How this dataset is built

The LTD Mortality Report and the Lifetime Deal Graveyard both run on one community-maintained database of lifetime-deal failures. This page explains what is in it, how entries get there, and what it cannot tell you.

Current snapshot 2026-07-01 · 89 verified entries · download the CSV.

What counts as a dead tool

Shut Down (72 of 89)

The product is gone. The service no longer runs, and the vendor is not offering it under any plan.

Revoked LTD (9 of 89)

The company is still trading, but the lifetime entitlement people paid for was withdrawn.

Diminished LTD (2 of 89)

The company is still trading and the lifetime plan exists, but what it includes was materially cut.

Open Source (2 of 89)

The vendor stopped operating the hosted product but released the code.

Unknown (4 of 89)

Reported as failed but we could not confirm which of the above happened. Counted in the total, excluded from any failure-mode claim.

Where the data comes from

  1. A buyer reports a tool they own as dead, revoked, or cut down.
  2. A moderator checks the claim against the vendor’s own site, status page, app, or public announcement.
  3. The entry is published only once that check passes. Reports we cannot confirm are held, not published.
  4. Statuses are re-checked when a buyer flags a change — a tool that comes back is corrected rather than deleted.

Marketplace split

  • AppSumo: 76 (85%)
  • SaaS Mantra: 4 (4%)
  • PitchGround: 3 (3%)
  • Private deal: 3 (3%)
  • Other: 2 (2%)
  • StackSocial: 1 (1%)

How often it is refreshed

The underlying database is community-maintained and grows continuously. The report recomputes from a curated snapshot each quarter, so the statistics move in steps rather than drifting daily.

What this dataset cannot tell you

There is no failure rate here, and there cannot be

A rate needs a denominator: the total number of lifetime deals ever sold. No marketplace publishes that number. This dataset measures the SHAPE of failure among verified cases, never its likelihood.

The sample skews heavily to AppSumo

AppSumo is the largest LTD marketplace and the one our users buy from most. Treat the marketplace split as a description of where our buyers shop, NOT as a comparison of which marketplaces are riskier.

Dates record when a failure was REPORTED, not when the deal launched

So "the average deal dies N years after purchase" cannot be computed from this data. Any timeline built from it is a timeline of reports.

Statuses are buyer observations, not legal determinations

A shutdown means buyers could no longer use the tool and we confirmed it. It is not a statement about the legal or financial standing of any company.

Survivorship works against us, not for us

Tools that decayed without anyone reporting them are missing, as is anything nobody in our community bought. The dataset undercounts.

Citing it

Free to cite with a link back: DealKeep LTD Mortality Report. DealKeep community failure database, snapshot 2026-07-01. https://www.dealkeep.io/ltd-mortality-report