Perpetual license terms
What you own when you buy AlphaTill outright — and what you don't. Plain language, both directions.
Short version: the software is yours forever. Update coverage is a separate, optional window. When coverage ends, nothing is taken away — you simply stop receiving new versions.
What it costs
| Tier | One-time | Updates included | Optional renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $199 | 12 months | $69/year |
| Professional | $649 | 12 months | $199/year |
| Business | $1,490 | 12 months | $449/year |
Renewals are optional and are never required to keep using the software.
What you get
A perpetual, machine-activated license for the tier you bought.
Device and user limits are the same as the equivalent subscription tier — Starter 2 devices / 3 users, Professional 4 devices / 8 users, Business 11 devices / 20 users.
Every update released during your coverage window.
Features, fixes and security updates alike — there is no “maintenance-only” tier of update. Whatever we ship while your coverage is active is yours to keep.
Email support while coverage is active; community support after.
Support is part of the coverage window, not the license. When coverage lapses you keep the community forum and the documentation.
What “forever” means
Your software never stops working.
It never goes read-only, never disables a feature you paid for, and never nags you into renewing. This holds fully offline: a perpetual license does not phone home to stay alive, and no failed connection can downgrade it.
Your data is always yours.
CSV and Excel export of everything, on every tier, including the free one. Your database lives on your own computer. We do not hold your records hostage to a payment.
If AlphaTill ever shuts down, your license keeps activating.
We commit to publishing a final activation mechanism — one that does not depend on our servers existing — so a perpetual license can still be activated on new hardware after we are gone. This is the single biggest risk in buying software outright, and saying so plainly costs us nothing.
What's fair to us
One license = one business.
Activations are limited to your tier's device count. Running a second business, or a franchise, means a second license.
Backup automation IS included.
Scheduled backups write to a folder you choose — including your own Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox sync folder. We never hold a copy, so it costs us nothing to run and there is no honest reason to withhold it from someone who paid once.
Genuinely recurring services are not included.
Anything we would have to operate and pay for every month — hosted services we may offer in future — cannot honestly be funded by a one-time payment. We would rather leave such a thing out, and say so here, than bury a recurring cost inside a “one-time” price. Nothing in the product works that way today.
Update renewals are priced at the then-current rate.
Today's renewal prices are in the table above. A renewal bought later is priced at whatever the published rate is on that day.
Fraudulently obtained keys are suspended.
A chargeback after key delivery is treated as a refund: the license ends. Resold or redistributed keys are suspended. Everyone else is unaffected by this clause.
Refunds & transfers
30-day unconditional refund — on the purchase and on any update year.
No questions, no restocking fee, no “did you try support first”. Details on the refund policy page.
Machine transfer: self-service and unlimited.
Deactivate the old device in your portal, then activate the new one. New laptop, dead motherboard, moved shop — there is no transfer fee and no ticket to open.
Ownership transfer: free, via support, once per 12 months.
Selling the business? Email us and we move the license to the new owner. Once a year is enough for a genuine sale and infrequent enough to discourage key trading.
Upgrades
Moving up a perpetual tier costs the difference.
You pay the gap between the two current list prices — email sales@alphatill.com and we issue the upgrade. A self-serve version is planned; today it is a human, on purpose, so we can get the credit right.
Switching between subscription and perpetual is possible.
Contact support and we credit fairly, in whichever direction you are going. This is also manual in v1.
When coverage ends
You keep the last version released inside your coverage window, and it keeps working indefinitely. Newer releases are not offered or served until you renew. Renewing starts a fresh 12 months from the day you buy it — we do not charge you for the months you were lapsed.