this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Buy Once Software (www.buyoncesoftware.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Buy software, once Say goodbye to subscription fatigue! Discover software you can buy once and own forever--no recurring charges, just tools that work for you, for life.

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[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

If you're into music production, FL Studio has a lifetime license that's stood the test of time, and has kept up with or exceeded the capabilities of packages like Reason, Ableton, and Logic. It was the first to really embrace an open VST plugin interface, and has so many options that even after 25 years I haven't yet explored them all. It also comes with a ton of free instruments you can download (basically free DLC).

I picked up a lifetime license for $99 in 2001 when it was Fruity Loops 2.0. Used it for 10 years as it evolved and was amazed that it was keeping up with the big boys. That encouraged me to drop another $80 to upgrade to the producer edition to start making professional level tracks - and I was not disappointed.

The best part? The base license is still just $99. Producer edition is still $179.

EDIT: side note - the demo is actually the full software package, so you can try it out for free. The license just unlocks the capacity to save projects with the plugins that are covered by your licensing.

[–] pyr0ball@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Bruh I'm still using my fls 11 license from the early '00's and it still works. Modern hardware has made it work even better really

[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

FL 11 was an amazing piece of software - that's the version that really kicked it into the big leagues.

You should check out the newest version - the download manager is much better since FL Studio 20, and they've got a bunch of new packages and plugins. The Flex plugin is one of the best traditional instrument synths I've ever worked with (think it came in on v 17 or 18).

Even the new version has excellent performance on my 10 year old desktop - you'll love it when you get a chance to upgrade.

[–] gveltaine@lemmy.zip 3 points 17 hours ago

I use moneydance for finance, it's $50 for the current version, as of now they give you one free version upgrade, with no requirement to upgrade again if you are satisfied.

It has a learning curve and isn't the prettiest but I've been satisfied with managing my transactions and running reports.

What it lacks though is a decent budget extension.

[–] Goretantath@lemm.ee 42 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Until they revoke your lifetime purchase and put the new updates under a sub..

[–] phubarr@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Happened to me with the Android anti-theft app Cerberus, AND with the PlayOn TV recording service.

We should make a shame/do not trust list.

[–] SeekPie@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We should make a shame/do not trust list.

Something like this?

https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That shit better not happen to Plex, I'll never buy software again, will pirate the fuck out of it for this reason alone.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That would be punishing yourself compared to switching to Jellyfin, though.

[–] downhomechunk@midwest.social 4 points 16 hours ago

This is the best advice. Heed it!

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[–] Geodad@lemm.ee 69 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Discover FOSS software. Just be sure to toss some donations to your favorite projects.

[–] Rin@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Imma be straight up. Donations are cool but not a lot of people give donations. partly because some are skint (i used to be) but mainly because people just don't know.

i feel like the biggest issue that foss projects face is the fact that they don't ask for donations in a way that the average user knows about. Kde sends a notification around christmas asking for donos. I haven't seen any other foss app do anything similar.

[–] cageythree@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

I give donations, but way less than I'd like (less in terms of quantity of recipients, not the total financial quantity).

What I'd love (not only for FOSS, but also stuff like podcasts and other things I'm donating to regularly) would be a service where I can set a budget and select the software and tools I use and it splits it up automatically.

I don't mind donating, but I hate managing it, having dozens of small transactions for it, and I feel like I'm forgetting to donate to like 90+% of the stuff I'm using. Also, with payment provider's fees it's often not worth it to donate <1€ a month, so bundling transactions would be way more effective - for me as the user as well as the recipients who'd get one transaction once a month from said service rather than hundreds of small ones.

I never really understood why e.g. Patreon doesn't offer this. You can't expect perks with this because the perks probably will start higher than what's the breakdown of each recipient woild be at a reasonable budget, but the advantage would be that (mostly) everyone would get a piece of your cake, rather than like 5 of the 500 different creators/developers/... you're using content/software of. Also, you could reduce or increase the monthly budget depending on your financial situation, rather than cancelling or modifying dozens of small subscriptions.

[–] Rin@lemm.ee 1 points 11 hours ago

sounds like a good business idea to me... maybe i could make something like this if nothing else exists

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[–] endofline@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Software maintenance does cost a lot, it's a full time job. Most people don't pay foss or any at all ( winrar or total commander case ). Most people won't be able to maintain or adjust foss on their own... Foss doesn't work forever ( it's a pain to deeply depend on foss which stops being maintained ). It's a reality that 1 year fallback license is necessary evil

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 22 points 1 day ago

I prefer the model where you buy updates if you want or need them

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I've bought way too much software that suddenly abandons their product to launch a new subscription based version.

I'd rather choose FOSS than anything payed.

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[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Good enough. Now tell me where it is made and you can call it perfect.

[–] DigDoug@lemmy.world 82 points 2 days ago (30 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_software_packages

Buy never software

[–] lengau@midwest.social 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I use almost exclusively FOSS and I have monthly/annual contributions set up for various projects.

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[–] kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 50 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Donate when you can tho

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

And contribute if you can't.

For non-programmers: Yes, reporting bugs, writing docs, and answering questions is contributing.

Edit: Fun story, the best contributor I ever had was someone who randomly reproduced reported bugs and filled in the details about how they did it.

[–] deviancy0299@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago

Act like a real man. But free and open source software because the devs deserve your money for their free work

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