Why Everything Became a Subscription (And What You Can Do About It)

In 2012, you could walk into a store, buy Adobe Photoshop for $699, and own it forever. By 2013, that option was gone. Adobe announced that Creative Suite 6 would be the last perpetual release. From that point on, Photoshop would cost $33.49 per month, every month, for as long as you wanted to use it.

Over 50,000 people signed a petition asking Adobe to reverse the decision. Adobe ignored every one of them. Their stock dropped 12%.

Then something happened that explains why every other software company followed Adobe's lead. By 2024, Adobe's annual revenue had grown from $4.2 billion to $21.5 billion. Their subscriber base hit 37 million. The stock price recovered and then some. The petition signers were right that the change was bad for customers. They were wrong that it would fail. It worked spectacularly, for Adobe.

How we got here

The shift didn't happen overnight. It happened in waves, each one making the next feel more inevitable.

Wave 1: Software (2010s). Adobe was the first major creative software company to go subscription-only, but Microsoft followed with Office 365, and the rest of the industry took notes. The logic was simple: a customer who buys Photoshop once for $699 might skip the next three versions. A customer who pays $33.49/month pays $401.88 per year, every year, indefinitely. Over five years, the subscriber pays $2,009 versus $699. The maths is not subtle.

Wave 2: Entertainment (2010s-2020s). Netflix proved you could replace ownership with access. Instead of buying DVDs or downloading files, you'd pay $15/month to stream everything. Then Spotify did the same for music. Then every media company launched their own streaming service, fragmenting the content and multiplying the monthly charges. The $15 that replaced your DVD collection became $15 + $18 + $12.99 + $6.99 + $23.99 across five different services.

Wave 3: Everything else (2020s). Once the model proved profitable, it spread everywhere. Cars started requiring subscriptions for heated seats (BMW tried this in 2022). Printers required ink subscriptions. Peloton bikes required $44/month to access their workout library. Even the Roomba vacuum launched a subscription tier. Products you'd always bought once started arriving with monthly fees attached.

Why companies love subscriptions (and why you shouldn't)

The business case for subscriptions is overwhelming, from the company's perspective.

Predictable revenue. A one-time sale is a spike. A subscription is a flat line that goes up. Investors love predictable revenue because it makes future earnings forecastable. This is why subscription companies trade at higher multiples on the stock market. Adobe's price-to-earnings ratio nearly doubled after the transition.

Higher lifetime value. A customer who buys software once generates one transaction. A subscriber generates revenue every month until they cancel. And most people don't cancel quickly. Annual plans reduce churn by 40% compared to monthly billing, which is why companies push annual plans so aggressively (and bury early termination fees in the fine print).

Lock-in. The longer you use a subscription product, the harder it is to leave. Your files are in their format. Your workflow depends on their features. Your team is trained on their interface. Switching costs accumulate silently, and by year three, the subscription feels mandatory even if you only use 10% of the product.

Upgrade pressure disappears. Under the old model, companies had to convince you that Photoshop CS6 was worth upgrading from CS5. Under subscriptions, they don't need to convince you of anything. You're already paying. Updates just happen. Whether you wanted them or not.

It feels like it's getting harder and harder to just buy something in the tech world. Want a password manager? It's a SaaS now. Note taking app? SaaS. Image editor or office suite? SaaS.

The result is that you're paying more for the same tools over time, with no asset to show for it. When you stop paying, you lose access. Your files might still be there, but the software to open them isn't. That's not ownership. It's a rental agreement dressed up as a service.

The real cost, laid out

People underestimate what subscriptions cost over time because each monthly charge feels small. Here's what five years actually looks like for common tools.

That table is deliberately aggressive. The one-time alternatives aren't always perfect substitutes. DaVinci Resolve is genuinely professional-grade for video editing, but it has a steeper learning curve than Premiere. LibreOffice handles most office tasks but lacks some of Excel's advanced features. KeePassXC doesn't sync as smoothly across devices as 1Password.

But the point stands. For many people, the subscription version of a tool does far more than they need, and they're paying a premium every month for features they'll never touch.

The alternatives, honestly reviewed

If you're ready to stop renting software, here are the most credible one-time purchase (or free) alternatives available right now. Organised by what you're replacing.

