YouWorkForThem has been licensing WebFonts for a one-time fee since 2011. However, we regularly encounter the misconception that we charge a monthly subscription fee. This has never been the case. Pay once, play forever. That’s why brands like T-Mobile, Valve Software, Whole Foods and West Elm come to us for their WebFonts, because they know that one-time fees make the most sense.
We’ve weighed the pros and cons of both models:
YouWorkForThem (one-time fee)
With our one-time fee method, you pay once and receive everything you need. We provide you with two kits (“lite” and “full”), which you can choose from depending on your compression and throughput requirements. Both kits include woff2, woff, ttf, eot, svg, css and an example specimen file. Upload these to your server/project, place one line of code in your header, and start defining values in your css. That’s it, pay once, play forever. If your page views should increase beyond your purchased license, simply visit the manage license area of your account and purchase the upgrade.
| YouWorkForThem Pros | YouWorkForThem Cons |
|---|---|
| Pay one affordable fee and you own the license forever. | Services like Tumblr requires working with a CDN. |
| and font tech as WebFont formatting continually evolves." | Basic HTML programing skills needed add CSS |
| Larger collection of over 30,000 WebFonts to choose from. | |
| Easy licensing, with an honor system that allows you to upgrade your page view count as need, to match your traffic. | |
| Controlled by css, with no tracking or stalking by Javascript code that phones home. | |
| You host the files yourself, with complete control. |
Competitors (subscription fees)
Subscription-based webfonts differ from our self-hosted method, in that the service hosts the font files for you. You pay a monthly fee, and are provided access to a select library of fonts, that you can use in your site design. Once you select the font you would like to use, you are given a snippet of code (typically JavaScript) that you will place in the header of your project. You can then define the font you would like to use in your CSS values (same as if you self hosted the files), but you must pay monthly (forever).
| Competitors Pros | Competitors Cons |
|---|---|
| Monthly fee lower, but only until a few months elapse. | Licenses controlled by large, public corporation, many more limitations and restrictions. |
| Easy code, works best with limited web services like Tumblr. | If you cancel your subscription, you have nothing to show for your money spent (you do not have the files). |
| Typically uses Javascript to load fonts, not as clean as YWFT css method, and “phones home” to track your use and website users use. | |
| If the subscription network goes down, so will the fonts on your site, and you have no control over fixing. | |
| You are locked into the “walled garden” of the subscription software world. | |
| Rates will very likely increase over time. | |
| Small font library. | |
| Basic HTML programing skills needed customize CSS |
It’s clear that a one-time fee gives the most flexibility, since it allows for you to have files that you can host yourself, with the code you want to use.
And while it might be true that subscriptions are suited for web-based services like Tumblr, brands like T-Mobile, Valve Software, Whole Foods and West Elm want to have control over their custom content, and not pay outrageous subscription fees every month, forever.
Keep it simple: pay once, and you get the files to host as you choose. No more fees, ever, and updates provided free of charge.
We currently offer over 30,000 font designs in WebFont format. Start browsing today!
