Thread: Sandboxie: Install, run programs in a virtual sandbox environment [Review+ Giveaway]

I won't disagree with you Jelson. Whatever you have said perfectly makes sense and i also support this view. I was actually amazed of the fact that after completion of 1 year you have to downgrade to the free version or renew the license. I personally never faced such a situation before this.

On a second thought i can understand the strategy behind this type of license scheme. Actually the secret lies in the fact that sandboxie comes in 3 flavors- Free, 1 year and lifetime. I must say very well thought out marketing scheme. Unless sandboxie was available in these 3 flavors it would have been tough to implement such a licensing scheme.

If we take a look at the other day to day software which we use, mostly either have license scheme of

1. FREE and PRO
2. One year and Lifetime.

In case 1 if you buy the PRO, that means you have spent the maximum money you can spent on a license so downgrading after 1 year would be injustice.
In case 2 if you buy one year then after one year you can buy lifetime for much less price or renew it or use the version which you are currently using. But in no circumstances they can downgrade your license, because they don't have a free version.

So downgrading to the free version, to force you buy/renew the license is only possible if you have a 3 layer license scheme.

Mind it i am not saying its a bad tactics but i just wanted to decode it

Very well said Alpha!!

SandboxIE's licensing scheme is rather unique. And the unusual does make one look twice.

the licensing scheme used by Sandboxie is not good at all.

They are using a very unusual model, not feasible in real world, at least for such an application.

Guess what happens after 1 year of PRO.

Someone just realized that his/her installation is reverted back to free. Frustrated he/she writes to support, and come across more disappointment that the earlier paid money went to trash. Next what - pay more, go free (not quite possible caz one is addicted now), try free alternates (hmm---so why I paid for the pro---not good), try another way to keep using PRO.......may be, or YES (and I hear developer complaining)

Grr

Originally Posted by Grr

the licensing scheme used by Sandboxie is not good at all.

They are using a very unusual model, not feasible in real world, at least for such an application.

Guess what happens after 1 year of PRO.

Someone just realized that his/her installation is reverted back to free. Frustrated he/she writes to support, and come across more disappointment that the earlier paid money went to trash. Next what - pay more, go free (not quite possible caz one is addicted now), try free alternates (hmm---so why I paid for the pro---not good), try another way to keep using PRO.......may be, or YES (and I hear developer complaining)

Grr

Looking at the price difference between the 1 year and lifetime licenses, I agree with you when you say "the earlier paid money went to trash". If they paid for a year's license, they should be allowed to use the pro version without upgrades. Otherwise, I don't think it is worth the money and it is the reason people opt to rather grab it via giveaways.

FYI, the price for a one year license for Sandboxie, i.e, 13 Euros, when converted to INR, is a little more than the price of a 1 year license for Kaspersky Internet Security (3 user). It is expensive for just a one year license when compared to the 29 Euro price tag for the lifetime license, which will make the buyer think, "Well I better buy the lifetime one than pay every year". Like Arnab said, it is a good marketing tactic, but not for the buyer.

IDM also have a similar licensing model. Unlike Sandboxie, they don't have a free/lifetime version. Rather just a one year license, which doesn't allow you to use the software after the license expires. Not 100% sure about this.

I think you just don't get updates after 1 yr:

* The license to use Internet Download Manager on one computer for any purpose
* Additional features not available in the trial version like built-in download accelerator to achieve maximum download performance
* No IDM usage limitations that existed in the trial version
* Prioritized technical support
* FREE upgrade to all new versions of IDM during one year

@Grr You have a point. Would probably be a good idea upon *nearing* 1 yr expiration to offer a lifetime license at a discount (as well as alert about it reverting to free version)

@Grr
I slightly disagree with you on the point. Whatever you have said is correct but there are two sides to every coin.

You need to understand that a successful business(specially on Internet world) cannot run with 100% transparency. Transparency in the fact that there is no clear mention of difference between the lifetime license and 1 year license and specially downgrade to free in case of 1 year license. I have search the site and the FAQs but never found any clear explanation regarding it. So it suggests me that clearly the developers tried to avoid this discussion.
Secondly, if i am a buyer and ready to shell out some cash on it i would definitely contact their support and ask few questions regarding it. If i am capable of paying 13 Euros then i think i can also pay 29 Euros. As a buyer its your responsibility to ask before spending, nobody will do it on your behalf.

I do not really like the sales policy of Sandboxie. Even if there is a clear difference in price between different versions for user at home, I find a little irritating that the one-year license can not be upgraded to a lifetime license. It is also very bad the downgrade to free version at the expiration of the one-year license.

I'm just thinking what happens if MS reverts to this kinda policy for their OS.....pay for every year of use...lol

in any case I hate such policies & would like to repeat that it encourages p*racY.

And if you don't pay for the year, is linux installed? :P