How we verify

One source, and it is the vendor

Every row is checked on the vendor's own page that shows the fact being claimed — a pricing page for a price, a download or licence page for a licence. Not a review site, not a comparison article, not a press release. Those are where "buy once" claims go stale without anyone noticing.

What earns a pass

Every feature on the product's own feature page has to keep working indefinitely after the one-time payment. Optional cloud storage and optional add-ons may be sold as subscriptions. The core application may not.

What earns a rejection — and rejections are published

• The "one-time" price buys a fixed-term licence rather than a perpetual one.
• A feature listed on the product's own feature page is subscription-gated — sync, catalog, export, the updates needed to stay compatible with your operating system, or any other.
• The one-time price exists only as an introductory or limited offer.
• The vendor sells no perpetual licence at any price — every tier it offers is a subscription.

Rejected products stay on the page with the reason named. A directory that only shows what passed gives you no way to tell thorough from lazy.

Every row carries its own date

Pricing changes without warning, so a site-wide "last updated" badge is worthless. Each row shows the day it was last checked, and any row older than 180 days blocks the site from publishing until it is checked again.

No paid listings

There is no submission fee and no way to buy a place in a table. Where a "Buy" link earns us a commission, the vendor pays it and your price is unchanged; a commission never decides whether a product is listed, and it never changes a verdict.