I think I am done with paying for Suitcase Fusion upgrades. I've spent so much money on it for a software that sits in the background 95% of the time and in all honesty, doesn't do very much.

On my work machine I've just started using Apple Font Book. It's refreshingly simple and working with a limited number of fonts is making me consider the details of each typeface more and increasingly seeking indie foundries.

I have a license for RightFont. I might use that in the future.

I have owned Suitcase for just under ten months, single man shop, and they are pushing me in to a paid update. I do not have any issue with a developer getting paid but this is silly. Their corporate line is that Suitcase 7 has been out for 17 months. My response is again I have owned it for ten months, in the same calendar year. I am looking for any option but Extensis.

I too am tired of the perpetual updates to $uitcase.

Any feedback on FontAgent?

I tried FontBase but it seemed too low-featured, even in "Awesome" mode. RightFont looks promising (and better price point).

I have recently moved to Fontbase. its free for most features, and $3 a month or something for all the features. it is still in active development and i don't have any issues with it. it isn't as full featured as suitcase or fontex, but it does what i need. http://fontba.se

I am so sick of Suitcase Fusion. Its kinda nice to hear that a lot of my concerns are echoed in these comments.

Same boat here. Kinda' sick of Suitcase and their constant full paid upgrades. I just did that to get to 7, and now again to 8. And upgrade for wha?t Continued auto-activation? I'm all for paid software, but I think they're just resting on their laurels now. The app is bloated and feels dated. I've checked out some of the newer font mangers but nothing seems right.

Are we just stuck or are there some better alternatives I'm not finding?

I have lots of fonts as O do both digital and print design so my opinion is skewed a little. If you only need a handful of fonts for digital work then Apple's Font Book is probably just fine. That being said, I used Suitcase Fusion for a long time, long before FontExplorerX was even available and I hated it. There were so many issued with fonts getting corrupted, not activating, or any number of other issues. When FontExplorerX came out I jumped right in and have been happy ever since. It integrates with Typekit, SkyFonts, and give me the ability to manage fonts how I choose. Sure, it looks a little dated (it was supposed to be the iTunes of fonts) but I don't spend very much time activating/de-activating fonts to care that much. I haven't bothered seeing if I can update my auto-activation plug-ins without updating but here's why; if you use software like this for professional purposes then a yearly upgrade at ~$30-40 isn't bad at all. You should be able to tuck that into a small project and still come out ahead, even if you're a freelancer.