Greed and gluttony a.k.a. subscription vs. one time payment

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Greetings,

i've been using Your product for years now and I'm very happy with it. What I'm not happy with is Your business model. You're following greedy model of every big software company, like Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, etc. though You're forgeting something. They're elephants, and You're an ant. An ant can't, or shouldn't have a subscription model. E.g. I also use Trillian on multiple accounts and I did buy life-time license, which cost about 25-30e. Don't remember now, but it was great. I'd support You, but definitely not for 25e/machine/year. That's massively greedy for such a small software as FreeFileSync is.

If Your software could automatically increment like Windows File History, or Apple Time Machine, in it's automated version, and would work with more ease and be more user friendly, the 25e/machine/year would be so so justified [looking away from Your horrendous design and poor Ui/Ux].

Please do reconsider Your greedy attitude towards Your fanbase, and You'd be surprised how many more people would purchase Your product, with either enhanced functionality, nicer Ui, or friendlier prices.

At my country, average wage is around 250-300e/month [official is 870e brutto, in capital, but that's a big fat lie only hipsters and snowflakes believe]. And paying 25e/year for one machine is simply unbearable.

Thank You for considering my rough words and tough attitude, though, what You sow, You reap,

Your product loving fan,

Bryan

[Lady Fitzgerald]

You can always download the free version. No one is making you buy it.

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I understand Lady Fitzgerald. But I'm afraid You're missing the point of my message. It's not to throw oil into fire, but pointing out the the obvious, by believing in lower/one time payments, maybe an lifetime license, or differentiation among home/pro users, and not throwing everyone a 25e/year/pc prize. E.g. I'm using FFS on my main computer, work computer [which is also my private computer], server [at home], notebook and mums computer [also mine]. That's 5 machines, which equals to ~100 e/year, with normal autoupdate operation. And that's quiet a lot, at least for me. That's all. I'm trying to point out a way for wider group, so more people can benefit from the "premium" version, and support the FFS software.

[schnappi]

Capitalism is extremely greedy but it is still very cool in my book. Agree subscriptions are a ripoff but reoccurring income for doing no work is the greatest thing in the world.

All this being said agree that the donation edition license should allow five machine or something. But then it becomes easier to pirate if one lets a key be used more than once.

@Zenju have no idea how you authenticate keys for he donation edition but would you consider allowing one license to be used on say up to three personal machines as a compromise? A good point was made about the cost for five machines all used by same person.

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schnappi, I agree. And piracy could be lowered by lower prices, I guess. At least I think it goes like this. Guys who pirate things will pirate them no matter whether they cost 100e, or 10e. And people like me will buy things, when they can afford it. That being said, I have about 10 programs I use and would like to support, but their running cost would be around 1500e/year. E.g. sublimetext, total commander, and others. They all cost a fortune, when we're at it. That's what I like about Trillian. I bought it and it's mine. When I'll need more licenses, I'll purchase lifetime. Subscription model is a horrible thing. I'm a designer and company I work at pays a fortune on CC licenses for its designers. Problem of most of the subscription based premium software is, that it calculates with around 2-3% of the population, and leaves the rest out of the equation. 2-3% of the population most likely earn 70-150k eur/year, so some 1500e/year on subscription sw is nothing for people from this group. But for people who earn 5-12k eur/year, it's a game changer.