Not sure how others feel about Ergonis. I have used Popchar since it first appeared. I switched to Typinator when TextExpander decided to focus on enterprise. I bought Keycue but found no use for it. (Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, and BetterTouchTool are my gotos.) Recently, Ergonis updated Typinator and Popchar. Neither add gamechanging new features. They are now on a subscription plan at $50/year which sorta would be a stretch for me, but their business practices simply turn me off. For example, they will allow me to convert one of my (what they are now calling ‘perpetual’) licenses for a discount but not the others. The website is deliberately misleading that the discounted price seems knocked down from $50 to $25, but that’s for the first year. My email exchanges with Thomas at Ergonis seem smarmy. I’d like to reserve my support for the solid community: HogBay, Eastgate, Barebones, Nova, Mellel… folks that I admire. Happy to have my mind changed.
I bought Typinator 9, and was offered a free upgrade to 10. Only after upgrading did I find out that 10 implies a paid-for subscription, which I didn’t want. Downgrading to 9 was a hassle, but Thomas from support (possibly the same one you corresponded with) sent me detailed instructions, which ultimately proved successful. So the support was good, even though I was miffed that they weren’t clear on the switch from one-time buy to yearly subscription.
I have several Ergnis apps and like them. To me Typinator is well worth the money at any time. I’ve not had any problems with their support nor the quality of the product. Use it every day multiple times a day.
My understanding is that, at least with Typinator, the subscription is only for those looking to use it on their iPhone or iPad as well, otherwise it’s a one-time licence purchase for just Mac usage. That’s what I did.
I’ve not looked closely at what the situation is with PopChar, as I no longer use it. I saw the announcement of the new version, but didn’t see anything to make me want to spring for an upgrade licence.
