I like the JetBrains model. You subscribe (annually, in my case), and for as long as you maintain the subscriptions, you get updates. If you cancel, you keep and can use the version you bought forever. The vendor gets recurring revenue, and the customer gets to own their tool.
I agree. JetBrains is my favorite model to interact with. I especially like the 'loyalty discount' where you get some percentage off for every year you're subscribed (caps at 3 years).
Do you mean the latest version that was released while you were subscribed? If so, that sounds ideal. You’re buying software and paying for them to keep improving it… until you want to stop.
If you stop paying now you get forever access to the Nov 2021 version. The way I look at it is, my money gets me the current version, plus a year of "previews".
I'm not actually a jetbrains user, but I do like the general model; could be adapted to "you get to keep the latest version, as long as you've been paying for the previous year.
