I’ve been a Topaz customer for years … long enough to remember when this company was the last little island of sanity in an industry drowning in forced subscriptions. Back then, you weren’t just selling AI tools. You were selling relief. A perpetual license with optional paid upgrades wasn’t just a structure … it was an ethos. A handshake. A promise that Topaz respected creative professionals enough to let us own our tools the same way we own our cameras, computers, and creative freedom.
And for that, Topaz wasn’t just liked.
You were loved.
People recommended Topaz because it was the rare company that didn’t treat its customers like annuities with credit cards attached.
Then this “transition” happened. My thoughts are as follows….
1. You took the one thing everyone admired you for and threw it into a woodchipper.
Your perpetual-plus-upgrade model was the reason most of us joined your ecosystem in the first place. Nobody sat around thinking, “Gee, I hope this company eventually forces me into a subscription.” Not one person in the history of software has ever hoped for that.
Your loyal customers were standing under a warm shower of goodwill…
…and someone upstairs flushed the corporate toilet.
2. The “Founding Customer” deal doesn’t feel like gratitude. It feels like a Groupon with homework.
At first glance, it looks generous.
Then you read the conditions.
Maintain multiple active upgrade plans. Don’t lapse. Stay eligible. Don’t blink. Don’t die. Don’t expect the terms to survive the next fiscal quarter.
If this is a “thank you,” it’s an oddly conditional one.
It’s the corporate equivalent of:
“You’re special to us…
as long as you keep paying exactly the way we want, indefinitely.”
No wonder users started calling it “Founding Customer… for now.”
3. We are fully aware of the world we live in … and this move put Topaz on the wrong side of it.
We’re entering a digital era defined by one bleak principle:
“You will own nothing, and you will rent everything.”
Everywhere we look - from media to software (also property and home ownership), companies are clawing ownership away from users and replacing it with recurring revenue streams dressed up as “ecosystems.”
Topaz was one of the rare exceptions.
You felt like the company standing in the doorway saying:
“Not here.
Not us.
We still believe in letting customers own what they buy.”
Then one day, you handed over your soul to the same model everyone else is racing toward.
And you did it to the customers who trusted you because you weren’t like everyone else.
That’s the part that stings the most.
Not the subscription.
The surrender.
4. The community’s reaction hasn’t softened. It has solidified.
I’ve spent time reading this forum, Reddit, Discord… anywhere Topaz users gather. The tone isn’t confused. It isn’t mixed. It’s volcanic.
Common themes:
- Broken trust
- Bait-and-switch sentiment
- Loyalty dissolving into resentment
- People committing to stick with legacy versions until they die, and then abandoning Topaz entirely
- Disappointment from people who loved this company
The hard truth is this:
- You didn’t lose customers because you introduced subscriptions.
- You lost them because you were the last non-subscription holdout…
and then you folded anyway.
5. “Your perpetual licenses are yours forever” is technically true… in the same way a VHS tape is “yours forever.”
Sure … you own it.
But once OS updates, GPU changes, and compatibility creep sets in, “yours forever” turns into “yours until nature takes its course.”
A perpetual license becomes a museum piece.
Not a tool.
6. This didn’t have to play out like this.
If Topaz had been upfront, given long runway, respected the spirit of the original licenses, or offered a transition that actually felt like gratitude instead of conditions… the community wouldn’t be reacting like this.
People didn’t love Topaz because of the AI models.
They loved you for your values.
And values betrayed are nearly impossible to win back.
7. Here’s where I stand.
I’ll keep using the versions I paid for as long as they run…
But I won’t pretend trust is still intact.
Topaz traded a fiercely loyal customer base for predictable revenue.
And you broke the covenant that made this company special.
The tragedy is simple:
You used to be the good guys.
If you want to repair that, it’s going to take far more than a conditional “Founding Customer” discount. It’s going to require proving … in actions, not announcements … that you still understand why people loved you in the first place.
I wholeheartedly expect this post to fall on deaf ears and get shoved to the bottom of the stack… I took the time to write this because I needed to get it off my chest. Because Topaz the company used to matter to me as much as I did to them.
R.I.P.
