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Comment by rbritton | Hacker News Reader

I recently started using PHPStorm for some of my PHP coding. They have an interesting hybrid purchase model that I consider very fair.

The way it works is that there's a monthly subscription to start using it. While you're paying monthly, you get every update included. The twist is that, after 12 months of payments, you obtain a perpetual license. If you decide to stop the subscription at any time, you're able to continue using up to the most recent update before you canceled.

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As much as jetbrains has annoyed me, I really love this new business model that they come up with.

I almost want to buy a subscription, only I prefer Netbeans.

We'll so how long it takes before Oracle finds out it owns Netbeans and destroys it and I have to go back.

I'd try IntelliJ if I were you -- really, Netbeans is no match.

I have, time and time again, and I still give it a try every time they release a new version.

I even had a license back in the days. I just prefer Netbeans the same I prefer Linux or even modern Windows versions over Mac, even though I have used a Macbook pro for almost three years.

That is not the model they use, you fallback farther than you think sometimes.

https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845

Thanks for this link. I don't particularly like it but this is the clearest explanation that I've seen.

On the plus side, it does encourage them to have a major release every year so they can keep resetting that 12 month clock.

And if it's a trivial "major" release, then you can fallback to the last version without much loss. If it's a useful major release, it's motivation for you to hang around.

You fall back to whatever release was available 12 calendar months ago.

I think it's pretty simple, and easy to figure out what you have.

Indeed very interesting. I would love to see Adobe get on that. But I'm sure they still prefer people to pay the full monthly license for ever. :(

So, sort of 'rent-to-own' on the internet?

The subscription also costs less in subsequent years if you pay yearly. From year three and onward you pay less than 60% of the year one price. Makes it seem very fair.

I like that sort of discount. Could easily be setup to just be a 10% discount for every year you've been a paying customer. Encourages loyalty longterm as competitors pop up.

I use their tools daily and would happily pay 2-3x more per year easily. They deserve every cent and more.

IntelliJ uses same model I believe.

It's the same company - jetbrain.

I think PHPstorm, webstorm, etc are forks of intellij

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