What a lifetime software licence actually means
When we build software for you, you own it for life. Here's what that covers, what it doesn't, and how it compares to paying a subscription.
Most business software today is rented. You pay every month, and the day you stop paying, it stops working. We do things differently: when we build something for you, you get a lifetime licence. Here’s what that means in plain English.
You can use it forever
Once the software is handed over and paid for, it’s yours to use for as long as you like. There’s no monthly fee to keep it running, no per-user charge as your team grows, and no per-task fee every time it does a job for you.
If you never speak to us again, it keeps working.
It runs on your machines and your accounts
We build everything to run on your own computers, servers or cloud accounts, using your own logins. Your data stays where it already is. We don’t sit in the middle, and there’s no outside service your business depends on us to keep alive.
That’s also part of keeping your data safe: we only access what we need while we build and test, and we don’t keep your data after the job.
You get the documentation
Every build comes with a user guide and a short video walkthrough, so your team knows how to use it and what to do if something goes wrong. If you ever need someone else to work on it, the documentation helps them pick it up.
What it doesn’t include
A lifetime licence means you can use what we’ve built. It doesn’t mean it will never need attention. Software lives alongside other software, and that changes:
- Windows and Office get updated
- websites and online portals change their layouts
- the apps you connect to change how they work
Most of the time, nothing breaks. But sometimes an update elsewhere means a tool needs a tweak to keep working. That’s what our care plans are for: they cover fixes when other software changes, plus small tweaks and priority help. Every build includes the first three months of care free, and after that it’s entirely optional.
If you decide not to keep a care plan, nothing switches off. You still own the software, and if something needs fixing later, we just bill it by the hour.
Who owns the code?
You own your licence to use the software, for life. We keep the underlying code and the reusable parts we’ve built over the years. That’s what lets us build things faster and keep our prices lower than starting from scratch every time.
How it compares to a subscription
Subscriptions make sense for big, general tools that everyone uses. But for a tool built around how your business works, renting doesn’t make much sense:
- A subscription costs the same every month, forever, and usually goes up over time.
- A lifetime licence is a one-off cost that pays for itself and then keeps saving you money every year after.
You can see how our prices work on the pricing section, or try the time-saved calculator to see how quickly a build would pay for itself. Got a task in mind? Book a free call and we’ll talk it through.