You Get What You Pay For?

Even now I hear people use the phrase, "You get what you pay for". In a lot of markets this holds a lot of truth, but in the realms of software it often does not. Just take a look at free software like Linux and Open Office, and mobile apps and games which only cost a few quid. Okay, there are hidden costs in learning to use software which doesn't come with a printed manual but then a growing number of commercial packages don't either (when was the last time you saw a PC with Windows preinstalled that came with a Windows manual?!). Support is usually very limited from free or cheap software suppliers due to them trying to keep costs down, but often there is good community support, i.e. users helping each other online.

SafeSearchLock took a long time to develop and test, so why did we decide to charge only £2? Ideally we would love to have given it away for free. We feel that it is an important tool for all parents with children who want to use the Internet. Actually, we think it is a VITAL tool for anyone responsible for children using the Web at home, school, in the library etc. Sadly we cannot live on good Karma alone. Many, many man (and woman) hours have been put into its development and actually quite a bit of hard cash too. Website hosting costs money, so does authentication certificates, marketing and customer support. We could have charged £25 for SafeSearchLock and I am sure it would have sold well (especially to those who still think 'you get what you pay for'). We could have charged a monthly or annual subscription fee and again, I am sure it would have sold well. But we wanted to make it accessible and affordable to everyone. Microtransactions and taking small payments for software has proven really successful for systems like Apple's App Store and Google's Android Marketplace. We believe that by charging such a small fee we can cover costs and develop more child safety software, but still allow everyone to benefit from our product. It's cheap enough to sway those sitting on the fence and after all, £2 is less than 1 pint of beer nowadays and surely children's safety is worth more than that?!