Perpetual access
Perpetual access, stated honestly
Perpetual access means the software licence does not expire. It does not mean unlimited hosting, AI generation, compute, storage or third-party services — those are consumed continuously and are always licensed and billed separately.
Summary
A one-off licence to keep using a specified release of the software without a recurring licence fee. This is what 'lifetime' properly means.
Included
- A perpetual right to use the licensed release of the software
- The features present in that release
- The licensed seat count stated in the agreement
Not included
- Unlimited cloud hosting — servers cost money every month
- Unlimited AI generation, GPU or other compute
- Unlimited storage, bandwidth or data transfer
- Third-party service costs passed through from providers
- Future major versions, updates and upgrades without an active maintenance agreement
- Support beyond the period covered by a maintenance agreement
We use the term perpetual access rather than 'lifetime' deliberately. A perpetual licence covers software access permanently; it cannot cover services that incur a continuing cost to deliver.
Best fit
Who this is for
Organisations with capital budgets rather than recurring software budgets
Deployments that must remain usable independently of a subscription
Buyers who prefer a fixed, one-time software cost
Plain language
Why we avoid the word “lifetime”
What is permanent
Your right to use the licensed release of the software. That right does not expire and does not require a recurring licence fee.
What is not permanent
Anything that costs money every month to deliver: servers, storage, bandwidth, AI generation, GPU compute and third-party services. Those are metered and licensed separately.
A vendor promising unlimited lifetime hosting and AI for a single payment is promising something no infrastructure provider will underwrite. We would rather state the boundary up front than withdraw it later.
Process
How a proposal works
Step 1
Tell us the requirement
Organisation, product, approximate seats, timeline and whether you need hosted, branded or deployed software.
Step 2
We scope and quote
A commercial manager prepares a written quote covering fees, term, allowances, exclusions, support and validity.
Step 3
Internal approval
Quotes are reviewed and approved internally before they are issued. Approved financial terms are locked; a change becomes a tracked revision.
Step 4
Written agreement
Nothing is binding until an agreement is signed. No obligation is created by making an enquiry.