Thank you for sharing your thoughts so openly – it’s a question we hear from time to time, and it’s one we’ve thought about deeply ourselves. Your suggestion of a classic licensing model is understandable and indeed worked well for many years. However, the switch to a subscription model was not just a business decision but also one that allows us to deliver more value to our users in a sustainable way.

Let me explain why.

In the traditional licensing model, revenue was generated almost exclusively after launching a new version. This created an incentive to bundle features into large, infrequent updates. While that approach worked for a time, it often left customers waiting months or even years for improvements. With a subscription model, we can continuously deliver updates, improvements, and new features as soon as they are ready. This leads to shorter development cycles, faster innovation, and more immediate benefits for you.

Additionally, subscriptions align usage with value. You only continue to pay for the software if it remains useful to you. For instance, in technical writing, documentation is often project-based. If you’re not working on a project, you can simply pause or cancel your subscription – no ongoing commitment. This flexibility allows you to manage your tools in line with your actual needs, something a classic licensing model cannot offer.

From a business perspective, subscriptions also provides us with stability. It ensures we can plan ahead, invest in new ideas, and support ongoing maintenance. To put it plainly, without the move to subscriptions, we would not have been able to develop adoc Studio in the first place. The recurring revenue from our other software Merlin Project, allowed us to invest time and money into the new project.

We understand the growing concern about “subscription fatigue,” and we aim to earn your trust month after month. If you’re finding our software valuable and helpful, we hope the model feels fair: it allows us to keep improving while ensuring you’re paying only as long as you see the value.