Hey @karenlawr,
Thanks for reaching out to us! There is indeed a yearly renewal system for licenses – one license is “valid” for 12 months from the day of purchase, so during that time you get support access, automatic plugin updates, etc.
Renewing is optional and usually comes with a 30% discount off the original list price. Our prices did raise in general though, since last year, so this discount may not seem like it’s applied but that’s just because of the price increase itself.
As for “new options”, we’ve indeed added two new license types, both by popular demand: one is an “Unlimited” license, granting you install/update/support privileges on an unlimited number of non-multisite WordPress sites. The other new one is a “Multisite” license, so if you have a Multisite network of more than 10 sites, you can buy that and license the whole network and save some money instead of buying something like the aforementioned “Unlimited” license.
I hope this information all helps – let me know if it does or if you have any further questions, concerns, etc.
Cheers!
George