No, your license is not a subscription. Your license is perpetual (forever)—once you pay us, you will be able to use the version of the app you bought (along with any free updates, more on that below) on the version of macOS you were using it on for forever. Given our past experience, you'll probably also be able to use it on several future major macOS releases.

We have, however, changed our business model to move away from massive, time consuming "major releases" with their associated upgrade fees. In years past, these major updates were a prime source of income for us. But they're stressful, and they mean you wind up waiting longer for features, as we hold them back for major releases.

Going forward, we're switching to an evolutionary app update model. In summary, you purchase a perpetual license for our apps, and that license includes at least one free year of updates.

After that year, the next update may be paid or free, depending on what's in it (minor bug fixes only, it may be free…major new features, it will be paid). You do not have to purchase an upgrade if you don't want to; the app will continue to work if you bypass a paid update.

There's a lot more detail in this blog post on the topic, along with some questions and answers that we tried to anticipate. But if you still have questions after reading the blog post, please contact us via email or open a support ticket, and we'll do our best to answer your questions.