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

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Traditional downloadable desktop software is still a viable business for many developers, especially in niche or professional markets like audio tools, engineering, DAWs, and indie utilities. Participants describe a range of models—from one-time perpetual licenses with optional paid upgrades to hybrids that combine a base purchase with subscriptions for cloud features—while contrasting these with SaaS in terms of sustainability, support burden, and customer expectations. The exchange highlights a tension between developers’ need for recurring revenue and users’ resistance to subscription fatigue, as well as emerging legal and platform pressures that complicate truly perpetual licensing.

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.