Hi Tekwych (cool name, btw) - while I can't speak to the speeds of various browsers and such, I can speak for your data. We will never hold it hostage! You will always be able to see your content, regardless of whether or not you pay for a subscription, you just wouldn't be able to level up your characters. But that data is YOURS.

As for the company going out of business, we were established more than 20 years ago, and have been growing strong ever since. We continue to add content and services as we grow and we have plans to be around for a very long time to come.

Thanks for the comment!

As LJ said, you don't lose access to your content only the ability to level characters.

This is a good thing, one interface for all devices, right now they have three code GUI code bases for the three supported platforms, they moved it to just one. Easier to maintain. Also the CSS and HTML differences are usually handled by whatever tools are being used, i.e React, etc.
I think this is related to the server issues and not bandwidth on the device, the bandwidth they claimed was somehing like 100-200kB an hour even the slowest internet can handle that.
This is a cycle you can't get away from really. Look at them recently porting to HLC to 64bits, things change and need to be upgraded.
Not really, don't need high speed for this, 100-200kb/hr not an issue for low speed bandwidth, plus I doubt your figure is accurate according to the FCC:
As of year-end 2016, 92.3% of all Americans have access to fixed terrestrial broadband at speeds of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, up from 89.4% in 2014 and 81.2% in 2012.
LJ answered this, but I'll give you a tin foil hat for effort.

Interesting discussion of service versus product. Service is a distribution of products but in itself is consider a product. It all comes down to semantics if you consider something a service.

True working as a JS developer, cross browser support is just freaking wonderful at times and yes updates to browser can break functionality but a real developer has access to canary builds of the browser to test with. Also most cross browser problems have well distributed polyfills that solve them already and if you stay with basic HTML 5 specs you can make a web application that runs very consistently and as bug free as any desktop application.

So for me whether a subscription based service has any value is in what it provides for its payment options. I will probably not use HLO because to me the subscription model seems broken. What do I mean by that? Netflix I pay a single price for and receive the ability to view movies. I don't have to pay more (price increases in services beyond my simple scope here) when they add new products or videos. Therefore there is value in my continued subscription in that I get new things to watch or do.

HLO seems to want you to pay for each product and license. So if I order SR6 but want to also add Pathfinder, I have to pay again above and beyond the subscription price. So my subscription price only has the value for updates to the web app and simple core rules updates. I assume that even new source books like in classic require more additional payments above and beyond the subscription price. This just does not add up to value for me considering what I am seeing as the subscription price of $35... (maybe that is just the up front price for the products plus subscriptions and the actual subscription price is lower which may change my opinion some). If Netflix charged me $15 a month and $10 every month to add new movies, I would not pay the $25 and definitely would not pay the $15 to just keep access to old movies.

The other issue I have with online is that where I play, we don't have access to reliable WIFI. So I cannot use the product during actual play so any features based around that would be of limited value to me. I would assume I can print a character sheet (or save it to PDF) to play off line so that would not be the worst deal breaker... but local applications like Chummer allowed me to update and work with my character as I was playing... It would be cool if they could create a react native port of the online services to handle gameplay features offline on a tablet from a character generated online and saved to say an iPad... much like they did for Pathfinder (loved that iPad app which is one of the reasons I loved supporting them with the classic app when I was playing pathfinder).

I'd happily pay $25/year if 6 edition could be on classic.

The subscription price for HLO is ~$2 a month. Not bank breaking and it's to pay to keep the servers up. I highly doubt that it is intended to be a profit center. They also need to pay Paizo the licensing fee for each item sold too.

It sounds like from other posts that LWD is looking at providing a subscription that gives you access to content, without paying for each item. Though this I am sure will be more in line with netflix pricing.

Any way people can get beta access to the Shadowrun chargen for Hero Lab Online? Already paid for Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder, would love to provide feedback on the Shadowrun implementation.

I second this. I've been part of the Beta of PF2 and provide bug reports for HLC and HLO whenever I find them.

Howdy folks! We are currently working on SR6 for HLO but have no info on a beta at this time. Thanks for the interest!

For me personally, I'd much rather have Shadowrun 6e in Classic. I'm a true RPG nerd, I make characters for fun even when I don't have a game... That said I've only made what 5 characters for Pathfinder 2. Why? Because Herolab Online is slow and overly finicky. I want to *love* Herolab Online, but it needs some design love. I'm afraid Shadowrun will really highlight the problems with the Online environment. If Pathfinder is slow will Shadowrun (arguably a much more complex system) lock it up all together? Good luck guys, I hope you prove me wrong...