Guides/Business model
Declining-price software: paying less the longer you wait
A declining-price software model publishes its future prices in advance and lowers them every year until the tool is free. It rewards early adopters with early access and rewards patient buyers with a lower price.
Why we chose it
A subscription charges you forever for a tool that mostly stays the same. A one-time price charges you once and asks you to trust that the tool will still be maintained. A declining price does both jobs at once: it funds today's work, and it names a date on which the tool becomes a public good.
How to think about ‘when to buy’
If you need the tool now, buy now — the price is the highest it will ever be. If you can wait a year, you pay less. If you can wait until 2030, you pay nothing. All three of those are legitimate answers.
Questions people actually ask
- Won't everyone just wait?
- Some will. Most people who need to encrypt a folder need to encrypt it this week, not in 2030.
- Does buying now include future updates?
- Yes — your single purchase includes every version up to and including the 2030 free release.
- Is this a discount code?
- No. It's a published price ladder. There are no hidden coupons or sales.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- Mortalware: software with a written expiry on secrecy
Mortalware is software that becomes open source on a fixed date. Elba is priced to decline and free in 2030. Here's the idea and why it matters.
- One-time-purchase encryption software (and why it still exists)
Encryption software you buy once, keep forever. Elba is €49 one-time in 2026, declining every year until it is free in 2030.