Principles
Software you own.
Our apps run on your machine, cost one price, and keep working when we stop selling them. Here's why.
Most software today stores your data on someone else's server. Often there is no technical reason for it: the app would run just as well offline, on the machine you already paid for. The server is there for the business model, not for you.
The monthly fee works the same way. You pay to keep using something that is already installed. Stop paying and it stops working. And when you do want to move somewhere else, your data sits in a format only that one vendor can read. That isn't a product you bought. It's one you rent, on terms that can change without you.
- 01
Your data stays on your machine
Everything our apps produce lives on your disk, in your filesystem, in formats you can open without us. No account to start, no account to keep. If a feature genuinely needs a server, syncing between your own devices or letting two people edit the same record, it stays scoped to that feature and never becomes a reason to hold on to your files.
- 02
Buy a major version, own it
You buy a licence for a major version. Every update inside that version is free, forever. When a new major version arrives you decide whether it's worth buying, and the version you already own keeps running either way. No expiry date, no dead app, no ransom for your own files.
- 03
Leaving has to be easy
Lock-in is a design decision, and we take the other one. Open formats, exportable data, no proprietary vault. If our software stops being useful to you, we'd rather you left with everything than stayed because you couldn't.
What kind of apps we program
Small, fast programs that do one thing well. Widgets that sit on your desktop, live wallpapers, a workspace for data you shape yourself. Windows, macOS and Linux. Software for a person at a machine, doing work that never needed a data centre.
The test
Would the app still do its job with the internet unplugged? Then it doesn't get a server, an account or a subscription. Themia and Gloomia never need the network at all. tabls is the exception, and an honest one: two people editing the same record at the same time needs a server, so tabls has one. What it doesn't have is a server that exists to keep your data out of your reach.
How the licence works
One price for one major version. Every update inside that version is included, forever: fixes, new features, new widgets. A new major version is a new licence, and buying it is your call. The version you own keeps running exactly as it does today. That's how we fund the work without ever taking your software hostage.
We know it's worse business
Subscriptions make the nicer spreadsheet. Recurring revenue is easier to plan, easier to grow, easier to pitch. We'd still rather sell software that keeps working when we're gone. It may not be the strongest business case. It's what we stand for.
Also
- No ads. Ever.
- Telemetry off by default, opt-in, and never your content.
- No free tier that pays for itself with your data.
- Nothing you bought stops working because a licence server didn't answer.
Want to see how that looks in practice? Look at the apps.