The Downside of "Everything Free"

[Jason]

Free forum and blog software is cool and many take advantage of it, but if everything is free, then isn't that ripping off developers? I mean, they have to live also.

I mean, you can get a forum setup on SMF, for instance, with all the works and then what need do you have for premium forums and all the premium add-ons with them?

Examples:

Mafia Scene - Mafia I & II Game Fan Site

Mafia Scene - Mafia I & II Game Fan Site

www.mafiascene.net

MelonLand Forum - Home!

A web project and online arts community that celebrates homepages, virtual worlds, the world-wide-web and the digital lives that all netizins share.

forum.melonland.net

 

[Heatman]

Well, there's always so many limited features that you can have access to work with a free softwares. Also, you have to consider the security risks that comes with using free forum softwares as most of them never get frequent updates and patches. The forums are always vulnerable to hacking or data breaches.

 

[Tracy]

I mean, you can get a forum setup on SMF, for instance, with all the works and then what need do you have for premium forums and all the premium add-ons with them?

Er... those two examples are not "all the works" to me. I prefer the additional features/functions to be more directly integrated in a site.

On none of those do I need to run a separate script and then link to it and kick my users to another site that looks nothing like my original site. It allows the users to stay on the site itself.
Then you have to compare the quality of those free "works" compared to the so-called premium offerings.
Reminds me of a discussion over on the XenForo site I read where a certain user was claiming that XenForo had pages also when it was mentioned that Invision had Pages. I think that user was actually aware of the difference between the two (other than both being called pages) but was trying to make XF look better but ended up making himself look like a fool.

Good luck on trying to duplicate the above on SMF with a clean integration. SMF is a great software, but it is still basically a forum at heart. There are a few premium add-ons for it out there though that are not bad.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't really think it's a downside, I think SMF is great for those who don't want to spend money on a premium script. Some devs make plugins and extensions for free scripts but charge money for them. At the end of the day people look for whatever suites their needs. Of course paid scripts are going to come with additional features, because charging for just the basic things will make these companies end up like UBB.Threads. (Yeah it's still around and people still use it, but it's certainly way behind and it's a paid script too plus there's really not as many people using the software anymore because it's just too far behind and it still costs money.)

 

[Spartan]

I don't really think it's a downside, I think SMF is great for those who don't want to spend money on a premium script. Some devs make plugins and extensions for free scripts but charge money for them. At the end of the day people look for whatever suites their needs. Of course paid scripts are going to come with additional features, because charging for just the basic things will make these companies end up like UBB.Threads. (Yeah it's still around and people still use it, but it's certainly way behind and it's a paid script too plus there's really not as many people using the software anymore because it's just too far behind and it still costs money.)

Offering a free script and selling premium plugins is a good consumer strategy, it allows low entry cost to your software which could lead to a bigger base while allowing devs to make money, however it could result in low dev pay if it’s not a solid product