I wrote about this back in 2014, but I thought it deserved another mention. There’s a clear upside to long-term premium accounts: they are cheaper on a per-month basis. Usually much cheaper. Lifetime accounts are even more obvious. In terms of multihoster / debrid services, as well as premium accounts from filehosting sites themselves that tend to run $12 USD /month on average, getting that rate down to $5 USD per month or less can make a lot of sense.

To get this out of the way: if $100-$300 isn’t a lot of money to you, then the warnings laid out in this post are less important. However, I do know that to the majority of readers here, and myself included, it would be disappointing, at least, to lose or waste $100 or more. So, this is especially important if you’re in that group.

Why you should be cautious with lifetime accounts

The biggest problem with lifetime accounts (or even 1-3 year accounts) offered through multihoster / debrid services is that these services cost a lot of money to run properly, each and every month. Multihoster services don’t just need to pay for servers, technicians, programmers and support staff: they also have to continually purchase premium accounts from the filehosting sites they purport to support. It takes even more money if the company wants to expand their service or improve it.

It’s not the fact that any service offers lifetime accounts that is the problem. It’s when lifetime or long-term accounts become the mainstay of their offer. If companies have too much one-time revenue and not enough monthly revenue, with high ongoing monthly operating costs, it is going to cause problems for the longevity of that company. Services will start to suffer and eventually, almost inevitably, the company will shut down or simply disappear from the internet altogether.

I’ve been purchasing web hosting accounts and then VPSs since 2002. Having used scores of hosting companies since, I can almost predict that a particular web-hosting company will have future trouble based on how they price their services. I’ve been using multihoster services since 2011, and unfortunately I’ve started seeing a similar pattern. In order to provide a service that has high monthly costs, you need to have a continually high monthly revenue. For a company, one-time large payments are nice, but they do nothing to help maintain or grow a business when those larger payments aren’t coming in as often and your monthly revenue is even lower due to a bunch of members having lifetime or long-term accounts.

Bottom line: if a multihoster service doesn’t have external funding to support them while relying too much on one-time payments, that’s a recipe for disaster in the future.

When it’s “safe” to buy long-term or lifetime accounts

All of this isn’t to say you should avoid purchasing lifetime or longer-term premium accounts. First and foremost, if you have a large disposable income: then it actually makes a lot of sense to buy lifetime or 1-3 year premium accounts. At least once you’ve built some trust in a company. Therein is the key, though: trust in the company.

I’ve never been a fan of paying for a year or more worth of services in advance. Even with companies I trust it’s difficult for me to prepay for a year in advance, though pricing is often the tipping point. For instance, I’ve been using SSD Nodes for hosting since 2016 for a few of my servers. Last year I finally opted to move to yearly with bigger servers, but also got a $40/month server for $5.50/month in a special offer. I grabbed another yearly server recently, though the pricing wasn’t quite as good. Point being: I only purchased these long-term services once I trusted the company because of our history. I still can’t purchase 2+ year hosting at this point, and I would never trust lifetime hosting for any price. That’s just me, though.

I feel the same way about LinkSnappy, though I don’t purchase a 6-month account due to my sporadic use due to work and life. I’m only guessing, but likely the reason why LinkSnappy doesn’t offer lifetime accounts or even yearly accounts is for the reasons I outlined above: it’s not sustainable to have a bunch of people using your service without the revenue necessary to run and grow the business. Lifetime accounts, if too heavily purchased by members, rob a company of the ability to do that.

To buy or not buy lifetime premium

I’m not here to talk anyone out of buying a long-term or lifetime premium account. What I am trying to do, however, is suggest that you test a service out first before you buy a year or more. Or even 6 months-worth of services. If possible, give it 30 days. Maybe try it again before spending a big chunk of cash. See if a service meets your needs and if it works as you expect. Multihosters, premimum filehosters, web hosting — whatever digital service it is. People can have vastly different experiences using the exact same service, even at the same time. So, if you need to be cautious with your spending, especially, don’t just take my word for something or someone else’s word, see how a service works for you, personally, before you spend a big chunk of money on it.

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