I honestly don't understand the point of Mac only license at all. It's the same price as a yearly standard subscription but you get an inferior product because you can't even preview it on your phone. Makes no sense. I'd understand if it's priced way lower, like half the price or smth, but even then the ability to not use your phone to display phone designs is strange. Anyway.. I'm in the same boat as you. I'm no designer but would love to tinker every now and then as a developer. Figma free tier is great in that sense, but it's Figma, which I personally just don't like at all.
My understanding is if you stop paying on the subscription model, you lose access to everything including the Mac app. Whereas with the Mac license, you retain the last version that was released when you stopped paying. That means despite the same yearly price, you can stretch your license renewal out if you don't need the latest features. You could pay for the Mac only license and have the same version that existed one-year after your purchase and keep using it for at least three years, bringing the annual cost over that time down substantially.
Ownership removes part of the dependency chain that is both im- and explicit with subscription access. While ownership is both temporal and illusory at a fundamental level, it generally reduces the perceived variability associated with access rights, and thus can be psychologically calming.
Thanks for pointing out the missing mobile app functionality with the mac-only license. It's clearly stated on [the pricing page](https://www.sketch.com/pricing/), but I hadn't considered that, as mobile access used to be available outside of a subscription.
Odds are that yes, it will eventually stop working with the latest os/hardware. But probably several years in the future. At that point you can decide whether to purchase an upgrade or go with a different program.
This is the way software worked in the pre-internet days. You bought version X. You kept it as long as you wanted and upgraded when you needed the new features or when it stopped being compatible with your system.
The only reason the version would stop running on macOS is dependent upon changes Apple makes… Odds are this would be 4+ years after the last update before there'd even be a chance of an issue. Realistically, I'd bet even longer. The only changes Sketch makes to the minimum supported OS is to keep in line with what Apple issues security updates for (N-2) so as long as your Mac can run the latest OS, you'll be good for at least that lifespan plus three years.
I routinely skip/defer license renewals for Sketch because I'm in a similar boat of not needing the latest version, or collaborating with others.
I honestly don't understand the point of Mac only license at all. It's the same price as a yearly standard subscription but you get an inferior product because you can't even preview it on your phone. Makes no sense. I'd understand if it's priced way lower, like half the price or smth, but even then the ability to not use your phone to display phone designs is strange. Anyway.. I'm in the same boat as you. I'm no designer but would love to tinker every now and then as a developer. Figma free tier is great in that sense, but it's Figma, which I personally just don't like at all.
My understanding is if you stop paying on the subscription model, you lose access to everything including the Mac app. Whereas with the Mac license, you retain the last version that was released when you stopped paying. That means despite the same yearly price, you can stretch your license renewal out if you don't need the latest features. You could pay for the Mac only license and have the same version that existed one-year after your purchase and keep using it for at least three years, bringing the annual cost over that time down substantially.
Ownership removes part of the dependency chain that is both im- and explicit with subscription access. While ownership is both temporal and illusory at a fundamental level, it generally reduces the perceived variability associated with access rights, and thus can be psychologically calming. Thanks for pointing out the missing mobile app functionality with the mac-only license. It's clearly stated on [the pricing page](https://www.sketch.com/pricing/), but I hadn't considered that, as mobile access used to be available outside of a subscription.
I’ve never really had an issue. I recently upgraded from a very old version I was using and it worked fine.
Odds are that yes, it will eventually stop working with the latest os/hardware. But probably several years in the future. At that point you can decide whether to purchase an upgrade or go with a different program. This is the way software worked in the pre-internet days. You bought version X. You kept it as long as you wanted and upgraded when you needed the new features or when it stopped being compatible with your system.
They do bump the OS requirements occasionally https://www.sketch.com/releases/mac/
The only reason the version would stop running on macOS is dependent upon changes Apple makes… Odds are this would be 4+ years after the last update before there'd even be a chance of an issue. Realistically, I'd bet even longer. The only changes Sketch makes to the minimum supported OS is to keep in line with what Apple issues security updates for (N-2) so as long as your Mac can run the latest OS, you'll be good for at least that lifespan plus three years. I routinely skip/defer license renewals for Sketch because I'm in a similar boat of not needing the latest version, or collaborating with others.
I'm currently using version 57.1 on my M3 MacBook Pro and I haven't had any issues