Back to feed
Dev.to
Dev.to
7/11/2026
We Analyzed 89 Dead Lifetime Deals. 1 in 8 Died While the Company Was Still Alive.

We Analyzed 89 Dead Lifetime Deals. 1 in 8 Died While the Company Was Still Alive.

Short summary

An analysis of 89 failed lifetime deals (LTDs) from AppSumo, PitchGround, and StackSocial reveals that 81% were outright shutdowns, while 12% had licenses revoked or downgraded while the company was still operating. Only 2% open-sourced their code. 2024 was the deadliest year, accounting for 58% of dated failures. The authors recommend treating LTDs as 2–4 year investments, preferring tools with data export paths, and watching for downgrade signals.

  • •12% of dead LTDs were revoked while the company was still alive, not shutdowns
  • •81% were outright shutdowns; only 2% open-sourced code for self-hosting
  • •2024 was the deadliest year with 58% of dated failures

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.

#market-trend
Read full article at Dev.to

Is this a good recommendation for you?

Comments

Failed to load comments. Please try again.

Explore more

AI didn't kill Tailwind UI. The lifetime license did.
Dev.to
The original title is 12 words: "We Measured the Lifespan of 7,144 Software Versions. The Median Is 18 Months."
Dev.to
Analysis of 751 Pieter Levels Blog Posts: Solo Founder Revenue, Failure Rate, and Operating Model
Dev.to
What breaks when nobody touches your app for three years
Dev.to