I know, most of you probably hate subscription models for things that used to be “pay once”. Me too! Nevertheless, it’s the only way if a niche email client like MailMate is going to survive. In particular, when it has a single developer and that developer is me. The alternative is upgrade fees for major updates, but version 1.0 of MailMate was released February 2011, and since then there has not been a single version bump requiring an upgrade fee. The bump to version 2.0 is also a free upgrade (I promised that a long time ago). Clearly, upgrade fees do not work for me.

Maintaining software requires the same amount of effort as creating, but it is not a straightforward source of revenue. I do not think I can or should make major flashy rewrites which could justify upgrade fees. Instead, a large number of subscribers is going to be an incentive for me to focus on keeping existing users happy. This means iterative/frequent updates improving the details of existing features, improving performance, fixing bugs, and to at least some extent answering support emails. This is essentially how I’ve worked in the past.

A license key is still needed for MailMate and its validity is not affected by whether or not you are a subscriber. If a new subscriber does not already have a license key then one is provided with the first payment. Technically, it’s possible to stop paying for the subscription and MailMate will continue to work although in a slightly different mode of operation. You can find the details on the pricing page.

Thanks for your ongoing support!

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Benny