The best programs and apps come at a price – most of the time. Jane Hoskyn reveals our favourite secrets for getting paid-for software for free
Petrol prices may be falling, but everything else is getting dearer. Broadband prices, after years of happy decline, are up by 6.5 per cent. Rail-fare rises seem faster than most trains. Even coffee prices rose by one-fifth in a week recently.
If you’ve got an iPad or iPhone, the news gets worse. Apple has just raised the minimum cost of paid-for apps in the App Store from 69p to 79p (see News, Issue 441). An increase of 15 per cent overnight.
It doesn’t help that Apple rarely seems to bother with exchange rates. Often the only difference between the prices of identical apps in the US and UK App Store (www.snipca.com/15123) is the pound sign.
Any software you download from the internet suffers from similar exchangerate unfairness, though the difference isn’t usually as bad as with Apple. Adobe, Microsoft, Dropbox and Spotify all charge more in the UK for software that costs less in the US, Australia and Germany.
Beat the unfair price rises
Over the next few pages we’ll share our favourite tips and free tools for beating price hikes and unfair anomalies. Most of our tips involve tracking down free offers before they expire, and none are illegal. We wouldn’t encourage you to walk into a shop and steal a laptop, so we’re not going to encourage you to steal paid-for software and games either. File-sharing sites and torrents are very popular among internet-savvy people who want to get something expensive (software, games, films) without paying for it, but using them potentially breaks at least two laws (the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Digital Economy Act 2010) and lots of ethical guidelines.
However, we’re not complete goodygoodies, and we do offer one or two licence-bending tricks that don’t break the law.
DISCOVER FREEBIES AND OFFERS BEFORE THEY EXPIRE
Get a paid-for program for free every day
The name of ‘Giveaway of the Day’ (GotD, www.giveawayoftheday.com) is itself a bit of a giveaway. This free website gives away a different paid-for program, for free, every day. It also archives the programs so you can download previously featured software at its full price.
Go to the GotD homepage and you’ll see today’s offer, with a ticker telling you how many hours and minutes are left until it expires. On the day we’re writing this, the giveaway is InstantPhotoSketch Pro 2.0, a powerful but easy tool for transforming your digital photos with pencil and brush filters. It would normally set you back $39.95 (£26.50, www.snipca.com/15090) but, for one day only, it’s completely free – only via the GotD website.
Click the yellow ‘Proceed to download page’ button to see a page with more information about the day’s freebie, including user ratings and comments, system requirements, file size and a link to its publisher’s website. Then click the blue ‘Download [program name] now’ link, save the ZIP file to your Desktop and extract its contents. Run the setup file, then run the licence-activation file to unlock the program’s full version. Instructions are in ‘Readme.txt’.
We visited a lot of ‘deal of the day’ websites when researching this feature, and most are ugly as sin. GotD is the exception that proves the rule, with a clean simplicity that makes it a pleasure to browse. It does include a couple of adverts unless you block them using an extension like Adblock Plus (https://adblockplus.org), but it’s extremely restrained compared with similar sites.
Scroll down the homepage to browse recent giveaways, which include EaseUS Partition Manager Pro (normally $39.95/£26.50, www.snipca.com/15088) and Aiseesoft Total Video Converter (normally $45/£30, www.snipca. com/15089).
What’s the catch?
You have to act fast. The free program must be installed and registered within its 24-hour window. This isn’t midnight to midnight, but 8am to 8pm UK time – because GotD is based in US (PST time). If you download the installer file (usually EXE or ZIP), but don’t get round to installing it before the deadline, its licence will expire and it won’t work.
Once you’ve installed your freebie, you won’t get free technical support or upgrades to subsequent versions of the program. If you uninstall it, you can’t re-install it for free.
As with all installable software, you must be vigilant during setup and make sure to choose a Custom option if offered, and opt out of added extras such as search toolbars. Our InstantPhotoSketch setup wizard didn’t offer any unwanted extras at all, but the activation file did. To avoid the extra, click Close when you see a window that says ‘Successfully activated’, and don’t click Install Software Informer.
Get a paid-for app for free every day
‘Giveaway of the Day’ also runs sites for Android (www.snipca.com/15096) and iPhone (www.snipca.com/15097; most apps also work on iPad, as you’ll discover when you click ‘Get the App’). These GotD sites are freebie-finders rather than freebie-hosts. They sniff out price-drops on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, list them all with ratings and comments, then link you to the relevant download pages. GotD has an Android app (www.snipca.com/15104) that lists current Play Store offers and lets you install apps from the Play Store with one tap.
Our favourite source of free apps, however, is the free online service AppGratis (http://appgratis.com). The first thing you see when you visit the site is a pop-up window. This would normally infuriate us, but we rather like this pop-up because it’s your gateway to the free, unmissable, daily AppGratis newsletter.
