It’s free, but they hope it will pay off

I have noticed a trend: Software makers will offer their basic product at no cost, with upgrades, subscriptions or additional features or storage available for those who desire them.

Examples of these “freemium” offerings are Dropbox, Evernote, SuperDuper, CrashPlan and PhotoCard by Bill Atkinson.

The thing is, the more you use the free versions, the more likely you’ll become a paying customer. That’s because both apps revolve around storing your files in the cloud to make them easier to access from any device. So, the more you use them, the more storage space you’ll require until you have to start paying or find another solution.

That said, they’re both excellent products, and I recommend them without hesitation. I’ve paid for Evernote Premium, which recently increased to $70 annually, for the past few years, and I’ll happily start paying for Dropbox if and when I use up all of my free storage.

SuperDuper and CrashPlan are two of my favorite backup apps, and both provide useful functionality at no cost without limitation, though both also offer additional features at additional cost.

SuperDuper makes a bootable duplicate, or clone, of any bootable Mac hard or solid-state drive. Having a clone of your boot disk can be a lifesaver and SuperDuper developer David Nanian says that ability will be free in SuperDuper forever.

While it’s great to have a clone of your startup disk, it’s even greater when that clone is created automatically as often as you like without any action on your part. That’s what will cost you, though $27.95 seems like a fair price for that and other useful features.

Then there’s CrashPlan, a complete backup solution that lets you perform free backups to:

• Hard disks connected to your Mac.

• Hard disks connected to your network.

• Hard disks connected to remote Macs of other CrashPlan users via the internet.

I know. How does CrashPlan make money if its software does all that for free?

Well, the company hopes you’ll like using the app so much you’ll be happy to pay $5 a month to add unlimited cloud storage, unlimited file versions saved forever and mobile app access. I certainly am.

Finally, there’s PhotoCard by Bill Atkinson, a free iOS app that lets you create and email beautiful picture postcards. Pay $2 or less to have your postcard printed, laminated and mailed, usually within 24 hours.

I like to try before I buy, and freemium apps make it that much easier. So try one or all of them. What have you got to lose?

Resources

• Evernote: evernote.com • Dropbox: dropbox.com • SuperDuper: shirt-pocket. com/SuperDuper • CrashPlan: crashplan.com • PhotoCard by Bill Atkinson: itunes.apple.com/us/ app/bill-atkinson-photocard/id333208430?mt=8