Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

My brother acquired an aging app (from an aging founder) built on Delphi used by many dozens (or low hundred) of the world’s leading shipping, energy and commodities companies, used as a standard to calculate “laytime” and “demurge” (myriad of fees associated when a ship docks into a port). It used to cost $5k for a perpetual license tied to usb based key that had to be plugged in to activate. If you wanted to use on two machines, you had to buy two licenses with two keys.

Customers in the US and Europe hated the usb, especially during COVID. In random places of Africa, where they greatly valued the single perpetual license, it persists. From my perspective, I don’t see anything positive from being an installed application for this use case - he had to hop through so many security hoops that when he rolled out the web solution IT departments breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanked him.

Over a period of about 2 years he converted almost everyone to saas and 4x’d the annual revenue. That also generated enough fcf to hire more developers to ship more features.

Saas is generally the way to go. Installed apps are common in financial services and industrial applications. I can think of a bunch of other niche examples but I personally would never pursue this model. We put bugs into production from time to time and it is nice to be able to instantly roll out updates.

Legal changes are making it increasingly very difficult to sell perpetual licenses. For example, in Germany, a new law recently took effect that clarifies that if you sell a software license for a given period of time, you're liable to provide whatever updates/support the customer may need over the course of the software's licensing period to enable the customer to keep running it, at no additional cost, regardless of what it costs you. I'm not a lawyer and may be getting this wrong, but if you're contemplating getting into the business of selling perpetual licenses in software, definitely check with a lawyer. It's not like it was in the 90s.

In the 90s, a large driver of recurring revenue for software was that when the OS and hardware landscape changed, you made a new version of the software adapted to that change, and then, if customers wanted to upgrade their OS or hardware (frequently for reasons unrelated to your product), that made them come back to you to pay for the new version of your product. Under the new legal regime, you would be forced to give them the update for free, so if you sell an actual perpetual software license, you have a fixed amount of revenue on one hand, and a potentially unlimited liability to incur additional costs on the other.

I spent six months working full-time developing Rune, an open-source music player and management software that offers a modern experience with a beautiful, Zune-inspired interface design.

As an open-source project in a niche market, establishing a sustainable development model has been challenging. I set the price at $10, which gives users privileged access to feature requests and effectively makes them stakeholders in the project's future direction. While I acknowledge this might seem high for open-source software, the development costs and ongoing maintenance require significant resources.

So far, I've sold about 60 copies. After platform fees of roughly 40%, the revenue covers only a fraction of the development costs. Some users have criticized this as "money-grabbing," but they may not fully grasp the complexity involved in creating such software from scratch. The development process demands meticulous attention to various aspects, including accessibility features, elegant design implementation, and cross-platform integration.

Maintaining my dedication to the project while seeing modest financial returns has been challenging. There's constant pressure to add value and justify the price tag, which is leading to burnout. Finding the right balance between making the software accessible to users while ensuring sustainable development has proven to be a complex challenge.

The path of independent open-source development, while rewarding in many ways, comes with its own set of unique challenges that aren't always visible to users.

This isn't an easy path to follow.

Source code here: https://github.com/losses/rune

I started selling commercial use software licenses on 01 January 2025 for installable/downloadable software I have been developing for about 5 years. The software targets Microsoft Windows.

As the software is of the nature that it will require updates indefinitely (as OS updates come and go), and given the fact that the license is specifically for commercial use, I decided to go with a subscription model instead of a one-time payment model to ensure its long-term sustainability.

I am lucky that this specific software is very "sticky" and already has a die-hard fan base. It also helps that people in the Windows ecosystem are used to paying for commercial use software licenses.

This month to date I have made $800 on license sales. It will be interesting to see how the license sales continue to progress (or don't?) throughout the rest of the year.

Side project not a business. I have a tiny dictation app for Mac on the app store.

One time payment since it runs whisper locally. Autoupdates through the app store, and I have a lot of folks emailing me positive, negative and improvement feedback.

It is a lot of randomness. Some weeks are low and when it got a small mention in a popular article I saw a sudden inflow of traffic, downloads and purchases.

So far Ive been ok paying the apple tax. Its a little hard going through the hoops to get it through the app store( I kinda understand why they do a lot of it ) but it provides a lot of free discovery and I spend 0 time on payments, refunds, disputes, handling a CDN to distribute binaries etc. Negative reviews without basis are the only thing that bother me, for some reason I seem to take it personally.