Tick one or more of the boxes according to the devices you have (Android, iPhone and/or iPad), make sure the dropdown menus are set to English and UK, then enter your email address and click the green ‘Sign up here’ button. Now, every morning, you’ll get a separate email for each of your chosen app platforms, with a link to download a paid-for app for free from the Play Store or the App Store. The email also contains a brief review of the app and an unrelated joke, video or piece of trivia to brighten your morning. It’s much more likeable than it sounds.
More importantly, the savings can really add up, especially for iPad and iPhone apps, which were significantly more expensive than Android apps even before Apple whacked up their prices.
Even better, once you’ve installed an app during its freebie period, you will continue to get free updates after it goes back to being paid-for. You can even uninstall it from your tablet or phone to free up space and re-install it again later via your Google or Apple account.
There’s also an AppGratis Android app (www.snipca.com/15105) that sends you daily freebie notifications and lets you download free apps safely via the Play Store. There used to be an AppGratis iOS app, too, and it was even more useful than the Android app, with huge savings to be made. But Apple kicked AppGratis out of the App Store in 2013 (read below), so if you have an iPad or iPhone you’ll have to rely on the daily newsletter for your freebie notifications.
Amazon’s new Appstore (www.snipca.com/15121) is also worth a look if you’re on Android. It doesn’t link you to the Play Store; instead, you install apps by first installing the Amazon Appstore app (www.snipca.com/15120). Once you’ve installed the app, it offers one paid-for app for free every day.
What’s the catch?
You’ve probably worked that out already. Most of these freebies are for Android only. Android apps are cheaper anyway (actually, they’re usually free) so you simply don’t stand to save as much money by getting these apps for free.
Apple hasn’t quite managed to stamp out attempts to save people money. The AppGratis website and newsletter are still full of free iOS apps that would normally set you back a few pounds. We hope they continue going strong for a long time.
Be first to know about software freebies and offers
Deal-finding website HotUKDeals (HUKD, www.hotukdeals.com) looks cluttered at first glance. But look closer and you’ll notice there are no adverts (unusually, HUKD looks exactly the same whether you enable or disable your adblocker), no dollar signs (it’s a proper UK website) and a wealth of useful information, all extremely well organised.
HUKD doesn’t sell anything, it just finds it. If a program, app or anything else catches your eye in the list of offers, click Get Deal, then complete your purchase on the third-party website, which opens in a new tab. For example, in our screenshot (right) we clicked Get Deal on the Windows 8.1 app Plex, so the relevant page of the Windows Store is open in the next tab at the top.
The offers go far beyond software. HUKD helps you save on gadgets, DVDs, computer games, toys, gifts, days out and even loo roll. If you’re not interested in groceries, go to the HUKD Blogs menu at the right of the page and click the middle icon (‘Mobot’). Now you’ll see a list of tech offers, including cut-price tablets (loads of them), PCs and phones as well as software and games.
To save the hassle of visiting the site every day, sign up for the daily newsletter by typing your email address in the box above HKUD Blogs. You don’t have to sign up with HUKD.
Money Saving Expert (MSE, www.moneysavingexpert.com) is worth a visit, too, and also has an email newsletter with the latest deals. Its remit is much broader than HUKD, so you have to look harder for the tech offers. But dig around (it’s well worth it) and you’ll find deals, tips and tools for saving money on your broadband, phone contract, photo printing and more, plus free online tools such as the Local eBay Deals Mapper, which rounds up the best eBay bargains in your area (www.snipca.com/15129).
What’s the catch?
The offers on these sites are cheap but not usually free. Still, a bargain is a bargain, and these sites are so good at finding them that they’re somewhat addictive.
Our main problem with MSE is a sideeffect of its size. Its unending menus and forum threads (www.snipca.com/15130) are intimidating, and even if you use the search box you have to wade through loads of results to find what you’re after. To fit everything in, the site uses tiny text, so it’s hard to read unless you zoom in – which prevents you seeing the whole page.
Buy a cheap program, get an expensive program free
If you’re a regular HUKD or MSE visitor you’ll know the name TrialPay. This service is a kind of digital version of ‘buy one get one free’, but instead you buy one cheap product and get one expensive product free. Sounds like a good deal to us.
TrialPay’s website (www.trialpay.com) is for business clients and doesn’t include a menu of its current offers, which seems a bit daft. To find these deals, you have to go looking for them – and hope you find them before they expire.
You could search Google (type the name of a program, plus ‘trialpay’), but most links will be expired offers. Instead, browse for current TrialPay offers on HUKD or MSE, and check 24Hsoftware. com (www.snipca.com/15132), which currently links to free offers for Able Photo Resizer (normally $15, or £10) and WinZip Pro (normally £42.95). A few deals on 24Hsoftware.com had expired when we checked them, so it’s hitand-miss, but still worth a look.
We clicked the Able Photo Resizer link on 24Hsoftware.com and it took us to a web page hosted by TrialPay (check that ‘trialpay.com’ is part of the URL). Here’s where you complete your side of the deal by entering your name and email address. Keep ‘Let me know about other special offers’ ticked to receive the TrialPay offers newsletter, then click Continue. On the next page (‘Complete 1 offer’), choose a cheap product or sign up for an online service. Finally, TrialPay will send you an email containing a licence number for the program’s full version. Keep the licence number safe in case you ever need to reinstall the program.
