The best pay-once software for freelancers (2026)

Our top pick is Scrivener, because its household licence covers every computer you own on one platform, minor updates are free with no clock, and the refund window sits behind a real 30-day trial. Behind it sit Sublime Text, TablePlus and Final Draft 13, each a genuine perpetual licence with a different catch. This guide is for freelancers who would rather own their tools than rent them, and it grades each licence on what the vendor's own pages promise about devices, update windows, upgrades and refunds, all checked in October 2026. We did not test the products ourselves; how we graded is set out below the at-a-glance list.

Who this guide is for, and what pay-once means here

A freelancer's software bill is a list of monthly lines that never shortens. This guide is for anyone who wants to cross a few of them off permanently by buying a licence instead of renting one.

Pay-once, as used on this site, means a licence that an individual buys with a single payment and that keeps working indefinitely, even if updates stop. It does not mean free updates forever. As how lifetime software deals actually work explains, almost every perpetual licence has a clock somewhere, and the job is to find it before you pay.

The four licences below are all real pay-once offers on the vendors' own terms. None of them is on sale. They are here because the regular price is already the kind of deal worth having, and because each one illustrates a different clause a buyer needs to read.

The best pay-once software at a glance

Four picks, in rank order, with the figure each vendor published when we checked.

1. Scrivener, best for writers: $59.99 USD on the Mac App Store (October 10, 2026); household licence; minor updates free for the life of the version; 30-day trial counted in days of use; 30-day refund.

2. Sublime Text, best for developers who want one key everywhere: $99 USD personal licence (October 8, 2026); covers every machine where you are the primary user; three years of updates, then $80 to upgrade; 30-day refund; evaluation with no time limit.

3. TablePlus, best for database work on one or two machines: $99 USD per device (October 10, 2026); one year of updates, then $59 a year to renew or keep the last build; capped free version with no clock; 7-day refund.

4. Final Draft 13, best for screenwriters who must deliver .fdx files: $199.99 USD shown against $249.99 (October 10, 2026); two computers signed in at once; discounted upgrades; 30-day money-back guarantee; no trial for the licence itself.

How we graded these licences

We did not test the products ourselves; grades come from documentation, pricing pages and verified user reports checked on October 8 and October 10, 2026. Five questions decided the ranking.

What does one purchase cover? Devices, platforms and household members. A licence that covers every machine you own is worth more than one that covers a single computer, even at the same price.

How long do updates last, and what happens when they stop? Every licence here keeps working after its window. The difference is whether the window is one year, three years or the life of a major version, and what staying current costs afterwards.

What does the next major version cost? A vendor's record at its last transition is the best evidence available, so we quote it where it is published.

Can you evaluate before you pay? A trial with no clock, a trial counted in days of use, a capped free version, or nothing but a refund window are four very different answers.

How long is the refund window, and what do verified users say? We read Trustpilot where we could; G2 and Capterra returned access errors on both checking days, so no figures from them appear here. The general method is in how to read a software deal before you pay.

Best for writers: Scrivener

One purchase covers every computer in your house on one platform, and minor updates never stop within the major version.

Price: $59.99 USD on the US Mac App Store, checked October 10, 2026. The vendor's own store shows a localised price per platform and a Mac+Windows bundle; we could not read its USD figure directly. Licence: household, one platform. Updates: all 3.x releases free. Trial: 30 days of use. Refund: 30 days on the vendor store.

Strengths first. Literature & Latte's licensing page, checked October 10, 2026, is the clearest statement of perpetual terms in this guide: perpetual, per-platform, per-version, with a household clause that extends to family members living with you. The FAQ's trial counts only days you actually open the app, so an occasional writer gets more calendar time, and the refund window behind it is 30 days.

The upgrade record is published too. The Scrivener 2 to 3 upgrade was free for anyone who bought after August 20, 2017 and 45% off for earlier buyers, per the upgrade page. That is the kind of evidence a pay-once buyer should want and rarely gets.

Limits. A licence covers one operating system, so Mac and Windows are two purchases or the bundle. The next major version will be paid at an unannounced discount. Mac App Store buyers lose the household terms and must email for upgrade discounts. And the verified-review sample on Trustpilot, 23 reviews at 4.3 with none in the last year, is thin and dated.

Why it sits at #1: it is the cheapest licence here on the figure we can verify, it covers the most machines, it has the longest effective update window, and it is the only one with both a real trial and a 30-day refund. Read our full Scrivener review. Deciding between it and Final Draft? Read Scrivener vs Final Draft.

Best for developers who want one key everywhere: Sublime Text

A code editor at a fixed $99 whose licence covers every machine you are the primary user of, with a three-year update window and a cheap upgrade afterwards.

