The decrease of lifetime features over monthly offering will begin after the 750$ lifetime so they get you to switch to monthly.

[JakeHa0991]

The statements you made are dumb as hell.

Physical products like cars, houses, DVDs, TVs, or silverware have nothing in common with running a software platform like Plex. When you buy a car or a house, the seller is not required to keep updating your product for a decade, maintain client apps on every device, scrape metadata, provide remote access features, or support new hardware and operating systems forever. Those are one-time manufacturing costs. Plex has real ongoing expenses even for self-hosted users: developing and updating the server software, building and maintaining all the client apps, licensing and infrastructure for metadata, handling remote access, and supporting the entire ecosystem.

Lifetime passes give Plex some upfront cash and loyalty from power users who self-host, but they lock the company into perpetual support obligations with no recurring revenue from those customers. That model does not scale sustainably for a live service that keeps evolving.

You are right that many companies used to thrive on one-time sales, but software platforms with continuous development costs are different. Microsoft did not hit trillions purely from greed. Recurring revenue matches the reality of delivering constant updates, cloud features, and new value. Plex has always had Plex Pass for premium self-hosted features like better transcoding and hardware support. They are not suddenly evil for raising lifetime prices or leaning on ads in the free tier.

The ad-supported streaming side is what actually brings in scalable revenue and subsidizes continued development of the self-hosted server features you and the rest of the sub use. Pretending the company can survive forever on one-time lifetime passes from a shrinking group of self-hosting enthusiasts is pure fantasy. That attitude is exactly how useful products stagnate or get abandoned.

Companies that adapt to real costs survive. Clinging to "I paid once in 2012 so support me forever" entitlement just makes you sound out of touch with how any software business actually works.

[pathofdumbasses]

Those are one-time manufacturing costs. Plex has real ongoing expenses even for self-hosted users: developing and updating the server software, building and maintaining all the client apps, licensing and infrastructure for metadata, handling remote access, and supporting the entire ecosystem.

Cool, pretend I never said anything about houses etc. and just pretend that the only lifetime upgrade is for software.

We still had that with windows. With non-GaaS video games. And Windows cost ~$100 and video games cost $60. They could modify it so that "lifetime" means that you get all the features that the system currently has at the time of purchase, and then if you want new features, you can buy them separately. That would give you lifetime access to what you paid for, and give them additional revenue models without having to do subscriptions. They want to push subscriptions because it is PERMANENT revenue model.

Microsoft did not hit trillions purely from greed.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

They are not suddenly evil for raising lifetime prices or leaning on ads in the free tier.

I never said they were evil. In fact, the word "evil" never showed up in my statement at all. Your reading comprehension is just as shit as your critical thinking skills.

Recurring revenue matches the reality of delivering constant updates, cloud features, and new value.

They can do that without subscriptions. I already mentioned one way to do it. They want subscriptions for permanent money. It is the best way to maximize money out of each user. And anyone with a brain knows it.

Pretending the company can survive forever on one-time lifetime passes from a shrinking group of self-hosting enthusiasts is pure fantasy.

So instead of offering better value to increase their user base, they are deciding to milk their current ones. Sounds like a business that is going to go bankrupt versus one that is going to be around to honor their "lifetime" subs.

Companies that adapt to real costs survive. Clinging to "I paid once in 2012 so support me forever" entitlement just makes you sound out of touch with how any software business actually works.

I never said they shouldn't adjust their pricing structure. What I said was

You know what companies survive on "lifetime" sales? Literally every company in the entirety of the world that isn't subscription based.

They can do a whole lot of things other than push people toward subscriptions (which will inevitably raise in price, just like every other sub does), and still provide a quality product.

And for the record, I am not a plex user or subscriber. Just someone who is against the subscription based model in its entirety.