What happened when we shared our decision to walk away from AppSumo's partnership terms
Two days ago, we published our breakdown of AppSumo's partner terms and why we decided not to launch EazySites on their platform. We shared it on Reddit's r/AppSumo community, expecting maybe a few comments from fellow founders.
We didn't expect it to blow up.
The Numbers Tell a Story
3,800+ views in 48 hours
97 comments and counting
Heated debates between users, founders, and moderators
Zero response from AppSumo themselves
But the real story isn't in the metrics—it's in what the community revealed about the current state of lifetime deal marketplaces.
The Great Divide
The responses split into three distinct camps:
Camp 1: "These Terms Are Necessary"
"We've been burned too many times by founders who take the money and run."
These users, led by voices like u/passiveobserver25, argued that AppSumo's aggressive terms evolved for good reason. They've watched too many products disappear, too many founders vanish, too many lifetime deals turn into lifetime disappointments.
Their perspective: If you can't handle these terms, you probably shouldn't be on AppSumo.
Key arguments:
IP liens make sense if founders abandon products
3x clawbacks prevent sham acquisitions designed to escape LTD obligations
120-day lock-ins separate serious founders from weekend warriors
Users need protection after years of being "screwed over"
The Counter-Argument Nobody Wants to Hear:
Yes, there are bad apples. Yes, some products genuinely fail. But here's the uncomfortable question: with AppSumo clearing $80M in 2024, are these failures driven by founder negligence, or by a system that sets founders up to fail?
When you take 60% of revenue, lock founders into 120-day commitments with no escape clause, demand rock-bottom pricing, and create unlimited support obligations—are you protecting users, or creating the conditions that break good products?
Camp 2: "These Terms Are Predatory"
"AppSumo is holding creators hostage while calling it protection."
This group, including several founders and industry veterans, saw the terms as heavily skewed toward AppSumo's benefit, not user protection.
Key concerns:
Terms discourage quality founders from participating
IP clauses may not even be legally enforceable
Real user protection would mean automatic refunds, not clawbacks
The platform has shifted from curation to volume-driven marketplace
Camp 3: "The Platform Has Changed"
"This isn't the AppSumo it used to be."
Perhaps most telling were the users who noted AppSumo's evolution from a curated platform to a self-serve marketplace flooded with AI wrappers and weekend projects.
One user put it bluntly: "If there is an app on AppSumo I consider it bad till I am proven wrong."
The Blessing in Disguise
Reading this, we realised something we hadn't considered: could launching on AppSumo actually damage our product's reputation?
If the platform's brand has shifted from "curated quality" to "assume it's crap until proven otherwise," then association with AppSumo might taint products before they even get a fair chance.
We weren't chasing quick money—we wanted beta users who would try, break, and hopefully love our product. We were prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly feedback. Yes, the revenue would be nice, but we're not naive. We know that revenue is short-term, and there's a point where every LTD user becomes a cost centre.
That was a risk we wanted to take for product validation and real-world testing, knowing that not 100% of users stay active anyway.
But there's a massive difference between:
Carrying a calculated loss for user feedback and market validation
Handing over your IP plus owing 3x what you were ever paid, while facing investor rejection because of toxic signed agreements
Any VC would laugh at those terms. They'd see them as red flags that the founders either don't understand business risk or were desperate enough to accept predatory deals.
The Most Revealing Comments
From a Moderator:
"Companies don't need to be going on AppSumo if there is any possibility at all that the licenses/users won't be supported... if the customers are dropped the founding company better be out of business."
This crystallised the all-or-nothing mentality: either you're 100% committed to supporting LTD customers forever, or you shouldn't be there at all.
From an Industry Veteran:
"AppSumo feels shady. Many of the apps don't cut it, and AppSumo doesn't focus on proper demos... I stopped looking at AppSumo because of it."
From a Fellow Founder:
"Thanks for this well thought out post... I'm completely with you on those clauses you took issue with. Furthermore to not even bother to enter any more negotiation with you is crazy."
What We Learned
1. The Trust Problem Is Real
Users have been burned. Repeatedly. Products that worked during launch mysteriously break months later. Founders who were responsive during sales go silent when support tickets pile up. Features get paywalled. Servers get shut down.
This isn't theoretical—it's lived experience for many AppSumo customers.