I’ve been running BoltAI[1] and it generates enough revenue for me to work on it full time.

I follow the “perpetual license with one year of support/updates” model. So far it’s working great. My customers love it as they’re in control of the software. Some users can run BoltAI entirely offline.

But I’m adding the subscription soon as this model is not sustainable when I’m adding other cloud features such as cloud sync and other collaboration features.

I think the pricing model should reflect the value and cost of the product. If it’s more on the software side (think winzip or other smaller desktop widget where there is no or low operational cost), it should be one time payment. If it’s more on the service side (cloud sync, collaborative features, fast changing niche where you need to update the product constantly…) then it makes more sense to charge a subscription.

But the tricky part here is that potential customers might not see it that way. Many assume it’s just like another desktop app, therefore it has to be one time payment. So in my experience, I’d start with no cloud feature and offer a perpetual license. Then I’ll add a subscription and with other cloud features. Basically 2 different offerings.

[1]: https://boltai.com

I'm making very small amount of money (1k USD a month) selling 16x Prompt for lifetime license.

Many people have told me to switch to subscription but I just don't think it's the "right" thing to do with a desktop GUI app.

https://prompt.16x.engineer/

I want so much to be in the business of selling my own traditional downloadable software, that I've thought about (in the absence of an idea) just putting together a do-nothing application with payment, installer, configuration dialogs, bug feedback - everything but a raison d'etre.

The irony is in my day job I am developing a traditional downloadable Windows application which will come with an immediate user base. But although I have considerable discretion over the project, it isn't mine (in an intellectual property sense), and I'm not getting rich off it.

I believe they are called "apps" now, it's a $500B market. As far as desktop software, it's the same as it ever was... you make a product, you release it for download, you sell a license. No mystery to it.

But it often makes more sense to sell it as a subscription; you can make it very cheap for the user up front, and get a continuous revenue stream. Subscriptions make more sense if you provide constant updates, support or online services.

If you don't do those things, one-time purchase might be better. Require a new license for major versions, put your killer new features in there. Traditional vendors like Microsoft do this with their software.

You can also just combine the two, and let people purchase it once for one release, and subscribe to get support and more services/features.

Yes, I did so for 10+ years, about 15 years ago. It launched my business (which then evolved to include a lot of consulting).

I charged for major version upgrades that introduced substantial new functionality (discounted for existing customers); minor version upgrades were free.

I was probably too generous with support, but it resulted in very satisfied customers and a solid reputation that paid in spades with the more lucrative opportunities.

Not sure how the market is these days for that model, but I can give you a datapoint of one in that I strongly prefer it over subscriptions in almost all cases (the exception being when there's legit ongoing service being delivered).

I'm not running the show, but I am working at a place that does this. One time fee for a perpetual license for the current major version, free support, and historically ~6 years of updates per version.

Users tend to be quite happy about it, and we're profitable enough to pay comfortable salaries and have...a lot...of runway.

Of course, this model is possible because there was never any outside investment.

I switched off sales of my last desktop app a couple of months ago. It was still bringing in sales of about $600 a month, but it felt like a weight hanging around my neck. Despite shutting it down I expect I'll still get a couple of support emails a month for the next 10 years.

We're building a desktop / SaaS app right now that we'll be selling using a SaaS model. A combination of desktop app built with Electron and a web app for managing accounts and teams. I'd never touch a "once off" pricing model again.

I do. macOS applications. Generating between 1,000-2,000 USD monthly (so variable because no subscriptions).

Obviously this is still a hobby that I am trying to make more sustainable. But this is where I am right now after 3-4 years in this business.

https://loshadki.app - you can check the apps here.

How much "traditional downloadable software" do you have? How much other such software is sold and makes a living for those making it?

Just the music software industry alone, for example, sells about 4 billion dollars worth of VSTs, DAWs, etc every year, most of it without subscriptions.

I've been building a break reminder app for mac since slightly more than a year and it's been growing really well - mostly through word of mouth. It currently nets $5k a month.

I sell perpetual licenses but I charge for updates beyond the first year. I do get 2-3 emails every day reporting bugs and general feature requests.

I have some other apps for iOS as well but they are all subscription based.

i buy very little software but i made an exception for that recently. i bought Alternative A2DP Driver (https://www.bluetoothgoodies.com/a2dp/) from Luculent Systems, a windows driver that allows extensive configurability of my bluetooth headphones. i have a sony WH-1000XM series that supports the higher-quality LDAC codec, not supported natively by windows, and can now use them at a great 990Kbps quality.

it was a one-time purchase of $5.99, though it's unfortunately locked to a specific computer, with a small charge to use it on another machine. no subscriptions, no ongoing charges.

if you use a windows machine and bluetooth headphones with reasonable quality, it's worth a buy.