Price: $99 USD personal licence, checked October 8, 2026. Licence: per user, every computer where you are the primary user, any operating system. Updates: three years, then $80 to upgrade. Trial: evaluation download with no enforced time limit. Refund: 30 days.

Strengths. Sublime HQ's sales FAQ lets one key follow you across Windows, macOS and Linux and onto a work machine, which no other licence in this guide does. The evaluation has no clock, so you can decide at leisure. The licence never expires: after three years you keep the last build released inside the window, and a newer one costs $80.

Limits. The $99 price is for individuals only; a business must buy an annual subscription at $65 per seat that stops working when cancelled. Support is email and a forum with no stated response time. And pay once is really pay once per three years if you want current builds, which over nine years is $259 by our arithmetic.

Why it sits at #2: it is the broadest licence by platform and device, with a refund window and an evaluation as good as Scrivener's, but it costs more and its update window has a hard three-year clock where Scrivener's runs for the life of the version. Read our full Sublime Text review.

Best for database work on one or two machines: TablePlus

A native database client sold for $99 per computer, with a build you keep when the update year ends and a renewal that costs less than the purchase.

Price: $99 USD for one device, $129 for two, checked October 10, 2026. Licence: per device, moveable via the License Manager. Updates: one year, then $59 per device per year or keep the last build. Trial: free version capped at two tabs, two windows, two advanced filters, no time limit. Refund: 7 days.

Strengths. The licensing documentation says in plain words that after the update year you may keep using the build released before expiry without any limitation forever. Renewal at $59 is cheaper than buying, so staying current is not punished. The free build has no clock, which makes it the evaluation route. And the pricing page says one-time purchase, no auto-renewal, in those words.

Limits. The licence is per device, not per person: a laptop and a desktop are $129 on the two-device licence, and a third machine is $79 more. The refund window is seven days, the shortest here. The free Windows version lacks advanced filters. And the Trustpilot sample is five reviews at 2.7, too small and too mixed to lean on.

Why it sits at #3: the licence is honest and the renewal is fair, but per-device pricing and a one-year window make it cost more over time than Sublime Text for anyone with two machines, and seven days is not a refund window you can evaluate inside. Read our full TablePlus review.

Best for screenwriters who must deliver .fdx files: Final Draft 13

The screenwriting standard is still sold as a one-time licence for two computers, at a price that beats the vendor's own subscription from the third year.

Price: $199.99 USD, shown as 20% off $249.99, checked October 10, 2026. Licence: two computers signed in at once, macOS and Windows. Updates: next major version is a paid upgrade, listed at $79.99 on one vendor page and $99.99 on another. Trial: none for the licence; a five-day Suite subscription trial that converts automatically. Refund: 30-day money-back guarantee.

Strengths. The licence is real and its two-computer scope spans both desktop platforms under one key, which Scrivener does not offer. Education pricing is $99.99 with verification. Upgrades are open to owners of any previous desktop version, and versions 11 and 12 remain supported for those who do not upgrade.

The subscription arithmetic also favours the licence for anyone staying a while. By our calculation from the pricing page, two years of the $99.99 annual Suite equals the one-time price, and the licence is cheaper from year three onward.

Limits. It is the most expensive licence here by a wide margin. The 20% off framing has no printed end date. The upgrade price differs between two vendor pages on the same day. The only trial is a subscription funnel. And the verified-review sample on Trustpilot, eight reviews at 2.2 with 88% one-star, is uniformly poor on support.

Why it sits at #4: it is the right purchase when the .fdx format is mandatory and the wrong one otherwise, and on every licence term except cross-platform scope it trails the three above it. Read our full Final Draft review. Deciding between it and Scrivener? Read Scrivener vs Final Draft.

Also compared, and why they did not make the cut

Affinity (Designer, Photo, Publisher). Formerly a one-time purchase and the obvious design pick for this list. As of October 10, 2026 its site states that Affinity is free for individuals with a Canva account, and that AI tools need a Canva premium plan.

The same page says existing V2 licences remain valid but will not receive future updates. Affinity is no longer a pay-once purchase, so it is not ranked; it is also, for a freelancer who needs it, a very good price.

Final Draft Suite. The subscription sold beside the Final Draft 13 licence, at $99.99 a year or $16.99 a month with Final Draft Cloud included. Excluded because it is a subscription; included here because the pricing page labels it best value and a buyer should know the two-year break-even.

Sublime Text business licence. $65 per seat per year, and the sales FAQ states a cancelled subscription invalidates the licence. Excluded because it is not perpetual. It is the price any company, as opposed to a freelancer, actually pays for Sublime Text.

TablePlus Team. $79 per seat from three seats, with a License Manager and resale rights, quote required. Perpetual, but a team product rather than a freelancer's purchase, so it is noted rather than ranked.