2. The Solution Creates New Problems
But AppSumo's response—increasingly aggressive legal terms—may be making the core problem worse, not better.
By creating terms that scare away established founders with real businesses, they're left with:
Desperate founders who'll sign anything
Weekend projects with nothing to lose
AI wrappers built to flip quickly
Products that were never meant to last
3. The Platform Identity Crisis
AppSumo is caught between two models:
The old way: Curated deals, hand-picked products, full marketing support
The new way: Self-serve marketplace, volume-driven, minimal vetting
The terms were written for the new model but applied with old-school expectations, creating a mismatch that serves no one well. They want marketplace volume with boutique-level commitments.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Several commenters pointed out something we hadn't fully considered: the terms might be working exactly as intended.
Not to protect users, but to protect AppSumo.
Think about it:
They get 60% of revenue upfront
Founders bear all ongoing costs and risks
IP liens give them fallback options if products fail
Clawbacks create additional revenue streams
Forced arbitration limits legal exposure
From a business perspective, it's brilliant. From a partnership perspective, it's extraction.
What AppSumo Could Do Better
Based on the community feedback, here are changes that would benefit everyone:
For Users:
Automatic refund system instead of complaint-based refunds (if they were really in it to help users and not just line their pockets)
Stricter vetting to prevent low-quality launches
Transparent founder accountability with public track records
Shared responsibility for product sustainability
For Founders:
Tiered clawback penalties that decrease over time
Shorter lock-in periods with pilot options
Shared revenue risk on platform-driven discounts
IP protection that doesn't require code handovers
Real legal recourse instead of forced arbitration behind closed doors
The arbitration issue isn't just about jurisdiction—it's about power imbalance. If you're failing and facing IP liens, you don't have the money to fight an $80M company in private arbitration. You're essentially forced to hand over your company.
For the Platform:
Return to curation over volume
Invest in founder success rather than just founder compliance
Transparent communication about terms and changes
Community feedback integration in policy updates
The Real Problem: Complexity by Design
For most founders, the legal jargon is overwhelming. It's too complex, scattered across multiple interlinked agreements and policies. They're sold a pipe dream and get excited about AppSumo's reach, and AppSumo has done a brilliant job building that excitement.
But at what cost to the products that make the platform a platform?
If they were serious about partnerships, they'd be there to help founders succeed, support them through challenges, not create legal traps. We really hope to see AppSumo sort this out, because they've built something valuable for both founders and users. They've created a great community.
But it's only going to get worse with low-code, no-code, "vibe coding," and AI wrappers flooding the market.
The Coming Flood
Products built in a week or month by users who have no real business understanding, who don't grasp the long-term complications these agreements create for their business, if that's even what they're in it for.
The ones building in short timeframes are looking for quick cash grabs, nothing more. This will be ongoing, and AppSumo risks a slow death as quality erodes and trust continues to break down.
The platform that once elevated great products could become the graveyard where good ideas go to die under unsustainable terms.
48 Hours Later: Our Takeaway
The response validated our decision to walk away, but not for the reasons we expected.
We thought we'd get support from fellow founders frustrated with aggressive terms. Instead, we got a masterclass in how broken trust affects entire ecosystems.
Users aren't wrong to demand protection. They've been burned too many times.
But the current "solution" isn't working. It's creating a race to the bottom where only desperate or short-term-thinking founders participate, which ultimately hurts users most of all.
What's Next
We're still launching our lifetime deal directly. Same offer, better alignment, full control.
But more importantly, we're committed to proving that fair terms and sustainable businesses can coexist. That lifetime deals don't have to mean lifetime exploitation of founders.
The community deserves better tools. Founders deserve fair terms. Platforms deserve sustainable revenue.
It's possible to build all three. It just requires platforms willing to share risk instead of just extracting value.
The Conversation Continues
The Reddit thread is still active, with new perspectives emerging daily. If you're a founder considering AppSumo, or a user frustrated with product quality, your voice matters in this discussion.
Because ultimately, this isn't about one platform or one set of terms. It's about building a creator economy that actually works for creators.
And that benefits everyone.
Want to follow our direct LTD launch? We're building in the open, with full transparency about our terms, costs, and commitments. Because that's what real partnership looks like.
Building something and considering marketplace terms? We're happy to share our research and help you evaluate the real costs. The community is stronger when we help each other navigate these decisions.