Typical software experiences a major upgrade every two years. I will use Microsoft 365 as an example here. A subscription for Microsoft 365 Family costs $106.99 US. per year. This includes 6 licensed users with access to updates and upgrades, as well as, 1TB of Cloud storage for each user. That breaks down to $17.83 US per year, per user. On the other hand, a permanent license for Microsoft 365, single user costs $249.99 US. If you divide that by the typical upgrade cycle of two years, that's $124.99 per year, per user. Even if you are able to use it effectively for five years, that's $49.99 US per user, per year.
So, by comparison, the Microsoft 365 Family subscription at $17.83 per year, per user, which is a total of $89.18 US per user, for five years saves you $160.81 US.
Now, let's consider the costs involved with Object Desktop. The subscription cost is $39.99 US per year for five active installs (users). That breaks down to $7.99 US per user, per year. If you calculate the permanent license costs for just the most popular titles, Start11, Groupy, DeskScapes, Fences, and ObjectDock, The cost would be approximately $43.95 US. If you divide that by the typical upgrade cycle of two years, that's $21.97 US per year, per user. Even if you are able to use it effectively for five years, that's $8.79 US per user, per year.
So, by comparison, the Object Desktop subscription at $7.99 US per user, per year, which is a total of $39.99 US per user, for five years saves you $3.96 US.
Both Microsoft 365 and Object Desktop stop working after the subscription term.
In my opinion, the math above shows the the subscription model is less expensive than the permanent license. However, if you are only going to use a single license (one user), the permanent license is the way to go, assuming its actual life cycle is five years. With the Windows OS in 2024, a five year life cycle is really asking a bit much from any software.
