FREE Demon? Yes, FeedDemon is Now Free!

That's right, FeedDemon is now free.  As in, you don't have to pay for it anymore.  Just download it and use it free of charge.

And we're also making NetNewsWire, NewsGator Inbox and NewsGator Go free.  In other words, all of NewsGator's consumer RSS readers are free.

If you don't care about the details, you can stop reading now and simply download the new FeedDemon 2.6 (for free, of course). If you're using a previous version of FeedDemon, you should install v2.6 directly on top of it.

...

OK, if you're still reading this, chances are you have a bunch of questions.  We have a FAQ on our site which should answer most of them, but there's one question I'd like to address here:

"Is this some sneaky ploy to stop development of FeedDemon and your other consumer products?"

Good lord, no.  I realize that some companies have made their software free as a first step towards dumping it entirely, but that's not the case here.  If it was, I wouldn't be writing this blog post - I'd be bitching at the top of my lungs in some bar somewhere.

This is a major investment on our part.  If anything, the pace of development will only get faster.  NewsGator CTO Greg Reinacker goes into this further, but basically, there are two reasons we're doing this crazy thing.

1. It's the Enterprise, Stupid

I joined NewsGator back in 2005 because I believed in their strategy.  It was clear to me that NewsGator wasn't just another startup hoping to be acquired before they burned through their angel money.  And a big part of that strategy involved going after the enterprise market.

That strategy has paid off - our products for businesses are making great strides into the enterprise, and we're increasingly selling our services to large companies.  Getting our name known in the enterprise is among our primary goals, and making our consumer products free is a great way to accomplish that goal.

2. Your Attention is Valuable

When I first blogged about "attention" back in 2004, the idea that your attention data - that is, information about what you're paying attention to - is valuable seemed strange to a lot of folks.

It doesn't seem like such a strange idea these days, though.  Since then we've seen a number of companies - including Google - place great value in what people are paying attention to.  In return for your attention data, they give you free stuff.  As long as you don't have to give up your privacy, it's a pretty good deal for both sides. 

In some ways that's what we're doing.  We believe that information about what people are reading, emailing, clipping, etc., is valuable enough that we're willing to trade our consumer RSS readers for it.  And the more users we have, the better able we are to calculate relevance and importance.

PS: Your Privacy is Valuable, Too

I want to emphasize that we're not about to use the fact that our software is free as an excuse to violate anyone's privacy.  I wish that could go without saying, but violations of privacy involving customer data have made headlines this year, so I know this is a sensitive topic.  It's also a topic I care deeply about, as a quick search of this blog for previous posts about privacy or attention should illustrate.

Simply put, we believe we can greatly improve our products - both consumer and enterprise - by surfacing the content that people are paying attention to, and by making recommendations based on what you've read in the past.  Aggregate or anonymous data is the only data we’ll ever share in order to accomplish that.

Related Links:

• Greg Reinacker: NewsGator’s RSS clients are now free!
• Brent Simmons: NetNewsWire 3.1 is Free
• Nick Harris: NewsGator Inbox 3.0 is FREE!
• Kevin Cawley: Go! Get It - It's Free
• Jeff Nolan: NewsGator Client Apps Want to Be FREE!
• Press release and FAQ

Comments

[Josh Bancroft]

Sweet! Yay! Thank you! :-)

[T M]

Despite being a customer who had no problem with will to pay for such an excellent product like FeedDemon, I still feel that this is a fantastic move on Newsgator's part, I will now have less trouble convincing people of the benefits of Newsgator!

Thanks as always for your continued hard-word Nick!

[Steve Clason]

"As in, you don't have to pay for it anymore".

So, like, are you going to send my $30 back or somethin'?

[aleksandar]

This is huge! People used to say - FeedDemon is the best COMMERCIAL feed reader. Now they could only say - FeedDemon is THE BEST feed reader. Keep up the good work!

[Nick Bradbury]

@Steve: anyone who purchased on or after December 9, 2007, will get a full refund.

[Greg]

This ROCKS! You guys are my hero's... :)

FeedDemon has been my Favorite Reader for a while now.

Thank you for continuing to improve it (I'm upgrading from 2.5 to 2.6 now) and for its "release from bondage" ;)

Have I said you guys rock?

Take care,
Greg

[josephdietrich]

I've always recommended FeedDemon to others if they were willing to pay for an RSS reader (as I was), and GreatNews if they weren't. Now I can recommend FeedDemon to everyone. This makes me very happy (although I kind of feel sorry for the GreatNews folks, because I liked their product *almost* as much).

