Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development.

The alternative is to do what older desktop apps did: release a new paid version / upgrade, often with a load of fluff added or a redesign to try and sell that an upgrade is worthwhile to the customers.

[incrudible]

> Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development.

Here's a crazy idea in 2020: That's totally fine. There's a point where adding more features becomes a negative ROI. That's when you know you need to move on solving a different problem. That's the alternative.

[ncallaway]

The problem in 2021 (and 2022 and 2023, etc) is that the app will break over time.

OS updates will break a small piece of functionality. Critical security vulnerabilities will be discovered that need to be patched. If the developer abandons the application because it isn't earning new revenue, the application will eventually degrade over time.

I don't have a good answer here, because I also don't like the SASS billing model for desktop software, but I recognize that a "one-time purchase" rarely actually terminates the relationship at the time of purchase. People expect ongoing bug-fixes, and security patches even for desktop software.

[incrudible]

In my experience, Windows applications very rarely break, Mac OS apps only break with major changes, and Linux isn't worth supporting in the first place. Setting aside a little bit of money to keep the app working and patched is possible. Charging for the occasional update to make that happen is acceptable too, especially with Apple users.

[jasonfarnon]

You think those issues began in 2021?

[ncallaway]

No

[prepend]

> Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development.

I’ve bought software for decades and reality disagrees with you.

There’s software that I’ve bought as a one time fee years ago that still releases small maintenance patches. I don’t want to run your business for you, but there’s typically multiple products and the work developing new paid major updates or other products allows for some small amount of maintenance.

A really niche product called Moneydance has done this well, I think, and I’ve used them since 2009. I think I’ve paid $50-100 once or twice but would never pay a monthly fee. It’s software that runs on my desktop.

It’s certainly possible, but some companies think they make more money with monthly subs. And they might.

[GordonS]

> Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income

That doesn't have to be true - a lot of desktop software uses a perpetual license plus optional annual maintenance. It's pretty much the standard for non-SaaS apps.

[passivate]

Agreed, selling non-subscription desktop software in a retail segment is crazy crazy hard. Not to mention that people want everything for free these days, so even SaaS is super-hard for desktop s/w.

I used to be pretty anti-sub, but I just don't see any alternative and I do want talented devs to continue working on their passions.