Developers are very sensitive to their toolchain and don't want to learn a new one that may go away/get mismanaged. Also it's easier to justify the value prop

Developers are very sensitive to their toolchain and don't want to learn a new one that may go away/get mismanaged. Also it's easier to justify the value prop if it's a once off and I can evaluate future versions. The single time price should be about a years worth of subscription. If you can't add enough features in a year to make it worth grabbing the next version then you're really saying something about your level of commitment to maintaining and improving the tool.