But I want to explain why I prefer the recurring plans anyway — from the engineering side, without pretending maintenance ends on launch day.

The first version was only the beginning

Recent releases added Dropbox and OneDrive support. Google Drive is implemented too, but approval is still pending. I also shipped 11 themes, Large Text in light and dark, per-folder view settings, better permission handling, crash fixes, and a long list of smaller improvements.

That means development time, support time, platform maintenance, and external review costs. A Google Drive audit alone may cost roughly $700.

Then there is acquisition. During launch, I spent more than $55 to acquire one customer who bought the old $30 lifetime license.

The math obviously did not work.

Cry me a river, right?

Fair. But motivation does not pay a developer or an audit bill. If a native Mac app is going to survive OS changes, cloud API changes, bugs, and support requests, the business has to afford maintenance after launch week.

The pricing trade-off

SADFinder now costs:

• USD 5/month
• USD 29/year — about USD 2.42/month
• USD 49 once for lifetime access

Every option unlocks the same app on up to three Macs. The trial lasts seven days and does not require a card.

Recurring revenue makes recurring work easier to plan. The lifetime option exists because “I do not want another subscription” is a completely reasonable buying preference. I would rather offer both than pretend everyone should prefer the same way of buying software.

I wrote the longer version, including the uncomfortable launch math, here:

Why SADFinder has a subscription — and a lifetime option

For other developers selling desktop software: how are you balancing maintenance costs with subscription fatigue?