How to choose a pay-once licence

Count your machines first. Scrivener and Sublime Text cover all of them on their terms; TablePlus charges per device; Final Draft stops at two signed in. The right answer changes with the number.

Find the clock. TablePlus stops updates after one year, Sublime Text after three, Scrivener and Final Draft at the next major version. Every one of them keeps working afterwards; the question is what staying current costs, and whether you care.

Evaluate before the refund window, not inside it. Scrivener's trial, Sublime Text's evaluation and TablePlus's capped free version all exist so that the refund is a backstop. Final Draft offers no trial for the licence, so its 30-day guarantee is the evaluation, and you should note the date.

Read the business clause. All four licences are written for individuals. Scrivener's household terms exclude businesses, Sublime Text's one-time price is for individuals only, and TablePlus and Final Draft route teams to separate tiers. A freelancer buying with their own money is fine; a limited company may not be.

Keep the receipt and the key somewhere that outlives the laptop. Every vendor here has a page about lost serial numbers, which tells you how often it happens. The questions to settle for the years after purchase are in what happens after you pay once.

Bottom line

If you write, buy Scrivener from the vendor's store, after the trial. If you code, buy Sublime Text and let the evaluation run as long as you need.

If you query databases from one machine, buy TablePlus after the free build's two-tab cap has become the problem. If you must deliver .fdx files, buy Final Draft 13, screenshot the price, and treat the Suite trial as a subscription to cancel.

All four are genuine perpetual licences, which is rarer every year. None of them is free of a clock, and none of them hides it. That is the standard this site holds a pay-once deal to, and these four meet it.

What changed

October 10, 2026: first published. Figures read from the four vendors' pages on October 8 (Sublime Text) and October 10 (Scrivener, TablePlus, Final Draft), 2026. Affinity noted as free rather than ranked, per its site on October 10, 2026.

Best for writers: Scrivener

Scrivener is a perpetual, per-platform licence with a household clause: install on every computer you own on that platform, plus family members' machines in the same house, per the licensing page checked October 10, 2026. Minor updates are free for the life of the major version. The trial lasts 30 days of actual use and the vendor-store refund window is 30 days. The Mac App Store lists it at $59.99 USD; the vendor's own store shows localised prices and a Mac+Windows bundle. The costs are a second licence for a second platform and a paid major upgrade at an unannounced discount, which at the last transition was free or 45% off.

Cheapest verified price, widest device scope, longest effective update window, and the only pick with both a real trial and a 30-day refund.

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Best for developers who want one key everywhere: Sublime Text

Sublime Text's $99 USD personal licence, per the store page checked October 8, 2026, carries three years of updates and never expires; after the window you keep the last build and a newer one costs $80. The sales FAQ lets one key cover every computer where you are the primary user, on any operating system, including a work machine. The evaluation download has no enforced time limit and refunds are offered within 30 days. The catch is that the one-time price is for individuals only: businesses pay $65 per seat per year on a subscription that stops working when cancelled.

Broadest licence by platform and device with a no-clock evaluation and 30-day refund, but a higher price and a hard three-year update window.

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Best for database work on one or two machines: TablePlus

TablePlus is $99 USD for one device or $129 for two, per the pricing page checked October 10, 2026, sold as a one-time purchase with no auto-renewal. The licence includes one year of updates; afterwards the licensing documentation says you may keep the last build without limitation forever, or renew for $59 per device per year. A free version capped at two tabs, two windows and two advanced filters has no time limit and serves as the evaluation. The refund window is seven days, the licence is per device rather than per person, and an extra device costs $79.

Honest terms and a fair renewal, but per-device pricing, a one-year window and a seven-day refund place it below the two licences above.

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Best for screenwriters who must deliver .fdx files: Final Draft 13

Final Draft 13 is $199.99 USD, shown as 20% off a $249.99 list price on the pricing page checked October 10, 2026, and the licence signs in on two computers at once across macOS and Windows. A 30-day money-back guarantee is printed on the product pages. Upgrades are open to owners of any previous desktop version, at $79.99 on the pricing page or $99.99 on the upgrade page, a discrepancy we could not resolve. There is no trial for the licence itself, only a five-day Suite subscription trial that converts automatically. By our arithmetic the licence undercuts the $99.99 annual Suite from the third year.

The right buy only when the .fdx format is mandatory; the most expensive licence here, with no trial, a sale price with no end date and a poor verified-review sample.

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How we chose

We did not test the products ourselves; grades come from documentation, pricing pages and verified user reports checked on October 8 and October 10, 2026. Each product had to be sold as a one-time licence for individuals, with the licence continuing to work after any update window ends. We read what one purchase covers (devices, platforms, household), how long updates last and what a renewal or major upgrade costs, the trial and refund terms, and the verified-review picture where we could reach one. Commission plays no part: none of these four carries an affiliate link on this site as of publication.

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