All software, but especially software in the privacy / protected data industries, requires ongoing updates. Pay once and you're done was a model built on expon

All software, but especially software in the privacy / protected data industries, requires ongoing updates. Pay once and you're done was a model built on exponential growth forever, which never really worked. So the next thing you could do is yearly paid upgrades but monthly recurring charges are honestly less broadly user-hostile -- more people _want_ to be billed small amounts monthly rather than larger amounts yearly, and it creates positive alignment with customers and businesses. Yearly paid upgrades were always messy and then degenerated into creating enough splash to entice users to upgrade, versus providing the best product that month that you are able to, whether that means investing in new features or investing in stability etc. Now all of that aside -- the 1Password funding round was oriented around selling to businesses and the investments needed to run hard at that. It costs money to build a business that's competitive in that B2B market but businesses can provide healthier / less jumpy revenue streams, which is good for a business like 1Password.