It seems unlikely they will go back to a non-subscrption basis. The trend in the software industry has been towards, not away from, subscriptions. Subscriptions make it easier for the company to have to update and support only the current version of the program, versus multiple years of products like in the Intuit days. And subscriptions help them smooth out revenue year-to-year and month-to-month. On the flip side, the risk they take is that they have to deliver enough value that customers will stay subscribed; if users decide they're not getting enough value from Quicken to be worth the $5/month or so it costs, then they switch to something else. But most of the personal finance software on the market also uses a subscription pricing model, so it may not be easy to find a buy-it-once product that fits your needs.
Yes, subscriptions make money for the developer. They're in business to make money. They have to pay off the investors who bought them away from Intuit. They have to keep paying their employees. in the earlier days of personal computers, new software products blossomed all the time, and developers could count on growing sales plus uypgrade sales to generate enough revenue; as the personal computer market became a mature industry with little room for growth in users, subscriptions have emerged as a means to keep software developers in business and updating/enhancing their software. There's no free lunch; it costs a lot of time and money to keep an applicaiton like Quicken updated as operating systems (especially macOS) change and banking institutions change protocols and security standards.
Am I a fan of subscription software. No, who is? It costs me more than I used to spend. In the case of Quicken, I find it worth it for me; in the case of Adobe, I've regretfully parted ways because their prices target businesses/professionals and I find them too steep for me as a hobbyist/individual/non-daily user. In the case of Microsoft, I'm now experimenting with alternatives to Office after 30 years of using it.
As I wrote above, if you find you aren't getting enough value from Quicken to justify the price, then it's time to look elsewhere. Most people who stick with Quicken have found it's worth the money and/or there's nothing on the market that meets their needs as well for less money.
And it was similar before the yearly renew. Then you got 3 years before you had to upgrade to the new version or lose online sevices. And you can stay on your current version without online services. Like I stayed on Quicken 2013.
I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.
Most alternatives to Quicken are also subscription based; out of the dozen I checked only two were not. And of those two, only one really qualifies as being usable by the average person, IMO. So industry trends are not working in your favor, I'm afraid.
This an incorrect statement. When Intuit owned Quicken there was never a “subscription” or depending on how you look at it there was “always a subscription”. In other words. Intuit never called anything a “subscription”, but online services always expired 3.5 years after that year version was released (note not from the time of purchase, from the time of release). So, the online services have always been for a limited amount of time.
So, in reality the only real differences between what Intuit did and what Quicken Inc is doing with Quicken Subscription is the length/period of the “subscription for online services”, and the nag message, and if one has the Starter edition and one going read-only.
No one likes the nag messages, but it is far from the worst thing that Quicken Inc could do. In fact, their original plan was that all the editions would go read-only and based on customer feedback they relented on that.
Oh, BTW Reckon (Quicken Austrialia), yearly subscription:
Also, I have learned from some of their customers that they removed QIF exports. Evidentally to prevent their customers from jumping ship. And also ironically they make very hard to even find this product on their website, they push their other finances software instead.
And that is fine every 3 years not every year, that is just being piggish and greedy.
What is the difference between 3 years and 1?
If I pay $300 for 3 years or $100 for each year of 3 years it is the same.
As for the “piggish and greedy” part which is really about the money not the years, I have a different view on that. $5 a month for maintaining a product that consolidates all of your finances is a very reasonable price.
On the other side if one only wants manual entry, they should have probably stayed with Quicken 2013 or use QIF export/import to get back to that version. But even working with Quicken Subscription with an expired subscription we are talking about a nag message, not that the functionality is completely blocked. Again, this actually seems reasonable to me.
Others will certainly disgree, but guess what? You don't get to decide, that is the way the world works, we don't get everything we would like.
@BlueBeard1963 wrote: There is a difference between upgrading the software every 3 years and upgrading it every year. Again, I know all about how Intuit did the online services. And that is fine every 3 years not every year, that is just being piggish and greedy.
There's really no difference between paying $X once every three years and $Y once a year, except that the total cost of what you pay now over three years is significantly more than three times what you once paid every third year.
You deem this “just being piggish and greedy”. If we had acess to their books, and saw that they are now raking in profits and stuffing their investors' pockets, then you might be right. But there's another point of view that Quicken languished badly under Intuit. (Not just my opinion; it's essentially the reason Intuit gave for selling it off.) Quicken Mac nearly died under Intuit, and after nearly giving up on it, its comeback was funded by their hiring of a mere handful of developers; Quicken has since more than doubled the Mac development staff. Quicken also brought back telephone support, and hired more than 200 support representatives, many in the US. Quicken Simplifi was created to serve a market of younger customers who prefer online only personal finance management. So a lot of money is being invested into fixing and growing the company and its products.
And one could say that viewed from this perspective, Intuit actually under-priced Quicken for too long, leading to its slide into limited profitbabiluty and little forcus on the future. But of course none of us will sit back and say, “gee, remember when Quicken cost $20/year — what a great bargain we were getting back then!”
Again, if you find Quicken isn't worth ~$5/month, then move on. Quicken has changed, and you can, too. I use Quicken to manage more than just my checkbook, so for me, the price is worth it to have all my entire financial picture gathered in one place, and to have nearly three decades of transaction history I can consult whenever I want to know when I bought something. That may not be the case for you, so if you can find something that meets your needs for less money, then you have your answer. But complaining that Quicken should charge us less because they used to charge us less just isn't going to yield the results you want it to.
I agree with @jacobs said and I want to add one more thing. If you remove the changes for online services, then in my opinion Quicken hasn't changed much since Quicken 2013. So, for users in that camp, they might not understand what they are paying for (probably nothing), but Quicken Inc pricing/policies aren't directed at those users, they are working to support the people that want the online feature.
@Chris_QPW wrote: If you remove the changes for online services, then in my opinion Quicken hasn't changed much since Quicken 2013.
Speaking for all us Quicken Mac users, nothing could be further from the truth! 🤣 In 2014, the modern version of Quicien Mac came into being, and has been steadily improved and enhanced in the 8+ years since. for those of us who had been stuck on the 2007 version of the legacy Mac product, this was a lifeboat which has evolved into a full-sized ship. And I'm someone who does not depend on Quicken's online services.
@jacobs I was strictly speaking about Quicken Windows. For Quicken Mac it is an entirely different subject! 😉
You may as well be asking “Will I be able to put my toothpaste back into the tube?”
