First - I generally don't have a problem with subscription software, depending on the implementation and the "proof of consistent updates", I think it can make a lot of sense. So I have a few observations and concerns on the Xara version of this:

1. I use Cakewalk Sonar for music production. They have had a monthly and yearly upgrade subscription. The way that it worked was that when you got the updates for "that year" whether you got it via monthly or an all-at-once payment, you retained the features released during the year you installed.

The Xara method states that when you re-install after your "subscription", you go back to the originally released features. This is potentially a problem as the appeal of the subscription is that you get updates during the year that it seems like should be retained to me. Not a fan of this, especially with as often as I replace hardware and could potentially skip a year of updates.

2. There is not currently a track-record of updates to go on. I have no idea what is coming down the pike for the year or what surprises there might be. Based on the fact that the new version of Designer has Zero updates to the X11 version that are Designer specific, my expectation is that the updates during the year will only be those that Web Designer and Graphic Designer get. Not terribly compelling, especially considering that many of the new features after a year of development are kind of underwhelming to me anyway - I don't have a huge amount of hope that the new features introduced in the coming months will be more attractive.

3. The flip side to #2 is that I see that there are July 2016 updates on the Web Designer product but that those are not yet listed on the Designer Pro page for X365. Is it safe to assume that the Web Designer and Graphic Designer features will come out to the Designer Pro line? At the same time?

Your thoughts on these items are important to my upgrade or don't question.