Photo editing (replacing Adobe Photoshop)

Affinity Photo 2 is the strongest alternative. Since Canva acquired Serif (the company behind Affinity) in 2024, the entire Affinity suite is now free. It supports layers, RAW editing, HDR merge, and most of what a professional photographer or designer needs. It won't run Photoshop plugins, and some advanced features (like content-aware fill) aren't as polished. For 90% of users, it's more than enough.

Photopea is a free browser-based editor that can open .psd files directly. No install required. Surprisingly capable for quick edits.

Vector design (replacing Adobe Illustrator)

Affinity Designer 2 covers vector illustration, UI design, and print layout. Free. The interface is different from Illustrator, so there's a learning curve, but the feature set is comparable for most workflows.

Video editing (replacing Adobe Premiere Pro)

DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagic Design is the standout. The free version is used in professional film and TV production. It includes editing, colour grading, visual effects, and audio post-production. The paid version (DaVinci Resolve Studio, $475 one-time) adds a few advanced features, but the free tier is genuinely professional-grade. This is not a compromise. For many editors, it's better than Premiere.

Office suite (replacing Microsoft 365)

LibreOffice is free, open-source, and handles Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. It's not as polished as Microsoft Office, and complex spreadsheets with macros can break. But for writing documents, basic spreadsheets, and presentations, it does the job. Google Docs is another free option if you don't mind working in a browser.

Note-taking (replacing Notion, Evernote)

Obsidian stores your notes as plain Markdown files on your own device. Free for personal use. No lock-in (your files are just text files, portable anywhere). The plugin ecosystem is enormous. If you need cloud sync, Obsidian Sync costs $48/year, but you can also sync via iCloud, Dropbox, or any file syncing tool.

Password management (replacing 1Password, LastPass)

KeePassXC is free, open-source, and stores your vault locally. It's less convenient than 1Password (no built-in browser autofill as smooth, no family sharing), but it works and your passwords never touch someone else's server. Bitwarden offers a free tier that handles most personal needs, with a $10/year premium option.

Cloud storage (replacing Dropbox, Google One)

Syncthing syncs files between your devices directly, with no cloud server in the middle. Free, open-source. The tradeoff: you need your devices to be online at the same time occasionally, and there's no web interface. For most people, the free tiers of iCloud (5GB), Google Drive (15GB), or OneDrive (5GB) are enough if you're not hoarding files.

The counter-argument (and why it's half right)

There's a legitimate case for some subscriptions. Software needs ongoing maintenance. Security patches, compatibility updates, server costs for cloud features. Someone has to pay for that work.

The fundamental problem is that in our fully networked era software cannot not be maintained. Security issues are inevitable, cloud/sync/store systems require servers, upstream APIs, libraries and operating systems are constantly shifting and breaking things.

This is true. And for some products (cloud-based collaboration tools, services that require server infrastructure, apps that genuinely improve with regular updates), subscriptions make sense for both sides.

The problem is that the subscription model has spread far beyond where it's justified. A photo editor that runs locally on your machine doesn't need a monthly subscription to function. A word processor doesn't need one either. These tools worked fine as one-time purchases for decades. The shift to subscriptions wasn't driven by technical necessity. It was driven by the discovery that recurring revenue is worth more to shareholders than one-time sales.

The subscription audit question

Not every subscription in your life needs to be cancelled. Some are worth the money. The question isn't "are subscriptions bad?" The question is: "for each subscription I'm paying for, does a one-time alternative exist that would do 80% of what I need?"

If the answer is yes, you're paying a monthly premium for the last 20%. Over five years, that premium adds up to hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Here's a practical approach:

1. List every software subscription you pay for. Check your bank statements, App Store subscriptions, and Google Play subscriptions.
2. For each one, ask: when did I last use this? If the answer is "I can't remember," cancel it today.
3. For the ones you use, ask: is there a one-time alternative? Check buyoncesoftware.com or search "[tool name] one-time purchase alternative."
4. Try the alternative for a month before cancelling. Most of the tools listed above are free, so the risk is zero.
5. Keep the subscriptions that genuinely earn their fee. If you use Figma daily for collaborative design work, the subscription is probably justified. If you're paying for Photoshop and you open it twice a year, it's not.

The subscription economy isn't going away. Companies have too much financial incentive to keep charging monthly. But you don't have to accept every rental agreement they put in front of you. For a lot of the software people pay for monthly, a one-time purchase or a free alternative exists. The only reason more people haven't switched is the same reason more people haven't cancelled their unused subscriptions: inertia.

The companies are counting on it. They always are.