Good move and one that’s long overdue. If WordPress and the products surrounding it want to be sustainable for the long run then shifting away from “lifetime” licenses is a must.

Remember back when manual renewals and 20-35% renewal rates were the norm? Anything above that renewal rate was a dream. That was a la ~2014-15. Fast-forward 7-years and look at how much the ecosystem has grown!

That’s not due to lifetime or manual renewed licenses. It’s due to annual automatic renewals.

Sustainable businesses build better software, support customers better, and bring more benefit to the wider marketplace.