Few days back WooThemes announced that in order to be sustainable and be profitable they are going to increase prices and stop lifetime licenses. What Woo probably did not foresee is that while increasing prices and setting licensing for new customers is alright, it can not arbitrarily change the license terms for those that already agreed to a specific set of terms at the time of purchase. After a huge customer backlash (check out the comments in the linked article) they stepped back and provided a choice to their lifetime license holders that they can either opt-in to be grandfathered or be charged the new higher prices.
Soon after this many WordPress news sites mentioned how offering lifetime licenses is never a good idea. While this is generally true, there are truly genuine products in WordPress ecosystem that offer amazing value for money via lifetime licenses. Lifetime means just what it says – you pay once and get updates and/or support or whatever is included in the price year after year after year until the product is retired with no recurring charges.
Here are a few WordPress products that you can buy lifetime licenses as on today:
StudioPress
Perhaps the most popular and loved WordPress theme/framework, StudioPress has a Pro Plus All-Theme Package which costs $349.95 (or lesser with a coupon if you google around). This includes every theme made by StudioPress in the past, present and future.
Elegant Themes
Lifetime access to all themes and plugins by Elegant Themes can be bought for $249.
Press75
Press75 is another WordPress themes provider offering lifetime option. For $199, one can get lifetime unlimited access to all their themes and support.
Authentic Themes
Authentic Themes is a relative new comer in the commercial WordPress themes space. Lifetime developer license costs a one time amount of $250.
Premise
Premise is a plugin for creating Membership sites, Landing pages and more for effective digital sales and lead generation. Lifetime one-time payment costs $165.
s2Member Pro
s2Member is a popular WordPress membership plugin and a unlimited-site license of their pro version can be purchased for $129.
Have I missed any in the list? If so, let me know and I shall update the article.
Image Credit: http://wpmu.org/never-buy-hosting-again-nodeki-offers-lifetime-wordpress-hosting-plans/
Sridhar,
Few more:
https://purchase.getpremise.com/plans.aspx?oid=
http://diythemes.com/plans/
http://press75.com/join/
Cobalt Apps no longer offers a lifetime license option.
Thanks. I’ve updated the post accordingly.
I bought a theme from mythemeshop but then I noticed from my account dashboard that it will expire in one year. It means premium support and updates stop in one year. I am looking for a theme with a lifetime support and updates or at least a theme which renews yearly with a minimal fee.
It is true that most theme providers offers a one time fee , unlimited use in any website and lifetime use but the premium support and updates are for just one year.
I will consider those mentioned theme providers above.
Toolset and WPML also offer lifetime subscriptions