Do you pay for software or always look for a free alternative?

Hades

Hades

Hades

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Thinking back on 2017 I've noticed that I've bought several applications. In past years I would have looked for free alternatives and begrudged spending money. I'm not sure quite when the change of attitude happened for me. But I've come to realise that I'm now prepared to pay for higher quality software, with features I want, stability, and to support good software.

Some examples include:

Software development IDE's (various Jetbrains tools) instead of free equivalents.
Office 2016 instead of Open Office.
Video editing software.
Probably going to buy an email client with whatsapp and slack integration (Mailbird Pro instead of the free version, but only if I can get it working with WINE) .

I still use a lot of open source software too (Linux, GIMP and long term I intend to use Linux more that I currently do). But this year I've seen software as an asset rather than a cost. I suspect I'm probably in the minority with this attitude now.

So how prevalent is it nowadays that people are prepared to actually pay for software?
 
At the moment I use free/open source software and I don't think I've ever paid for software on that note. Having a brother in law who works in IT when I first became interested in IT he would get software for me and then when at college / university software was then also given to me to use as well.

That said I'm interested in setting up a business next year which will involve the use of an office suite, the adobe suite and a few other things. I'll have no issue on this note paying for software that works better and will make me more productive.
 
Only pay for office 365 and windows when i upgrade.

Everything else is pretty much as free as possible, AVG etc
 
Office 365, bitdefender, use various small paid for apps/utilities, use visual studio enterprise as we have loads of licences through work, windows, loads of games of course.
But then also use tons of open source stuff/free stuff.
 
I paid for stuff like adobe Lightroom for photography, I paid for a copy of windows for my PC. I've not really had much need for an office suite but got some free office applications included on my mac also have libra office on my PC.

I guess in some companies excel is pretty essential and not likely to be easy to replace any time soon but for home use I've not got any need for it.
 
Hades said:
Thinking back on 2017 I've noticed that I've bought several applications. In past years I would have looked for free alternatives and begrudged spending money. I'm not sure quite when the change of attitude happened for me. But I've come to realise that I'm now prepared to pay for higher quality software, with features I want, stability, and to support good software.

Some examples include:

Software development IDE's (various Jetbrains tools) instead of free equivalents.
Office 2016 instead of Open Office.
Video editing software.
Probably going to buy an email client with whatsapp and slack integration (Mailbird Pro instead of the free version, but only if I can get it working with WINE) .

I still use a lot of open source software too (Linux, GIMP and long term I intend to use Linux more that I currently do). But this year I've seen software as an asset rather than a cost. I suspect I'm probably in the minority with this attitude now.

So how prevalent is it nowadays that people are prepared to actually pay for software?
Click to expand...

Got to admit I am a bit like yourself. It used to be that I would go to sometimes massive lengths to find alternatives that were free / hookie but these days I tend to just buy the software I want. This year I even purchased a Fortigate + MTU licensing for home as I saw this as a better option than poor/invasive endpoint protection on the home network.

I have things like a paid up creative cloud sub, full pro+ version of office, Nuance PDF Advanced etc and see these as assets rather than money wasted which perhaps 10 years ago I would have got torrent copies of all of these no questions asked.
 
With me it came down to being able to afford to, looking all over for free or sketchy alternatives started getting tedious for some software, so I'll just pay now if I need it in a hurry.
 
I always look for free stuff such as alternatives for Winzip who keep chasing you to buy a licence even after you delete it
 
Tend to look at the free alternatives to see if the price difference is worthwhile for the features I would use. With your examples, eclipse wins over jetbrains for me.
 
I buy a few now and again but do wait till they are on offer - usually last month of run until newer version comes out.

My first was Ashampoo Snap 7 got it for about £2.50 - now on Snap 10 for less than £10-- Next was Ashampoo Photocommander 14 and Burning Studio 14 -both again for less that £10-- Use PC all time for my pictures but don't used Burning studio that much but at least when I need them they are up to date - I hope I am paying something back for all the free ones I have had in the past.
 
I paid recently for Harrison MixBus . It’s an amazing DAW and they sold it to me for $79 instead off $299

I missed the offer and they honoured it . Companies like this I will support.

I’m also looking at the all inclusive bundle from Slate plugins as at $14.99 a month it’s a bargain as you get access to thousands of dollars worth of plugins and the price doesn’t take the mick
 
If I use it daily I'll look for the paid version (with the exception of Winrar) but if it's once in a blue moon than I'll look for a free version.
 
I use Linux 100% but that doesn't (have to) mean 100% cost free.

If you like a program and it does what you need.... Support it by buying it !

I bought Photogenics and a few other Amiga Programs (Protext etc)
I bought Windows 95 and Win 2000

I've donated to Open source Programs and recently chucked a fiver at Wikipedia.

Do whatever works for you.
 
All free if I can except windows 10.
I would deffo consider office as it's got so much cheaper but rarely use it nowdays.
Virus avast
Image editing some gimp type thing.
Ccleaner deleting junk.

All free
 
I’m mostly a macOS user these days and a lot of the software I use (e.g. Xcode) is provided by Apple for free. I’m not shy about buying software though. The most eye-watering purchase in recent years has been Tower (a git front-end). £80 for something that open source rivals offer for free but well worth the money in my opinion.
 
I have just downloaded Visual studion 2017 community edition (free), but not tried it yet to compare with the paid software I have used previously (VS2003).

I have also just installed MS Office professional 2016 and Visio professional 2016 however I got these for £10 each on the Home Use Program so almost free.

Since XP I have always purchased a retail version of windows for my machines, I am not adverse to paying for commercial software but I will look at free utilities and applications as well.
 
I pay for Photoshop, and I once paid for Windows 7 when the student deal came on all those years ago and have been upgrading that ever since.

Otherwise it's all free, bar games.
 
Usually free/trials - if a program really impresses me i will try to buy it to support the developers.

Substance painter, for example really impressed me.
Daemon tools etc

But antivirus/spyware all free.
 
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