I still use the version of TextExpander before the subscription model and will continue to do so as long as it keeps working. I have no interest in paying for a subscription service on a program with such simple functionality. As others have mentioned already, there are a LOT of other solutions to text expansion these days.
I have an iMac at home, carry a MacBook Pro, and work as a developer 8+ hours a day on Windows. For interoperability, I use Breevy on Windows which shares my TextExpander shortcuts through Dropbox. Dropbox provides world class synching and I don’t need other vendors to provide this functionality. PhaseExpress also runs on Windows and can share TextExpander snippets.
I’m a developer and I don’t buy the “you should keep paying if the programs provides you value” argument. If all my software required a subscription, I could not afford to turn my devices on. That is just a model that does not scale for the end user. There is nothing wrong with paying a fair price for a useful piece of software and then continuing to use it. If the vendor can improve the software in a way that is significant for your use case, then you should pay for that upgrade. If due to operating system changes over time, the vendor has to modify their code and give you a new version to keep it operational, they you should also pay a modest cost for that upgrade. This is a bit of a gray area whether there is planned obsolescence or if the cost is modest (looking at you Paralles).
Smile as a company can’t write a simple utility like TextExpander and sit back on their laurels and expect the same people to keep paying them to keep their company lights on. As a company, they need to innovate and come up with new products that people will buy. With a lot of software, there is plenty of room for new features, but I think this utility is pretty much feature complete. Most home users don’t have a need for “team sharing”. What most software companies do is come out with an enterprise version of their software when then add features that are company based. That doesn’t prevent a home user from purchasing that version, but it doesn’t impose the ongoing cost on to the their home user base for those enterprise features.
I have written a lot of software for my employers that have saved them (and continue to save them) both time and money in their business. There is no expectation on either side that just because I’ve done that, that they will continue to pay my salary without requiring me to do any more work. It is the fact that I continue to do that in new ways that keeps me employed.
There seems to be a trend to internalize synching (at a no doubt large cost for the company) and then subscriptionize their software to generate a constant steam of income. iCloud has finally become a viable form of synching for applications and Dropbox has always been one. We don’t need a one off solution for each application.