When buying software, do you prefer "subscriptions" or one-time purchase apps?

I won't buy subscription software. Either sell it to me, or I'll buy something else. No worries, no hard feelings. I also won't buy most things that lock me into someone else's cloud ie: someone else's hardware, admin staff and software. I like control over my stuff, or at least the illusion of it. I get mad enough relying on Apple to sync my calendars from my phone to my home computer, I'd be through the roof if my home security system didn't let me save locally or record if the internet was down.

Ember1205 said:

The subscription model has come about because software companies have to keep their revenues up. One "benefit" to the consumer from a subscription model is the lower buy-in price and another is "constant updates". To me, however, I do not / will not use subscription services. There's NO WAY that my data is going to end up being "held hostage" because their system goes down or doesn't credit a payment I made, or whatever. I have some items that require pieces "in the cloud" to be operational and that infuriates me. I don't NEED their systems in order to access my devices and such inside of my home, so why am I forced to use their systems (and these are devices that I'm -NOT- paying for on a subscription basis).

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My thoughts exactly. Except I would pay to subscribe to software that I require a lot of technical support for. Like the crappy software we use at work (management bought it, employees are stuck with it). The support is better if they know you have to renew every so often.

Im debt free and want to stay that way, so monthly bills/payments don't work for me. I prefer to buy a program one time and keep it for as many years as I can get out of it.

macgig said:

Im debt free and want to stay that way, so monthly bills/payments don't work for me. I prefer to buy a program one time and keep it for as many years as I can get out of it.

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Technically you are only in debt if you miss a payment - but I agree with you about buying once and keeping it.

soon as you borrow money you're in debt. even if you can make the payments. you sign papers for a $200,000 house, you borrowed money and made a promise to pay that money back over time. that is debt.

macgig said:

soon as you borrow money you're in debt. even if you can make the payments. you sign papers for a $200,000 house, you borrowed money and made a promise to pay that money back over time. that is debt.

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No, that's life for most of us who can't afford to lay down $200K cash for a house! LOL.

I don't necessarily mind buying software on a subscription model as long as it provides added value each time I renew it. I use PHPStorm as my development IDE, and that's probably the first major piece of software I've purchased sold on a subscription model. What made the decision easier for me is their perpetual fallback licensing, which allows you to continue using the same version of PHPStorm that was released at the time you bought your subscription after it expires a year later, even if you choose not to renew.

Adobe CC on the other hand - well we all know why they switched that to a subscription model. It might be cheaper month-by-month, but it's stable regular income for Adobe and a lot more over time between each customer. Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo from Serif are very compelling alternatives that don't use a subscription model. I'm just hoping Adobe don't try and buy Serif out in an effort to limit competition.

Sawday said:

Technically you are only in debt if you miss a payment - but I agree with you about buying once and keeping it.

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In the instance to which this is referencing, that is absolutely correct.

depends on the app. If I know that I will be using this app for a long time (for ex., image editors or file downloaders), I prefer one time purchase. If I will need this app just once (like I needed an app to move files from my Android to iPhone when switching) - subscription is better.