Most TrialPay offers are for US products, so the prices you see on the offer page are given in dollars. However, all the ‘Complete 1 offer’ prices are in pounds, so there are no international payment fees to pay. Click ‘Learn more’ next to any item in the ‘Complete 1 offer’ list to visit its third-party website (most are UK-based) and decide whether or not to complete the deal.
What’s the catch?
We don’t like handing over our name, email address and payment details to any company, let alone a company with the words ‘trial’ and ‘pay’ in its name. It just feels dodgy. But TrialPay is a legitimate company, and these are legitimate deals – just be aware they’re in it to make money too.
A more worrying criticism of TrialPay is unreliability. When we researched people’s experiences, we found a few forum posts complaining that the promised licence numbers never turned up. The problem was usually fixed after a stern email to TrialPay, but that shouldn’t be necessary. You kept your side of the deal, so TrialPay should keep its side, no ifs or buts.
The deals, by the way, are TrialPay’s responsibility. For example, if you were promised a licence for WinZip and it hasn’t arrived, contact TrialPay, not WinZip. TrialPay is actually very strict with the companies it strikes deals with (its legal terms make heavy reading: www.snipca.com/15134), and they do want these offers to work as promised. To contact Customer Support, use the secure form (with hideous captcha, sorry) at www.snipca.com/15135.
WHY DID APPLE TRY TO KILL APPGRATIS?
The AppGratis story is really a story about Apple’s prices. Have a seat and let’s begin.
In 2008, French engineer Simon Dawlat created AppGratis for iOS and Android. The app scoured Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store for time-limited free offers, notified you, and let you tap a button to download the freebie instantly from the Play Store or App Store. Dawlat also struck deals with app developers to offer their wares free for limited periods.
AppGratis was free to use, quick, easy and saved you money. It was the perfect app. On Android, it still is the perfect app.
In April 2013, Dawlat was on a plane to Brazil when Apple announced it was kicking AppGratis out of the App Store – in other words, making it impossible to download or update on an iPad or iPhone. The move could have destroyed Dawlat’s business overnight. When he landed in Brazil, he found so many concerned messages awaiting him that he thought a family member had died.
Dawlat quickly published his thoughts on the matter, along with the correspondence he’d received from Apple. You can still read it on the AppGratis blog (www.snipca.com/15106).
AppGratis is still going, of course, but the iOS app had been the main way its users – 12 million of them on iPhone alone – saved money. Which is why Apple didn’t like it.
Since ousting AppGratis, Apple has been busy cracking down on other third-party attempts to compromise its income. Its operating systems have always been well protected, with Mac OS X and iOS both using sandbox technology to ensure apps can’t be installed from outside the App Store. This structure also keeps out system tools such as battery-monitors and file managers; prevents sharing between apps; ties iOS users to iTunes, and gives Apple complete control over pricing.
That’s either good business sense or sheer greed. People seem to be voting with their feet. iOS had a big head start on Android, but Android overtook it in June 2012 – and Google’s platform has since forged ahead, far and fast. No-one can say why for sure, but we’ll hazard a guess that cheap apps and a versatile, open platform make Android far more attractive.
CAN YOU HACK 30-DAY SOFTWARE TRIALS TO LAST FOREVER?
It’s possible. Like using torrents to get paid-for software free, trial-hacking breaks licensing rules – but people do it, and there’s information about it all over the internet. Hackers aren’t very good at keeping secrets, you see. They show off about their dubious labours on websites, forums and even YouTube, where you’ll find videos like ‘How to Crack Any Software’ (www.snipca.com/15062).
In short, the process involves tricking an installed program into thinking it’s at the start of its 30-day run instead of the end. Every month, the user “rewinds” the program’s internal clock.
One of the most popular tools that’s used (well, abused) for this purpose is RunAsDate (www.snipca.com/15069). This free portable tool lets you set different times and dates for different programs on your PC, for perfectly legitimate reasons, without affecting your system clock.
RunAsDate is easy to use and made by one of our most trusted independent developers, Nir Sofer (aka NirSoft, www.nirsoft.net). Sofer really doesn’t want you to use his program to break software licensing rules. Just below the screenshot on the download page you’ll see an ‘Important Notice!!’ (big red letters), where Nir says he gets many emails from users who complain RunAsDate “doesn’t work” – because they can’t get it to unlock all the trial versions they throw at it. He stresses the tool is not designed for such law-breaking, and reminds users that many trial programs are set to automatically block unauthorised changes to the time or date.
More ambitious software-hackers have found ways to get around this by reverse engineering trial programs, using tools like OllyDbg (www.ollydbg.de), which effectively lets you take a program apart and put it back together again, with extra features (say, a permanent licence) and without unwanted features (say, trial restrictions). OllyDbg is free but definitely not easy to use – which is why it’s best left to amateur programmers, ideally those with honest intentions.