[Amazing]

Just Amazing !!
I cant belive it !!!
Free ???? Downloding right Now !!!!!

Thanks !!! A thousand of Thanks !!!

[dk]

I use Google Reader so I can follow feeds from anywhere including me crackberry. What can feed demon do for me?

[Daniel Mackey]

Hi Nick,

First off, FeedDemon is one of my favourite apps (just below Homesite) for keeping me productive. The thought and effort put into the user interface, features and updates make it something special. I have (and always will) recommend it to everyone that asks for the best rss reader. While I understand the reasons behind making it free, something inside me was slightly dismayed. I cant really explain it, its like our exclusive club is now open to everyone ha ha

My first thought when I read the post was that we would see Ads being introduced into the app! As always though, your initial preparations and thought regarding the faqs soon put that thought to rest!

Thanks again and I look forward to seeing FeedDemon progress further!

Dan.

[dk]

suppose I should read the goods before posting, eh?
http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NewsGatorOnline/Default.aspx
this gives synch and mobbie use. nice

[Nick Bradbury]

@dk: be sure to check out http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/feeddemon-rss-feeds-reader-software-review/2058/ for some other reasons why you might want to use FeedDemon.

[Zufoo]

Cool, I'll be moving my Mum and Dad from Google Reader to FeedDemon and NetNewsWire in the morning!

[Peter Tilbrook]

I love getting FREE something I already paid for and supported for years. Pity you don't refund your loyal users/beta testers but I guess that won;t happen.

[Chris]

I've no objection to anyone relinquishing their privacy in exchange for free software if that is their choice. Newsgator have not given me that choice! They took my money (on the 8th December!) and now tell me I can opt out of relinquishing my privacy but under threat of withdrawing a service I have paid for:

"If users do not wish to participate, each client has a mechanism to disable the data collection and reporting. Some features, like synchronization, may no longer be available in this case."

And these are people I should trust? Well, I have just desynchronised my feeds from my premium account and will stick with FeedDemon 2.5 until I can find an alternative. I doubt that I will find an application anywhere near as good as FeedDemon but I am not going to be blackmailed into participating in this scheme. Surely it would have been sensible to retain the premium account option and allow those customers to 'opt out' without loosing any facilities?

[Alex Barnett]

Cool news nick, thanks!

[gp]

Cool! I loved FeedDemon, and as I switched to Mac I'm using NewsNetWire. All the best to Newsgator for this courageous choice!
I was always happy to support your software.

[Nick Bradbury]

@Chris: we're not asking you to give up your privacy, and you don't have to disable synchronization. Each feed has a "Collect attention data" checkbox in its properties - just uncheck that to opt-out.

[IgwanaRob]

Great timing Nick, my initial subscription was about to run out :-p

It's been an absolute pleasure dealing with you since the early beta days of FeedDemon (coming up on on 5 years now? sigh - they grow up so fast, don't they? ;-p ). I would have no problems renewing, and the fact that you got us early adopters 2 free years in the first place was awesome, but this is even it better!

Keep up the incredible job Nick, FeedDemon continues to be my favorite program.

[Chris]

Nick, you wrote "@Chris: we're not asking you to give up your privacy, and you don't have to disable synchronization. Each feed has a "Collect attention data" checkbox in its properties - just uncheck that to opt-out."

I'm more than happy to buy in to that but it doesn't quite gel with the Newsgator FAQ statement which I repeat:

"If users do not wish to participate, each client has a mechanism to disable the data collection and reporting. Some features, like synchronization, may no longer be available in this case."

So "opt out" equals *possibly* no syncronization and potentially minus other unspecified features. Don't get me wrong, I genuinely appreciate application design that is heads above the competition as is FeedDemon. I just don't like being taken for a ride. Suffice to say I would have been happy, well willing, to pay twice the premium account subscription, maybe slightly more, but no-one ever asked me.

[Ian Kennedy]

Hey Nick, It's been way too long - looking forward to trying out good ol' FeedDemon once again!

Ian

[OPEN GIGA]

thanks to share with us... it's really cool and amazing...

[Robert Giesecke]

Hmm, is it really still only available for Windows? :-(

Any plans on releasing it for OS X? (And possibly for BSD/Linux as well?)

Cheers,
Robert

[Jope]

Hold on: synch is included in 'free', no restrictions about number of machines or anything???

This is huge! Thanks! :)

[Jigar Mehta]

Awesome news!!!

I have always loved feedDemon..
Just moving back to feeddemon from Google Reader!!