37signals, the company behind Basecamp, wants to introduce the post-SaaS era, giving customers the ability to pay once for software and own it indefinitely.

SaaS has brought many benefits, most importantly a lower barrier to entry and scalable pricing. Unfortunately, however, the tradeoff is often a higher cost of ownership over the long term.

Despite being one of the companies that helped usher in the SaaS revolution, 37signals wants to help the industry move in a different direction, launching a new website: Once.com. The company makes the case that SaaS has brought more negatives than positives to the industry:

Today, most software is a service. Not owned, but rented. Buying it enters you into a perpetual landlord–tenant agreement. Every month you pay for essentially the same thing you had last month. And if you stop paying, the software stops working. Boom, you’re evicted.

For nearly two decades, the SaaS model benefitted landlords handsomely. With routine prayers — and payers — to the Church of Recurring Revenue, valuations shot to the moon on the backs of businesses subscribed at luxury prices for commodity services they had little control over.

Add up your SaaS subscriptions last year. You should own that shit by now.

The company says it is time for IT departments to take back control rather than be reliant on Big Tech:

SaaS still makes sense for many products, but its grip will slip. Installation and administration used to be hopelessly complicated, but self–hosting tech is simpler now and vastly improved. Plus, IT departments are hungry to run their own IT again, tired of being subservient to Big Tech’s reign clouds.

Once upon a time you owned what you paid for, you controlled what you depended on, and your privacy and security were your own business. We think it’s that time again.

37signals plans to launch products in 2023 on the “pay one time, own forever” model:

Introducing ONCE, a new line of software products from 37signals.

• Pay one time, own forever.
• We write the code, you get to see it.
• We give you the software, you get to host it.
• Simple and straightforward, not enterprisey and bloated.
• For one fixed price. Once.

We’ll be launching the first product late 2023, with more coming in 2024.

In the early 2000s, we were among the early pioneers leading the industry into the SaaS revolution. Now, 20 years later, we intend to help lead the way out. The post–SaaS era is just around the corner.