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GBIC >> Freeware >> Freeware Sites

Freeware Sites
In addition to the recommendations that I've made for freeware you may want to browse some of the other freeware sites on the web. To help you find the best sites, I've provided the table below which shows the features offerred by the various sites. I also provide a ranking of the site to help you narrow in on only the best sites available.

Freeware Sites (Ranked) Site Rating System The Perfect Site
Other Sites Rejected Sites

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Freeware Sites (Ranked)

The sites are listed in rank order, with the highest rated sites at the top. If two sites have equal ratings (same number of stars), the number of files available at the site is then used to determine the position in the table.

To help guide your selection of a site the table shows which of 20 different features are available at the sites. At some sites I also provide a short comment to identify any unusual or particularly helpful aspect of the site.

If you have any questions about what the content of each column means, look at the heading description further down this page. Also, if you have any sites that you would like to see included in the list, just send me an email with the URL and I'll check it out.

All of these sites allow free access to the freeware listed at the site. But where an "*" is listed under 'Fee', the site offers additional site features or visitor privileges - usually for an annual fee of around $25.

This table can be scrolled to the right to see all of the features evaluated for each site.

Here's a brief description of what the headings mean in the tables above.

Review Date	date the web site was reviewed (by me!)
Stars	number of stars awarded to a site based on my point system
Points	number of points awarded to the site (based on features available at the site)
Files	number of files listed
Categories	number of categories into which the files are separated
Popular List	list of most frequent download
Search	search site
Latest Changes	most recent additions
Newletter	email to registered visitors with site information
Forum	Online discussions
Local Download	download comes from the site servers
Sort	user-selectable, multiple sort options
Home Link	link to home page of the software
Screen Shot	image of the application
SW Rating	Rating of software by site editor, or by site visitors
File Size	size of download
Ver	version of software available for download
Release Date	date of software release (not date added to the web site)
Number Downloads	number of times file has been downloaded
User Reviews	text comments by software users
Fee	price charged to access site features
Adv	advertising banners
Popups	popup windows
Special	unusual/unique site features

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Site Rating System

To rate the sites I created a point system. Features which I consider must-haves get one point. All other features get 0.5 points. Negative features get minums one point. Here's the list of features and the associated points:

+1 point	+0.5 points	-1 point
1000 files	News Letters	Usage Fee
500 files	Forums	Adversitements
25 categories	#Downloads	PopUps
Home Link	Local Files
Screen Shot	Sort
Popular List	User Comments
Search
SW Ratings
Latest Changes
File Size
Version
Release Date

With a maximum possible score of 15 points (all good features and none of the bad), stars are awarded according to points as follows,

Earned Points	Stars
1-3 points	1
4-6 points	2
7-9 points	3
>9 points	4

About a third of the sites do not use advertising. Those sites that do use advertising tend to have more files and offer more features. So, if you have a preference for sites with no advertising, you might reconsider the potential benifits of sites with advertising. I found the advertising to be a minimal distraction on most sites.

If you visit sites that use popup windows (which I really do hate!) you may want to use one of the products such as Popup-Stopper.

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The Perfect Site

In addition to the features listed in the site table above, the following features should also be a part of the perfect site. My ranking of sites will eventually incorporate all of these.

Desired Features	Description
#Downloads	the number of user downloads for each application is given (recent week, month, and year)
Detailed Reviews	more than a sentence or two of description, including comparisons with other, similar applications
Comparative Reviews	identification of competing applications and what distringuishes one over the other
Instant Submittal	files submitted by authors should be immediately available, possibly in a 'pending' file until the webmaster decides whether to keep it
Links Status	notification to users as to the % of links that are active, monitored at least weekly
CD	ability to create a shopping list of files which the webmaster will charge a nominal fee to create and mail a CD with the files on it
Same Author	list of all files at the site by the same author
Email Option	ability to email the URL to someone
Broken Link	simple way to report a broken link - available directly from the description page for each link without going through the user's email system
System Requirements	identify which Operating Systems the application can be used under
Pro Version	if an improved version, with more features, is available from the author

This next list covers those features which I would consider to be a negative for a site. As I mentioned earlier, there may be valid reasons why the webmaster wants or must use these features, but from the site visitor's viewpoint, these features are not desirable. I have seen all of these features used at many sites.

My ranking of sites takes already takes some of these into account. I'll eventually use them all.

Negative Features	Description
Intermingled Freeware/Shareware	Having both is fine, but a site should have a way to browse them separately
Advertising	It gets in the way of the navigational ease of the site and distracts the visitor
PopUp Windows	This is even more distracting that simple advertising. I leave sites that have popups.
Adware / Spyware	a freeware site should not include these. if this rule is broken, such files must at least be clearly marked
Expiration	freeware applications listed cannot expire (by date, number of trials, ...)
Usage Fee	While the need to fund the webmaster is legitimate, the visitor's goal is to have no site access fees
Plug-in's	no new browser plug-in's should be necessary to visit the site
Non-Software Free Stuff	Lots of people want sites with free stuff, but please keep it away from freeeware
Images	Icons, cursors, wallpaper, screensavers, and other images are not applications.
Short Pages	splitting a list of files into multiple pages is a pain to navigate

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Other Sites

There are also some smaller, specialty freeware sites which I'd recommend. These tend to be small sites with limited features but because of their content I want to specificially recommend them.

There are also some huge shareware sites that you should consider. These sites also have freeware but do not emphasize the freeware.

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Rejected Sites

These sites were reviewed, but were not included in my list of freeware sites for the following reasons:

Coma's Freeware List - inactive, no updates since 2002
Freeware Publishing Site - inactive, no updates since 2001
NeverExpires - has adware/demos mixed with freeware, cannot separate
SofoTex - shareware and freeware mixed together, cannot separate