Open your Settings app. Scroll to Subscriptions. Count the recurring charges.
If you're like a lot of Mac users, you're paying monthly fees for a photo editor, a notes app, a cloud storage service, a password manager, a design tool, a video editor -- the list goes on. Each one seemed reasonable at $5 or $10 per month. Together, they can quietly add up to hundreds of dollars a year for software you may only use a few times a week.
We think there's another way.
The Subscription Trap
The SaaS model works well for services that require ongoing infrastructure -- cloud storage, email hosting, real-time collaboration servers. These have genuine recurring costs that justify recurring revenue.
But a desktop application that runs entirely on your machine? The economics don't add up the same way. When your video editor processes footage using your CPU, your GPU, and your local storage, what exactly are you renting each month?
For a desktop app that is sold only as a subscription, the honest answer is: continued access to software you've already downloaded.
Stop paying, and you lose the app.
Our Model: Pay Once, Own It
Every Oxid app follows a simple principle:
- One-time purchase -- a single payment per Mac
- No recurring fees -- ever
- Updates to the version you bought -- bug fixes, performance improvements and feature additions within that major version are included. Major releases are included for Value Pack holders and offered at an upgrade price to single-app buyers.
- Your licence, your Mac -- no account to create
When you buy Oxid Mac Cleaner, Oxid Studio, or any Oxid app, the version you bought is yours. The apps do talk to our licence server: to activate, and to check in from time to time. If a Mac is offline, the licence keeps working for a while — about two weeks with our shared licence code — and then asks to reconnect. Your files and projects never depend on that check.
Before you buy, the trial gives you every feature for seven days. After it ends, what keeps working depends on the app: some keep a reduced free mode, and some stop until you buy. The pricing page says which.
Why This Works for Us Too
The common argument against one-time purchases is that developers need sustainable revenue. That's true -- and we've designed our business around it:
1. New apps expand the catalog. Instead of squeezing recurring revenue from one product, we build new tools that solve new problems. Each app earns its own purchase.
2. The bundle creates natural upsells. The Oxid Value Pack is every app we make for one price, at a large discount to buying them separately. Our terms promise only the apps in the pack when you buy it. So far, when we added Oxid Note, Oxid Studio, Oxid Mail, Oxid Voice and OxidDB, existing pack owners received them without paying again; Oxid SiteMirror is included only in packs bought from its launch onward.
3. Low overhead. Our apps are built by a small team using Rust and Swift. We run one licence and update service for the whole catalogue rather than a cloud service per app.
4. Happy users are the best marketing. When someone pays once and gets a good experience, they tell others.
The Real Cost Comparison
Here is a typical creative and developer workflow, with what the vendors themselves charge. Where a free or one-time option exists, it's in the table too, because it may be all you need.
| Tool type | A subscription option | Free or one-time options | Oxid app | One-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video editor | Premiere: subscription only, monthly or annual | Final Cut Pro $299.99 once; DaVinci Resolve free | Oxid Studio | $79 |
| Containers and VMs | Docker Pro $9 per user a month, billed annually | Docker Personal is $0, and Docker Desktop is free for personal use and small businesses | Oxid VM | $79 |
| Screen capture | CleanShot Pro $10 per user a month, billed annually | CleanShot Basic $35 once, with a year of updates; macOS Screenshot is included | Oxid Capture Studio | $39 |
| Local web stack | MAMP PRO updates €99 a year after the first year | The MAMP PRO licence itself never expires; XAMPP is free | OXAMP | $29 |
| Mac cleaner | CleanMyMac from $3.33 a month | — | Oxid Mac Cleaner | $19 |
The five Oxid apps come to $245, once — or take all twelve in the Value Pack for $99.
Price isn't the whole story. In several of these rows the established tool does more than ours does today — each product page has a comparison table that says where we're behind. You can check our prices on the pricing page.
What About Major Version Upgrades?
Updates within the major version you bought are included. Major releases are included for Value Pack holders, and offered at an upgrade price to people who bought a single app — never as a forced subscription conversion.
You'll always have the choice: keep using what you paid for, or upgrade when the new version earns your money.
Subscription Fatigue Is Real
It's easy to carry more recurring software charges than you can name from memory — the cost is spread thin enough per app to stay invisible, and only shows up when you add the year together.
We're not anti-subscription as a concept. We use subscription services ourselves. But we believe desktop tools that run on your hardware and process your data locally should be available the traditional way: you buy it, you own it.
Join the Pay-Once Movement
Every Oxid app is available as a one-time purchase. Most come with a seven-day trial with every feature unlocked — no card, no signup. Oxid SiteMirror has a free plan instead of a trial, and Oxid Hub and Oxid Voice also have free tiers.
See our pricing and pick the apps that fit your workflow. Pay once, and keep the version you bought.