Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

State of traditional downloadable software

  • Many commenters report ongoing success selling downloadable desktop software, mostly in niche or professional markets: engineering tools, shipping/commodities calculators, audio plugins and DAWs, creative/VFX tools, Mac utilities, Windows drivers, tiling WMs, and small productivity apps.
  • Reported incomes range from low-hundreds/month to full-time-equivalent or better; some side projects earn ~$40k/year or match a “regular job” salary.

Business models & pricing

  • Common models:
    • Perpetual license with free minor updates and paid major upgrades.
    • Perpetual with 12 months of updates/support, then optional renewals.
    • Perpetual “lifetime” for the current version, no-guarantee future support.
    • Dual: one-time purchase and a subscription tier (for those who require monthly billing or extra services).
    • Pure subscription for software with heavy ongoing maintenance or online components.
  • Several developers intentionally avoid subscriptions for “simple” desktop apps; others move to subscriptions once they add cloud sync, collaboration, or high support burdens.
  • Some note that raising prices increased sales; very low prices can reduce trust.

SaaS vs downloadable: sustainability and UX

  • Pro‑SaaS arguments:
    • Aligns revenue with ongoing work (bugfixes, compatibility, hosting).
    • Simplifies deployment and security for IT; easier centralized updates; no dongles.
    • One example: converting a legacy desktop app to SaaS reportedly 4×’d annual revenue and funded more development.
  • Pro‑perpetual arguments:
    • Users dislike subscription “fatigue” and losing access when payments stop.
    • Some software (offline tools, small utilities) has minimal ongoing cost and fits one‑time pricing.
    • Perception that many SaaS offerings are repackaged legacy apps with poor performance and misaligned incentives.

Customer preferences & psychology

  • Businesses generally tolerate or prefer subscriptions and care more about vendor stability, SLAs, and support than price.
  • Individual users often prefer perpetual licenses, especially for hobbyist or occasional use; subscriptions can strain personal budgets.
  • Some customers deliberately avoid updates; others argue modern OS/API churn makes ongoing updates unavoidable.

Legal and ecosystem constraints

  • EU/German regulations are cited as making “true perpetual” licenses risky, by obligating vendors to provide updates (esp. security) during the product’s lifecycle, particularly for network-connected software. Exact implications remain somewhat unclear.
  • macOS is criticized for breaking APIs, increasing maintenance needs; Windows is praised for backward compatibility.

Indie developer experiences

  • Indie devs describe income volatility, support burdens, piracy concerns (usually accepted as unavoidable), burnout risks, and the importance of niche focus and word-of-mouth over heavy marketing.
  • Some sunset older perpetual products because even modest support load felt like “a weight,” and now prefer SaaS for new work.