> I'd like to provide a cheaper option that runs locally on a person's device (say, 1$ a month vs 3$)
separately from pricing and ethics, another aspect is your expected support costs. one classic attraction of SaaS (to the service operator, not the customer) is that it avoids the higher support burden associated with supporting software deployed on machines that are controlled by your customer and outside of your control.
another licensing model is something like jetbrains perpetual fallback license -- you pay an annual or monthly subscription, if you cancel but you previously subscribed for at least 12 months you get a perpetual license to some fixed version of the software -- with minor bugfixes included but no license to use new major versions
separately from pricing and ethics, another aspect is your expected support costs. one classic attraction of SaaS (to the service operator, not the customer) is that it avoids the higher support burden associated with supporting software deployed on machines that are controlled by your customer and outside of your control.
another licensing model is something like jetbrains perpetual fallback license -- you pay an annual or monthly subscription, if you cancel but you previously subscribed for at least 12 months you get a perpetual license to some fixed version of the software -- with minor bugfixes included but no license to use new major versions
c.f. https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What...