One big problem with one time payment model is that you at some point after shipping and fixing bugs need to start doing other things (next paid version or anot

One big problem with one time payment model is that you at some point after shipping and fixing bugs need to start doing other things (next paid version or another product). In this period you will accumulate a lot of new features/functionality that isn't exposed to the users for a long time. This causes two problems: 1)Users who would love to have new stuff quickly have to wait, often for years until new version is ready 2)You unload everything in one go with the release and that means tons of bug reports/feature requests/urgent work at this time. This is stressful and counterproductive. Subscription solves those problems and aligns incentives so developers ship new stuff as soon as it's ready which is better for everyone. I agree it's very nice to have a standalone one time payment option but that has to come without free upgrades (or only for limited period) or otherwise it doesn't make business sense. There is not an easy way to implement buy your software and get limited subscription for upgrades model as you need to solve the problem of "what if they don't prolong the subscription for a few months but then want back on it". What Jet Brains has done wouldn't fly in consumer market. It's just not an easy problem to solve. My own experience is that a few years ago people were thankful we don't offer subscription but these days more ask for it as they don't want to front the bigger cost and would be happy to get updates faster. As a consumer I want subscription for everything that may get new useful features.