Where to find software lifetime deals before launch

A software lifetime deal is one payment for lifetime access instead of a subscription. Most are sold after a product launches. To get them earlier, and usually cheaper, you have to back founders before launch.

Where lifetime deals are sold

• Lifetime-deal marketplaces such as AppSumo and StackSocial: large catalogs, mostly launched products.
• Founders' own sites: some offer a founding or lifetime plan before or around launch, usually announced to their waitlist or followers.
• Launch sites such as Product Hunt: launch-day offers, sometimes lifetime.
• Day Zero: one hand-picked pre-launch drop each Thursday, open for a week, plus a resale market for seats other backers haven't redeemed.

What's different about pre-launch deals

You back software months before it's finished, often while it's still a prototype. You get in early, at a founding price, and you can help shape the product. The trade-off is risk: plans change, and some products don't ship. Read are pre-launch lifetime deals safe? before you back one.

How Day Zero handles that risk

• Founders verify their identity with a government ID and a selfie before seats go on sale, and every listing is reviewed by hand.
• Campaigns are all or nothing. When you pledge, your card is saved, not charged.
• You're charged only when the founder opens access, so you pay once you can use the product.
• If access isn't open 90 days after the campaign ends, the campaign is cancelled and you're never charged.
• You can cancel a pledge until you're charged, except in the campaign's last 24 hours if that would drop it below its goal.
• Founders who go silent or commit fraud go on the public ban list.

What a founding backer gets

A numbered founding seat, a First Backer badge on your public portfolio, and a say in the product through the campaign's public discussion. Until you redeem a seat, you can resell it at any price.