Why online

A collection outlives the software you bought for it.

The alternative most collectors weigh us against is a program you buy once: it arrives on a disc or a download, keeps everything in a single file on one PC, and sells you a catalog update most years and a new version every two or three.

It looks cheaper. Counted over the years you'll actually be collecting, it isn't — and the software stops learning the day it ships, while your collection carries on growing.

Side by side

The same collection, two ways

Nothing below is a jab at desktop software — it's what a program with no connection is structurally unable to do.

Aspect	A program you buy once	MyHobbies
What you pay	Buy once — then a paid catalog update most years, and a paid major version every two or three.	One yearly subscription, a fraction of the one-time price. Every update, every catalog refresh, every new feature included.
Catalog data	Fixed at the version you own. New issues arrive yearly at best — for many programs, never.	New issues, images, varieties and provider numbers added continuously.
When something's wrong	A wrong date or misattributed variety stays wrong until the next paid update.	Corrected once, centrally. Everyone's data quietly improves.
Software updates	You hunt for patches and install them. Real fixes wait for the next version.	Improvements arrive on their own. Nothing to download, nothing to install.
Where it runs	One Windows PC. Mac, iPad, Android and Linux collectors are simply excluded.	Any device with a browser — and it survives every OS upgrade.
At a stamp fair	At home, on the desk, no help to you at the dealer's table.	In your pocket. Check “do I already have this?” before you buy — the moment that pays for the subscription.
If the disk dies	Decades of cataloguing gone, unless you remembered to keep your own backups.	Continuously backed up. Sign in from any machine and it's all there.
New computer	Reinstall, find the licence key, migrate the data file, hope it opens.	Log in.
Your data's future	One proprietary file. Skip two versions or outlive the vendor and nothing can read it.	Full export in an open format, whenever you want it. Nothing is locked in.
Other collectors	None. It's a filing cabinet.	A forum, a shareable showcase, wants-list matching against other collections, and help identifying what you can't place.

What you pay
A program you buy once
Buy once — then a paid catalog update most years, and a paid major version every two or three.
MyHobbies
One yearly subscription, a fraction of the one-time price. Every update, every catalog refresh, every new feature included.
Catalog data
A program you buy once
Fixed at the version you own. New issues arrive yearly at best — for many programs, never.
MyHobbies
New issues, images, varieties and provider numbers added continuously.
When something's wrong
A program you buy once
A wrong date or misattributed variety stays wrong until the next paid update.
MyHobbies
Corrected once, centrally. Everyone's data quietly improves.
Software updates
A program you buy once
You hunt for patches and install them. Real fixes wait for the next version.
MyHobbies
Improvements arrive on their own. Nothing to download, nothing to install.
Where it runs
A program you buy once
One Windows PC. Mac, iPad, Android and Linux collectors are simply excluded.
MyHobbies
Any device with a browser — and it survives every OS upgrade.
At a stamp fair
A program you buy once
At home, on the desk, no help to you at the dealer's table.
MyHobbies
In your pocket. Check “do I already have this?” before you buy — the moment that pays for the subscription.
If the disk dies
A program you buy once
Decades of cataloguing gone, unless you remembered to keep your own backups.
MyHobbies
Continuously backed up. Sign in from any machine and it's all there.
New computer
A program you buy once
Reinstall, find the licence key, migrate the data file, hope it opens.
MyHobbies
Log in.
Your data's future
A program you buy once
One proprietary file. Skip two versions or outlive the vendor and nothing can read it.
MyHobbies
Full export in an open format, whenever you want it. Nothing is locked in.
Other collectors
A program you buy once
None. It's a filing cabinet.
MyHobbies
A forum, a shareable showcase, wants-list matching against other collections, and help identifying what you can't place.

In full

Seven things that change when the catalog is online

Your collection outlives your computer

The part collectors think about last and regret first.

Nothing is riding on one hard drive: Disk failure, a stolen laptop, ransomware, a spilled cup of tea — on desktop, any one of them ends the collection. Here the backup is continuous and you never have to think about it.
No file that stops opening: Desktop programs store everything in a format only that program reads. When the vendor closes or you skip a version, the file becomes a souvenir. Yours stays readable and exportable.
A new machine is a login, not a migration: No reinstall, no licence key to find, no data file to move, no “this licence is registered to another computer”.
It can be handed on: A serious collection is an asset. Family or an executor can be given access — rather than an encrypted laptop and a password nobody knows.

