What is the lifetime-deal mortality rate?

A true mortality rate would need the total number of deals ever sold as a denominator, which no public dataset provides — so we don't publish one. Of 89 community-verified failures, 81% were outright shutdowns, 12% were lifetime deals revoked or downgraded by companies still in business, and 2% ended gracefully with the code open-sourced.

Why are most of the failures AppSumo deals?

Because AppSumo is by far the largest lifetime-deal marketplace and where the contributing community buys most, so it dominates any failure list by volume. The counts say nothing about relative risk per marketplace.

Can I cite or republish these numbers?

Yes — please do. Cite it as "DealKeep LTD Mortality Report, Q3 2026" with a link to https://www.dealkeep.io/ltd-mortality-report. For a custom cut of the data, email support@dealkeep.io.

How often is this report updated?

Quarterly. This page recomputes from a curated snapshot each quarter (current snapshot: 2026-07-01); the live list of every tracked tool is on the Lifetime Deal Graveyard page.

The LTD Mortality Report (Q3 2026)

Name: LTD Mortality Report (Q3 2026) — verified lifetime-deal failure statistics
Creator: DealKeep

What actually happens when lifetime deals fail — a quarterly data report from the DealKeep community's verified record of 89 dead, revoked, and at-risk LTD tools. Data snapshot 2026-07-01; the full per-tool list lives in the Lifetime Deal Graveyard.

Key findings

89 verified lifetime-deal failures on record — every entry buyer-contributed and moderator-approved.
81% of failures are outright shutdowns (72 of 89) — servers off, license worthless.
1 in 8 failures happens while the company is still alive: 11 tools (12%) had lifetime access revoked or quietly downgraded by an operating company — the failure mode no refund window covers.
Only 2% of failures end gracefully with the code open-sourced so buyers can self-host.

Verified failures by year

43 of the 89 entries carry a community-reported failure year; the remaining 46 were verified without a confirmed date. Later years partly reflect community growth — treat the trend as directional.

Year	Verified failures
2018	1
2019	2
2020	1
2022	6
2023	6
2024	25
2025	2

2024 is the deadliest year on record in the database: 25 of 43 dated failures (58%).

Where the failed deals were sold

Marketplace	Verified failures
AppSumo	76
SaaS Mantra	4
PitchGround	3
Private deal	3
Other	2
StackSocial	1

Marketplace counts reflect where the contributing community buys — AppSumo is by far the largest LTD marketplace, so it dominates any failure list. A high count is NOT evidence a marketplace is riskier. For refund windows and buyer terms, see the marketplace comparison.

Methodology & limitations

Source: the DealKeep community failure database behind the Lifetime Deal Graveyard — buyer-contributed, moderator-reviewed, published only when community-verified. Statuses are buyer-reported observations, not legal determinations. The data records when failures were reported, not when deals launched, so a true "dies within N years of purchase" rate cannot be computed and is not published. Snapshot generated 2026-07-01; updated quarterly.

Cite this report

These numbers are free to cite — a link back is all we ask: DealKeep LTD Mortality Report, Q3 2026. DealKeep community failure database, snapshot 2026-07-01. https://www.dealkeep.io/ltd-mortality-report

DealKeep's tracker and Founder Track watch the tools you own against this database and warn you before one goes dark.