TreeSize maker irks users by ending perpetual license support without subscription

The company behind the disk space analyzer TreeSize has irked some users by no longer offering support or updates for perpetual licenses beyond their maintenance period unless customers subscribe. Further frustration has come from JAM Software’s long-standing policy of not providing license keys or installers to TreeSize perpetual license holders after that support period ends.

Since 2025, JAM Software has been transitioning most TreeSize editions to subscription models. Today, it sells perpetual licenses only for personal use, which include 12 months of updates, support, and “downloads of older versions, and your license,” plus the option to extend the support period. TreeSize currently has “no plans to discontinue the sale of perpetual licenses for TreeSize Personal,” product manager Hendrik Christ told Ars Technica.

As perpetual-license maintenance periods expire, customers are discovering that extending support now generally requires subscribing to software they already own the right to use.

On Reddit, a user shared an email informing them that support for their perpetual license ends in September, after which they will lose access to updates and support because those “are only available in the subscription.”

Christ told Ars that considering the “current economic conditions,” the change was “necessary to keep developing and supporting TreeSize reliably over the long term.”

One of the biggest criticisms is that JAM Software will not provide backup installation files or license keys to customers with unsupported licenses. TreeSize’s email urged the user to make backups.

“Honestly, it feels quite low to strip paying customers of the ability to simply download the installer for a software version they already paid for,” the Reddit user said.

But even before it sold TreeSize subscriptions, JAM Software didn’t permanently retain every installation file and key after a customer’s support period ended, Christ said. This is because “older software versions can contain known bugs or even security vulnerabilities,” he said, adding:

Making these available for download indefinitely and without restriction is something we consider a risk to our customers, particularly in business environments. There’s also the technical and organizational overhead of maintaining and supporting old versions and their associated keys indefinitely.

Although TreeSize says this is a long-standing policy, the backlash highlights the disconnect between what many people expect when buying a perpetual license and what they get when a software vendor shifts its business model toward subscriptions.

“To make sure customers aren’t caught off guard, we proactively notify them by email, well before their maintenance ends, to back up their installation file and license key themselves. This is meant to ensure no one loses access to software they’ve already purchased,” Christ said.

Should this be a subscription?

There’s also the question of whether it makes sense to subscribe to a disk space analyzer, especially when there are free alternatives like WinDirStat.

Christ admitted that the change has been “frustrating for some customers.” When asked about online requests for refunds, Christ said, “since our customers do receive what was agreed, namely indefinite use of the software version they purchased, we don’t consider a refund to be warranted…”

A free version of TreeSize exists, but it lacks some features, including the ability to search for duplicate files, deduplicate redundant files, and compare disk space usage over time. It is not for business use.

TreeSize’s evolution illustrates the growing subscription economy, particularly the software industry’s fixation on recurring revenue. Over the past decade, software vendors have increasingly shifted to subscriptions in pursuit of more predictable revenue streams.

In TreeSize’s case, JAM Software wanted to “continue offering our customers a relevant, well-maintained product over the long term,” Christ said.

“The broader economic environment is more challenging today than it was a few years ago, and we feel that too as a software vendor,” he added. “To continue meeting our own standards and our responsibility to business customers who rely on high-quality software, we are placing greater emphasis on predictability in development and support. A subscription model gives us that predictability in a way one-time purchases do not.”