May 2016 Update: Unity did end up announcing a subscription-only model (although it will be possible to buy a version outright as well). My numbers were a little off but Unity did add a middle tier. There is quite an uproar over the inflation of the pro cost and the inclusion of the Unity splash screen in the lowest paid tier. But I do think for most small teams, they simply don’t need the extra features. Compare the current free edition with the one from 5 or 6 years ago. There is great value in even the base version.

It’s now cheaper to subscribe, rather than buy a full priced copy of Unity 5 Pro. Same goes for any of platform licenses such as Android or iOS.

A subscription to Unity Pro costs $75/month. A Unity Pro iOS or Android add-on costs $75/month/add-on.

Running the numbers, it’s clearly cheaper to go subscription at this point.

• Feb 2016 – March 2016 Unity Subscription Cost: $900
• Perpetual License cost as of Feb 2016: $1500
• Math Wins. A fresh team ramping up right now should save $600 by Subscribing.

This has surely already been noted elsewhere, but Unity’s store page has listed March 2017 as the drop dead date for support of perpetual licenses.

This could mean Unity 6 will launch and wipe the old perpetual licenses, or it could mean Unity is going subscription only.

Check this out. It’s the slightly hidden Perpetual License Page:

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a subscription-only Unity soon. But I really wouldn’t mind if Unity adopted a similar Rent-to-Own model like Allegorithmic’s Substance Indie. Maybe Unity can bring back an indie-centric SKU which is around $300, for $20/month?

Perhaps something like this:

• Unity Personal: $0
• Unity “Indie”: $20/month for 18 months, then it becomes perpetual
• Unity Pro: $75/month

The key would be offering something like Team License or Cloud Build (which are currently Pro only). What do you think?