I’ll spare everyone the full response on this thread as I have done it elsewhere recently. Subscription terms vary. A lot. With subscriptions you may also have a choice to stop paying and stick with what you have.
Judge each application on its merits — both of the features and of the pricing model.
Which mainstream photo editing software allows you to fully continue with the software at the version you were at when you stop subscribing?
With C1 and ON1 you can purchase a Perpetual License, is that what you mean?
Cap One:
A couple of things you might not know about a Capture One subscription:
No strings attached. You can cancel anytime with no fees or fuss.
Want to switch to a Perpetual License? You can do that anytime. And if you’ve subscribed for 5 years, it’s on us – no extra cost.
Where I live, 5 years of C1 cost about 20% more than a new License for PL plus four upgrades. Add FilmPack and ViewPoint and C1 is lower cost. (not factoring in learning curves)
If one is driven by how much one is willing to pay, it pays to make the calculation.
If one simply needs the “stuff”, one can as well NOT make the calculation.
As long as we do buy upgrades or new licenses, the market stays the seller’s.
I didn’t explicitly say there was photo editing software like this, but I guess it’s a fair inference. I don’t think it is still true, but Luminar Neo followed this model for some years.
My point stands though. “Subscriptions” is like saying “money”. It is a loose term with a blurry line between it and “perpetual” (which, let’s face it, is never actually the full story, either).
Found the same with the Adobe suite. It’s not something I want to support, out of principal and because in some ways DxO has a better product.
However, if you’re “content” to either subscribe indefinitely or keep paying annual upgrade fees - which amounts to much the same thing in realistic user terms - it becomes apparent you can get more products with Adobe, for less.
(Since their photography plan comes with cloud storage, Lightroom and Photoshop as a bundle, plus a bunch of other stuff like fonts IIRC also).
C1’s perpetual license shakes things up a bit. I know I’ll still be shooting in 10 years time, so if I can pay 5 years worth now - or indeed 5 years ago - I’d absolutely be coming out ahead in the long run.
It’d be nice if the others did something like that. I’d strongly consider it.
Unless things change there, too. Lots of people see venture buyouts as a reason to run for the hills as “subscriptions are sure to follow.” By the same token… a company offering a “lifetime” purchase could also be a sign things may turn bad later on.
Sadly can’t argue with that, I’m not sure how it ought to be handled (in an ideal world, what’s offered when you buy it should be honoured). We don’t live an ideal world.
Yes, C1 offers perpetual or subscription so people can choose.
It will be interesting to see how C1’s new noise reduction works as they are denoising the raw file, similar to DXO.