How does Piriform earn money ?

Hi

I post here because i got an automated e-mail message telling me to do so.

How does Piriform earn money from free software ?

I've always wondered how they do it.

Can anyone tell me or perhaps somebody from Piriform can tell me when they have time.

I'm very interested so the more details the better, thanks.

They make money by accepting donations in $20 / ?20 / 20 Euro increments at the download page.

Richard S.

Who sent you an automated message asking you to post about this?

I wonder if the OP's username has any significance here?

Filehippo too. Maybe. ;)

They make money by accepting donations in $20 / ?20 / 20 Euro increments at the download page.

Richard S.

Something tells me that just donations are insufficient..

Who sent you an automated message asking you to post about this?

Well the e-mail message indirectly told me to post here, since i wouldn't get an answer directly from Piriform due to them being "busy"

E-Mail message:

Hi, thanks for your email.

If you have a bug to report or a feature to suggest, then please register at http://forum.piriform.com/
and post a message detailing the issue you are having. Registration is fast and free and our forum members are really very helpful.

Or, if you have a question about our products you can almost certainly find the answer at http://docs.piriform.com

Sorry about this automated response, but we’re really busy creating great applications

Please do not reply to this email as we will not receive the reply.

Regards
Samad

I wonder if the OP's username has any significance here?

So should i be offended and reply rudely or am i misunderstanding your question ?

Perhaps they have a full time job working for a software company, like does it really matter how they make their income??

They provide software for free and people should be grateful for that. :)

Richard S.

Interesting email message, I can think of 2 possible reasons for receiving this.

a) someone forged the email to you sending you to this forum

"we're really busy creating great applications" sounds a tad bit sarcastic to me to be true.

b) someone forged your email address and sent it to Piriform (spambot) causing an automated response.

Do you have the full header of the email message??

Richard S.

He probably asked that to an official Piriform adress, and then received the answer, which told him to ask the question here instead.

I think Piriform earns money with the Yahoo toolbar.

Perhaps they have a full time job working for a software company, like does it really matter how they make their income??

They provide software for free and people should be grateful for that. :)

Richard S.

Did my first post sound ungrateful ? :blink:

I'm interested in learning how a free software company works, income is a part of that.

I'm thinking about releasing some software for free in the future so i'm learning the ins and outs right now, not found much detailed information about this subject so a ask....

Interesting email message, I can think of 2 possible reasons for receiving this.

a) someone forged the email to you sending you to this forum

"we're really busy creating great applications" sounds a tad bit sarcastic to me to be true.

b) someone forged your email address and sent it to Piriform (spambot) causing an automated response.

Do you have the full header of the email message??

Richard S.

How do i retrieve the header ? I have hotmail.

Is this what you meant ?

Most email clients provide additional information (email header) this contains useful data such as IP address of sender, mail servers and their IP's, and the path the message had taken.

Unfortunately it appears hotmail lacks such functionality to expand the message header which kinds of sucks. :huh:

Richard S.

I'm interested in learning how a free software company works, income is a part of that.

This isn't an official reply from Piriform since I'm just a regular user like everyone else however; my guess is this:

* Bundled in third party apps, in Piriform's case this would be Yahoo Toolbar.

* Donations.

* They have an everyday job and fund their products out of their own pockets - this is actually very common and is why so many once freeware programs go commercial simply because it gets too expensive to do it all out of pocket.

* Grant from some wealthy donor, company, or their government.

I can confirm Mr Mischief's email as being genuine.

When the forum was offline a week or two back I sent a headsup to Piriform via the contact link. Got the same email as MrM back.

I found it quite ironic to be asked to go to the forum if I needed help with anything :)

But yes Mr Mischief, it was a genuine email.

So should i be offended and reply rudely or am i misunderstanding your question ?

Nope, you're not misunderstanding my question.

Because we've had people on here before demanding information about Piriform as a company, and kicking up a real fuss because they couldn't find any through the normal channels, my first thought was this could be another poster with the sole intention of creating mischief.

Your question about how does Piriform make money, coupled with your username, immediately made me suspicious of your motives.

Suspicions unfounded as it turns out, and apologies if I caused you any offence, but that's the reason for them.

I think what the Thread starter trying to say saying is guys. Hoping someone going to bung you ?20 out the kindness of their soul. Not a wage is it.

Dose not pay the council tax. I wonderd the same as the thread starter.

I think what the Thread starter trying to say saying is guys. Hoping someone going to bung you ?20 out the kindness of their soul. Not a wage is it.

Dose not pay the council tax. I wonderd the same as the thread starter.

What? I'm sorry, but I didn't understand any of that. :huh:

if 5% of the people who have downloaded ccleaner made a ?1 donation, then i think the team would be pretty comfortable.