In reply to Wim.

Lifetime hosting paid for annually? Wouldn't that just be hosting with an annual payment instead of monthly payments? So it's not technically a lifetime of service for one payment. It's a year of service for one payment.

What the is referring to selling hosting for a one time payment, say $19, and providing hosting ANDuppory forever. Or at least until you fail because it's nt a sustainable business model for a web hosting company, themes or plugins.

WordPress.com is free but it's to a webhting company. It's a service. You don't have access to the sever. You can't install any plugins or themes you want. It's then monetized via ads (very few) and premium up sells. Support won't be like a web host where you can pick up the phone when you have a problem with your site. If your site is down its because all of WordPress.com is down.

WordPress does offer enterprise paid solutions but they are very expensive. Far more than average self hosted WordPress users would or could pay per month. That's why it's for enterprise customers. They make a lot of money this way.

But a small web get that most people have never heard of offering lifetime support and hosting for a one time payment? Absurd, unless it's a promotion for a limited number of people. It's not sustainable.

It's why most commercial WordPress plugins and a lot of theme companies have either monthly or typically annual payments. Free, when you are providng support etc, is not a sustainable model.

If you have big VC funding and can burn brought money like no tomorrow, go for it. But most WordPress businesses are bootstrapped. Very very few get VC.