Yes, game developers.

I have been doing this for the past 5 years with https://folge.me. A one-time payment alternative to Scribehow, Tango.us and myriads of similar apps.

I can't say that this is a very profitable business, especially given that I don't charge any fees for the updates, but I quite enjoy talking to users, finding out their needs, and improving Folge over time. I think Folge has become my hobby.

I write bespoke software on this basis. There is a significant market for custom software in specialized industries. Security scopes, capitalisation rules, tax and privacy laws, etc., rule SaaS and subscriptions out for a lot of businesses.

I know that Houdini (that VFX software used for Dr. Strange portal effects), Marmoset Toolbox (an alternative to Adobe's Substance Painter), and zBrush (a sculpting software) were all perpetual licenses when we bought them. And we chose these softwares specifically because they had perpetual licenses. SaaS vendors want to capture the margin of their power users, which means by necessity they price out casual users of their software.

=> For any software that might be used for hobby or casual use, perpetual licenses target a different market than SaaS offerings.

That's one of the reasons why the Spatial Audio Designer - targeting freelance audio producers and very popular with musicians - sells best with a perpetual license tied to a hardware USB dongle: https://www.newaudiotechnology.com/products/spatial-audio-de...

In my opinion, USB dongles also help with marketing because you make it easier for your power users / evangelists to borrow out the software to others.

Slightly tangential but perhaps somebody could answer this question:

So having decided that rather than trade as a fictitious company and go the "personal brand" route, I'm interested to know who has successfully sold their own desktop apps from a website with their personal domain eg. JoeBloggs.com. Do buyers really care so long as the software meets their requirements, or does the psychology of a trading entity really affect peoples' appetites to purchase?

Reasons include authenticity, the ability to self brand for freelance dev work, and being able to list ad-hoc products as I develop them without having to market each one separately.

Comments welcome, as well as success stories, or otherwise.

Take Steam, for example, when it comes to games. It remains a platform for 'traditional downloadable software,' where indie developers can still make money. It also has a very large and active community

Jetbrains is still selling their IDE using old method as well as new. You can buy perpetual license but if you want upgrades, you pay again. That's how I bought my Clion and still use it personally from time to time. Buying a plan for me is too expensive - I do tinkering at home rarely. The same with any Photoshop or Lightroom - I bought a last available license and won't buy the cloud version especially because it has exit fees.

Minecraft - having huge community - still sells lifetime license with upgrades. I wouldn't pay for it monthly neither.

I also bought some software like GuitarTuna perpetual license and they turned it off (the possibility of buying it that way) but I still use it this way (despite they used to nag me to pay monthly). The problem is that one private person cannot hold to many subscriptions. It's killing the budget. Keep this in mind. Also companies tend to switch to cheaper subscriptions after they calculated where did they go in terms of monthly payments.

I know I didn't answer your question because my perspective is different, but I wanted to highlight the other side of the deal. If you want $$$$ go for it. If you have a mission or want to gather community or you want small people to use it from time to time - maybe hybrid both solutions is the way to go?

Just take a look at Panic - most of their stuff is perpetual license software, with really only Nova requiring a subscription if you want ongoing updates after the first year. They make this model work for them by providing compelling software that just works - no unnecessary feature creep, proper rebuilds on new architectures rather than lazy ports, understanding what customers actually need versus what the broader industry says is a must-have. They’re successful in spite of largely being locked to the Mac, too, proving you can find success in even niche market segments if you’re actually listening to customers and providing a competent product.

To be fair, they’ve pivoted a bit these past few years into more experimental areas - game publishing and hardware, for example - but even those experiments have bore impressive successes for a company of their size and lineage.

So yes, it’s possible, and you don’t even have to find a captive audience to find success. Just do good work while nurturing your customer base.

You might want to look at once.com by 37signals. Although they do a lot of Saas products they must believe there is a market for buy once. They are also leading the way by ditching the cloud (https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/37signals-expects...)

Absolutely. Typically in specialized areas that need lots of local compute and low latency. I work in technical diligence, so I can't say who, but I can say that I have done diligences on companies selling desktop downloadable software and making great money, with license fees ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands per customer.

Audio software is another one.

