[drew-y]

Will this software come with perpetual maintenance updates? For how long? Do I get any new features for free? If not, is it really pay "once"?

Software is never "done". Developers need to be actively involved throughout the lifecycle of a software product. Which, to me, makes this sort of model unsustainable. I'd rather know that software I rely on won't be abandoned once the base of new customers drys up. And I don't mind paying for that.

[imoreno]

When buying software like this your perspective should really be "WYSIWYG". You should assume support ends completely tomorrow, and any patches you do get are a windfall.

That means key considerations for every purchase are:

* How easy would it be to migrate from it to something else? * How easy would it be for someone else to develop compatible extensions and drop in replacements? * How easy would it be to troubleshoot and patch it yourself?

Perfectly bug free software is of course difficult. But reasonable level of polish is very doable. It used to be the norm for decades, and they didn't even pay devs as much as now. Modern subscription software does not have fewer bugs than traditional waterfall software.