Oxygen has been sold with an unlimited site, lifetime license since its release in 2016. Sometime later this year or next year, we will switch to an annual license. We may or may not make another announcement before actually making the switch, so this might be your last warning.
This will have no effect on existing customers. All lifetime licenses will continue to be honored.
Oxygen has been around for a long time. When we first released Oxygen, we had no idea it would become so popular and develop such a devoted following. We also didn't realize how many features we would be continuously adding to the product.
Back in 2016, many other plugins were sold with lifetime licenses, and for new entrants to the market, it was often what customers expected. That model has worked for us for years. In fact, it continues to work for us to this day. We are not making this change because because lifetime licenses are inherently unsustainable or support costs are spiraling out of control.
Oxygen is a profitable product, support costs generally follow revenue up and down, and lifetime licenses for WordPress plugins are absolutely a sustainable business model.
We are moving to annual licenses simply because we believe we will make more money.
Things have changed since our initial release in 2016. After six years of continuous updates, the quality of our software has increased significantly. We've released hundreds of new features, thousands of fixes and enhancements, and even completely overhauled the UI multiple times. Our software is has a cult-like following, and many people tell us we should be charging more.
Today, Oxygen is widely regarded as the most powerful visual builder for WordPress. We're one of the only companies still selling a professional-grade product with a lifetime license. Lifetime licenses are a bit of an oddity in 2022, and people just expect to have to renew their software licenses. This is why you see almost every piece of software on earth now being sold with one.
In addition, we've done and been privy to the results of numerous AB tests over the years. In the past, we believed lifetime licenses would be more profitable. However, given our most recent tests, evaluation of industry data on renewal rates, experience with our other products, and advice of our friends in the industry, we now expect annual licenses to be more profitable over the long term.
Again, these pricing changes will not affect existing customers. We have built a world-class support team over the years, earning us thousands of rave reviews. We routinely take care of support requests from customers who purchased their licenses over five years ago, and nothing about that will change. Everyone who holds a lifetime license will continue to receive updates and support as long as Oxygen and WordPress continue to exist.
You only need to renew your license if you need continued support or updates. Your website and your ability to edit it with Oxygen won't stop working after your license expires. If you want to, you can even keep using outdated versions of Oxygen after your license expires to build new websites.
We aren't exactly sure, but it will be sometime later this year or next year. We might provide further updates on timing, although most likely we will just flip the switch without warning.