It's with you where collecting happens

Fairs, dealers, club evenings, auctions — none of which take place at your desk.

Your whole collection, in your pocket: Standing at a dealer's table you can check whether you already own it before you pay. Desktop software cannot help you in the one moment that costs real money.
Your phone is the scanner: Photograph and record an item the moment it's yours, instead of building a shoebox of things to enter later.
Mac, iPad, Android, Chromebook, Linux: Most legacy philately software is Windows-only. Nothing here cares what you own, and an OS upgrade will never take it away.
Every device shows the same collection: Record it at the desk, review it on the sofa, show it on your phone. No exporting, no importing, no “which copy is current?”.

The catalog keeps up

A catalog is only as good as its last update — and on desktop, that was a while ago.

New issues as they're issued: Not once a year on a disc, and not two versions from now.
Images included, and improving: High-resolution imagery added and re-shot over time, without gigabytes sitting on your disk.
Cross-catalog numbers kept in step: Local numbering alongside the provider catalogues collectors actually quote — maintained centrally, which an offline product effectively cannot do.
Values that move: A printed catalogue is stale the day it ships. Tracking values over time shows a trend, not one frozen number.
It gets better as more collectors join: Varieties, errors and gaps surfaced by the community feed back into the catalog. A desktop app's data is only ever as good as one vendor's staff.

The honest cost comparison

Do the sum over the years you'll actually be collecting, not over the box price.

The one-time price is rarely one-time: Add the yearly catalog update and the paid major version every two or three years, and the “buy it once” program quietly becomes a subscription — an expensive one, billed less predictably.
Nothing to risk upfront: Start free, and try it against your real collection before you pay anything. A boxed purchase is a bet placed before you've seen the software work.
Leave whenever you like: Your downside is one billing period, not the full purchase price — and your data comes with you.
Storage and hardware aren't your problem: Image libraries run to many gigabytes. That's our cost, not a reason to buy a bigger disk.

You're not collecting alone

The thing a filing cabinet can never give you.

Show it with a link: Send an album to a club, a forum or a buyer — not a PDF export attached to an email.
Your gaps, matched to other collections: Wants lists checked against what other collectors hold spare. There is no offline version of this.
Help identifying the unplaceable: Post what you can't pin down and reach collectors who already know it.
Clubs, societies and exhibits: Shared displays and virtual exhibits, without anyone mailing files around.

Things only an online catalog can do

Not features a desktop program hasn't got round to — features it structurally cannot have.

Gap analysis: “You hold seven of the nine in this set” — and exactly which two are missing.
Duplicate detection: Across a whole collection, at any size, without you keeping a list.
Alerts worth having: A new issue in an area you follow. A wanted item listed. A value that moved.
Search that doesn't slow down: The catalog is searched where it lives, so a six-figure collection opens as fast as a small one.
A valuation report on demand: For insurance or your own records, current as of today rather than as of the version you bought.

Someone is actually looking after it

Abandonware is the normal end-state of one-time-purchase hobby software.

Fixes reach you without you doing anything: No patch downloads, no version numbers to compare, no “are you on 3.2.1a?”.
Support can see the actual problem: With your permission — rather than asking you to email a data file and describe what you saw.
What you ask for can ship in weeks: Not in the next boxed version, if there is one.
Security that suits an asset: Encrypted storage, private by default, two-factor sign-in and account recovery — against an unencrypted file on a laptop, which is what “desktop” means in practice.

Fair questions

The three you're probably thinking

What if I've no internet?: Your collection stays readable offline, and anything you capture on your phone syncs the moment you're back on. The catalog itself needs a connection — that's the same trade that keeps it current.
Is my data held hostage?: No. Export everything, in an open format, whenever you want — no notice, no fee, no support ticket. If we ever stopped being worth the money, you'd leave with the lot.
I'm tired of subscriptions.: Reasonably so. Then compare properly: against a boxed program's purchase price plus its yearly catalog update plus a paid version upgrade every few years. Over the life of a collection, this is the cheaper side of the comparison — and the only one still being updated.

Still not sure? Start free and put your own collection in. Nothing here works as an argument the way it works as ten minutes with the real thing.

Put your collection somewhere it keeps up with you.

See what it costs