From bought to rented
There was a time when software came in a box and the transaction ended at the register. You paid once, you owned the disc, and the tool worked until you chose to replace it. Then the industry discovered the subscription — and slowly, one tool at a time, ownership became a monthly bill that never ends.
The result is a stack that costs more every year while giving you nothing more to keep. Stop paying, and the tools you built your work on simply stop working.
You don't own your tools anymore. You rent permission to do your own work.
What the rental actually costs
This catalog has 104 apps. For 104 of them we track the yearly cost of the subscription tool each one replaces — real, published prices. Add that sample up and the rental bill is $55,109+ per year. That's not a hypothetical average from a survey; it's the arithmetic of the actual tools these apps stand in for.
The suite that replaces them costs $97 — once. Even at its final price of $1,997 after the 100-day build, the entire catalog costs less than a few months of the stack it replaces.
$55,109 a year to rent. $97 once to own. That is the whole argument.
What "own it" means here
Ownership is not a marketing word — it's a list of concrete properties:
- Desktop apps run 100% local. Your files never leave your machine unless you send them somewhere.
- Web apps are self-hosted. Your server, your data, your domain, your rules.
- No accounts with us. Nothing to log into to keep using what you bought.
- No telemetry. The apps don't phone home, because there's no home to phone.
- No renewal dates. There is no date on which your tools stop working.
Free cores, paid packaging
Every app in the suite has a public, MIT-licensed core on GitHub. If you have the time and the skills, you can build and run the free version forever — that's deliberate. What the one-time price buys is the packaged product: signed installers, 1-click setup, and updates across the whole catalog. Free if you want free; paid once if you want done.
The free version stays free forever. The paid version is paid once, forever. Nobody gets a bill in year three.
The 100 days
The suite is being built in public over 100 days: 102 apps, shipped one after another. During the build the price starts at $97 and rises $1 with every sale, capped at $997 — early supporters pay least and get everything that ships after them, free. 65 apps are live today. The ledger is public on the price tracker.
The invitation
If the rental model has ever annoyed you — a price hike email, a "your plan is changing" notice, a feature moved behind a higher tier — this is the exit. Run your own numbers on the subscription calculator, visit the graveyard of tools that used to be yours, or watch the webinar and see the apps work.