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Sandboxie lifetime license discontinued

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Vurbal:
That was a great post Vurbal, and it reflects many of my thoughts on licensing as well :Thmbsup:.

As I wrote, I can understand his need to make money, and lifetime licenses are a short-term solution in many cases. My concerns were with the way he implemented the change -- someone on the forum even called it a coup.

Like you say, lifetime licenses are sometimes used to get into a market. I think they can also work for some more mature products, if you sell them at a high enough premium that you feel reasonably confident they cover a large part of what revenue you could have realistically expected from one customer through regular paid upgrades (2.5-3 times the normal price seems to be a popular level).

Paid upgrades have the drawback that you have to periodically actually make enough useful changes that your users see justification in paying again. As you described, most software reaches a level of maturity where this becomes harder to achieve.

For many products, the ideal solution for the developer seems to be subscription based licenses, where you are guaranteed a steady stream of income, as long as you (at least appear to) continue updates.
-Jibz (October 25, 2013, 07:18 AM)
--- End quote ---

You've definitely hit the nail on the head there. The issue is a lot more complex than just lifetime licenses vs periodic updates. You need to find the license - or in many cases a combination of licensing options - that best suits your product. And just as importantly you need to regularly review your strategy because the best strategy today may be catastrophic 3 months from now.

For example several years ago I bought a character generation program written for the old Hero System RPG. At the time Hero was in something of a renaissance period, having just changed ownership and released a new edition their long time fanbase had been waiting on for several years. Initially it was licensed with a simple purchase/upgrade license which made sense due to both the interest at the time and the maturity of the software.

It stayed that way through 2 major versions. After v2 though there weren't any major architectural changes in development and sales had slowed. However there were still fairly regular updates to include information from new rulebooks (including a new edition) and add minor, but still extremely useful and cool, features.

Much of the software's value is in the minor updates and it's important they become available as soon as possible. Likewise the little add-ons that were occasionally put in were more valuable for keeping existing customers happy - especially since they paid for minor upgrades as part of their purchase. The new edition of the rules was definitely a big enough change to consider a major revision but the next one won't come for years - who knows maybe not ever.

His solution was to make a clean break from the old licensing model with the new version. Rather than $45 for the initial purchase and $25 for major upgrades he switched to a straight $25 license for 2 years of updates. After 2 years if you choose not to renew your license the software still works and you still have access to all the updates through the end of your license period. If you renew again 6 months or 2 years later it's just another $25 and you get all the updates through the end of that license.

Most people who bought it were going to be upgrading anyway so he lost basically nothing off the top. There's an additional incentive to maintain your license for access to a value added character vault service where you can post writeups and download other people's creations. If you're an active player $25 every 2 years is still a bargain and if you stop playing for a couple years it's convenient and affordable to wait until it makes sense to renew.

That license wouldn't make sense for a lot of software but arguably no other license would make sense for Hero Designer.

hulkbuster:
The base principle is little different then Shadow Defender, i heard about Sandboxie, 3/4 years back, i still dont understand, why Shadow Defender is not in everyone's kit. :o

Jibz:
The problem from a user perspective, is if the software stops working when you cancel your subscription. The order page and FAQ do not seem to clearly indicate if this is the case.
-Jibz (October 25, 2013, 07:18 AM)
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Tzuk answered this question on the forum:

Sandboxie does not lock up when the time-limited license expires, it goes back to free mode.
--- End quote ---

wraith808:
That means it does stop working... at least as purchased.  I have problems with that kind of licensing.

mitzevo:
Hey guys,

I just recently wanted to purchase sandboxie, and looked for the lifetime license, as I prefer those for obvious reasons.. :D but was a little sad when I discovered they no longer offered it. I then thought about other softwares who also stopped doing lifetime licenses... and then I just thought, who cares, I can afford to support a great software program each year.. jesus. Any way, short story short I paid for a standard sandboxie license and am a happy camper since.

Moral of the story? Don't be a cheap bastard if the software is great and it helps you.

And speaking of lifetimes licenses, XYplorer lifetime licenses are back! WOOHOO.

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