I tried to sell original products from companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Autodesk, ESET, McAfee, and others, establishing partnerships with each of them. I soon realized there was an opportunity to sell products at much lower prices than the market. I did it, but I discovered that people weren’t attracted to low prices. They seem to feel more secure with higher prices, as if expensive items are associated with higher quality, and cheap items are seen as suspicious.

In the end, I decided to abandon that business model and focus solely on businesses. However, now I’m considering the possibility of revisiting that idea, but in the form of a blog, monetizing through Bitcoin payments. Currently, I am fully focused on automation, so the idea would lean more towards a blog/e-commerce approach.

In my original proposal, I didn’t offer subscription-based products like Office 365, but I did offer antivirus software, which has always been subscription-based.

Many, especially in the indie hacker space, such as BoltAI, NomadList, etc . It works because the dev is a solo developer and does not necessarily need much money for expenses compared to a company hiring many employees, the money from all the solo dev's customers is likely enough to retire on.

The biggest reasons I read here for SaaS/subscription are "updates"

ie. "We shipped early something with loads of bugs we intend to fix as you pay us" vs the model of "We make sure things work first time bug free" of days gone past... but then yeah... things changed and become too complex

I used to do this with small windows applications earning some couple of hundreds but it always stayed as a hobby because of how it was such an unpredictable variable in my life.

I have now shifted my attention to my new product, finding a balance between one time payment and recurring payment by providing option to buy an item with “unlimited edits and yours forever” with a one time payment while still having other items to upsell to the same customer.

The release went all right, and as expected. Hopefully if the numbers are good, I might share some insights otherwise keep on.

I don't know if they're making money, but they're charging money and I'm paying it.

a) Audio Hijack [1] - software that should be part of macOS where you can route the audio output of any program to the audio input of any other program.

b) Eazy Draw [2] - I have clients with massive legacy libraries of commercial AppleWorks drawings, and EazyDraw is the only product I could find that would open/convert them.

I know I have many others, just brain dead atm.

[1] https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/

[2] https://eazydraw.com/

On macOS, two backup programs are doing this:

* https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescriptio...

* https://bombich.com

Also, Little Snitch, a network monitoring/firewall tool:

* https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

I developed some audio software and it has been going pretty well. Difficult to market, and it’s only me, so I basically just don’t do marketing. Relies on organic spread and a few basic news/deals aggregators listing it.

Not the type of high revenue startup you see on HN usually but the craftsmanship style of custom C++ plugins has been enjoyable for me. It’s like working on old school WinAMP or something.

https://apu.software/

Yes, I have a side project making ~$40k/year doing this in a niche market.

I am fortunate in that I have some volunteers helping me with support so all up I spend about 5-10 hours per week doing support and development work.

In terms of business model, I have been quite generous and provide a perpetual support model for free and paid customers and do not charge for upgrades (currently). As my time has become more limited, I am looking at changing this.

Benefits of this model is that my product is the gold standard in the area and relatively sticky.

I see a lot of people get started by building an otherwise indispensable app within their extremely niche business and selling it to the other 100 entities in the same vertical.

We continue to sell software with licenses that don't expire after 20+ years. If you want updates after 12 months, then you 'renew' for an additional 12 months of updates.

Alfred on the Mac is a one-time purchase that only works for the major version it was purchased for.

Rectangle Pro as well.

The issue is that one time purchases have perpetual costs. Software has become complex enough where the subscription model is all but required in todays day and age to serve happy customers - and can even be cheaper to users rather than rolling customer LTV into a one time purchase.

Yes. It's a Windows application for engineers. Price is a few hundred dollars per seat. The support load is pretty stable. People often have a few issues at first or when trying to do something novel, then they're fine. They have to update it themselves and occasionally I'll hear from a customer still using a 10 year old version but usually when they ask for help, they're already on the latest version, somehow. Nobody has complained that it doesn't auto-update or nag them. I make about the same money as a regular job.

All my customers are extremely pleasant to deal with. You hear horror stories about angry or entitled customers but mine are always polite and respectful. When something doesn't work right, they often act like it's their own fault. Even when they want a refund because they don't like it, they ask nicely. I suppose they know I'm a one-man-band so their expectations are a bit lower than for a giant company. But also, engineers don't seem to be dickheads generally, at least not when they're at work.

RARLAB

* Ableton Live?

* Photoshop?

* DaVinci Resolve?

* Table Plus?

* Excel?

* IntelliJ?