John,
 
I would love to keep buying plugins but funds ahve become more limited these days.

I'm not a big fan of Waves , but for sure , they have a top notch support ...and ususally plugins are ok from day one .... it's one of the "solid" recommandation i make to my students .
 
The best bang for the buck i found is the Gold , you have a great price and tools ...
 
i find a lot of brands gravitate around the same stuff ...but when i need a stereo imager , denoiser ,ect ....those stuff are priceless ....and rare in other brands 
 
The real deal is the Mercury ... that' s why i went for it ...when i was hesitating between Appolo + plugins versus RME + Waves ...and i don't regret at all ...cause even with what uad offers (at a crazy prices) i would have to still buy some "tools" ... (i don't even spoke about the lack of Windows driver support of UAD at that time ....i was told it will be ok for June (time of purchase january) and it was one year and half later !
 
 

bapu
John,
 
I would love to keep buying plugins but funds ahve become more limited these days.

Word! Welcome to the 21st century.

Waves had a great sale on Friday 10/08/2015 which I took advantage of due to the price they had for the Power Pack Bundle for only $129.00.  I finally got home this morning from being out of town over the weekend and part of the sale is still going on today 10/12.  I thought about getting more plug-ins, but the 10 plug-ins I received through the Power Pack bundle will suffice for now.
 
There upgrade plan I was offered until 2017 was $28.00.  I did not accept it, but I still have time.  if I decide to upgrade to Gold for a reasonable price, then the $28.00 upgrade price would have been well worth the sacrifice.

bapu

brconflict
I think a subscription-based model for Waves would be awesome, actually. It would simplify things for them, me thinks. However, they sort of already do this with WUP and their own rental program. Those programs just lack modernization.
 
What I think they should do is offer the plug-ins like Netflix. It goes like this:
 

• You pay a minimal monthly fee for all the plug-ins. $14.99/mo, let's say. Everyone in the industry can afford that, as it's only beaten out by free or extremely cheap plug-ins. BUT! And here's the catch.
• You can only "check-out" a finite (say, 10) different plug-ins you need for any session. A simple, online or Waves Licensing Center change, one sync and you're set. When you're done, check them back in. You would "install" all of them as you can now, so there's no downloads necessary unless you upgrade them. 
• If you want to add to the number of checked-out plugins, you can up your plan (or lower your plan if you want fewer). Each additional 10 plug-ins would cost $9.99/mo on top of your basic plan.  That's about $1 per plug-in. "buck plugs!" That sounds bad...
• If you want unlimited access, you pay $99/mo. and can check out any plug-ins, anytime, and as many as you want. You can check out every single one, if you want. 
• For $299/mo. professional studios can check out all plug-ins and share them inside their own license checker software, supplied by Waves. This allows the studio to use as much as they want and set up their own internal licensing server. With that said, it will only allow 5 users to check-out specific plug-ins at a time.
• No WUP, no cumbersome and expensive rental process
• Free upgrades
• Stop/start/pause your plan when you need to
• Tech-support, always 

You pay nothing until your WUP runs out. Once your WUP runs out, you can choose to subscribe to a 75% discount (hypothetical) for $3.75/mo. for a prescribed length of time, then it goes up. Perhaps, 10 years? The idea is that if you bought Mercury, and found one day you only use 10 plug-ins, you're not out the $7K or whatever you paid for it plus WUP and WUP renewals. You'd essentially get WUP for 10 years at a monthly rate of $3.75/mo. and who can't afford that? If you bought Mercury, you'd already have unlimited access and unlimited check-outs included. That brings the $99/mo. down to $3.75/mo. since you've already paid Waves the initial investment.  
 
Solutions can be worked in if they decided to go such a route.  

What is the incentive for the present day Mercury/SSL/Abbey Road owner? I already have all of those "checked out".