I have a similar, but slightly different pricing structure for my self-hosted analytics app[0]: - Users can pay a monthly subscription, and while they are subs

I have a similar, but slightly different pricing structure for my self-hosted analytics app[0]: - Users can pay a monthly subscription, and while they are subscribed they receive updates and have access to support - Users can also purchase a lifetime license (cost is about 12-14 months of the monthly subscription) which includes lifetime updates Initially I only had the lifetime pricing but I recently added the subscription, my reasoning was that by having the subscription: - It assures potential buyers that product will still be maintained - They can try the product for a fraction of the normal cost (eg. pay only $7.99 instead of $99, so the risk is a lot lower) - They can have the option to support me and the development as long as they're using the product After I added the monthly option (I actually show it as the default one), the sales are about 50%-50% for each option (monthly vs lifetime). There are also buyers who "hack" the scheme by getting a subscription and cancelling within a month, so they get the product but won't get any updates or support. I did expect this to happen, but I think it is actually a good thing, as most people who do this wouldn't have purchased the lifetime version anyway. I personally don't like the SaaS pricing in general, especially because it is so over-priced. As a solo developer I am having a hard time finding affordable services to use. For example I use GitBook to publish my docs, their pricing is reasonable at $8/user/month, only that it starts at 5 users and forces you to pay $40/month. I would have gladly paid the $8/month for my usage, but $40/month for hosting a single docs website is absurd. The biggest problem is the so-called subscription fatigue, when you reach one point where paying for all the subscrptions you need adds up to a huge monthly amount. Not only that, but you also get all those monthly invoices that you have to take care of and pay taxes on. Buying a product is so much easier, you pay once, one invoice, you can use it as much as you want without worying about data caps. [0]: https://www.usertrack.net/ https://www.usertrack.net/