I don't know. We had a pretty well established model that included free updates, but required a new purchase for a new major version down the line. I think that worked pretty well.

> The license entitles you to receive lifetime updates for the major version. When we release the next major version, you can optionally renew the license.

Fairly common. JetBrains started that way too. Will they one day have a major version that's using a subscription model? Perhaps. But they will likely not regret this too much.

>The license entitles you to receive lifetime updates for the major version.

Where does it say that?

That is common and it is the model I use for my own software. But that isn't what I understood from their website.

Home page: "Pay Once, Use Forever. We hate needless subscriptions as much as you do. TextQuery comes with a perpetual license with free updates."

Pricing page: "Perpetual license Lifetime updates"

Which strongly implies every update is free, forever.

Ok, it says that further down the pricing page. I don't see how that fits with "Perpetual license Lifetime updates". It feels deceptive.

Insert some convoluted argument about new versions being "new versions" and not updates, so one is not entitled to them ;-) , just like politicians argue things like genocide not being genocide.

I hate the subscription model but I do recognize if they continously update the software, they'd like to get paid to do so.

>if they continously update the software, they'd like to get paid to do so.

Absolutely. Just make it clear.

It's the first question/answer in the FAQ.

No worries. They will just break their promise, just like most companies that claimed something similar.

I actually have some apps still which I bought for life years back but doesn't offer that anymore. For instance blink shell for iOS devices.