What Is Shareware?

Shareware is software distributed and sold on the honor system. It's as easy as 1-2-3:

Download the software and put it on your own computer. You don't pay anything yet!
Try the software out for two weeks to a month, and see how you like it.
After those two to four weeks have passed, decide whether you want to keep the software. If you decide to keep it, you must pay for it -- on your honor! But if you decide not to keep it, just delete it from your system and pay nothing.

How do you pay?

Full instructions for payment are included with the software. Or if you prefer you can purchase any Semicolon Software product right here on the Web -- but please, only after you've downloaded the product and tried it out!

Why is shareware good for you?

Shareware is a great deal for you, and here's why:

Try before you buy!
With commercial software, you don't know what you're buying until after you've paid for it. You can look at the box, read the reviews, ask your friends about it -- but until you've tried it yourself, you don't know what you're getting. If you don't like it, you've got a big refund hassle on your hands. But with shareware, you actually use the software before you pay a cent, so there's no mystery and no risk!
Great value!
When you buy a commercial product, you're not just paying for the software. You're paying extra for the box, artwork, advertising, retail markup, shipping, warehousing, stocking, and handling. But with shareware, there's none of that: you pay only for the software itself, so you get a great product at a great price!
Great products!
Okay, not all shareware is great. But at Semicolon Software our products are as good or better than their commercial competition. Our products are full-featured, powerful, reliable, and easy to use. And you don't have to take our word for it -- download them and try them out for yourself!

Why is shareware good for us?

We at Semicolon Software believe strongly in shareware. It's as good for us as it is for you. For us, shareware is great because:

We waste no money on packaging, shipping, inventory, middlemen, or shelf space.
We waste no time on those things either; all our time is spent making our software great.
We have no unhappy customers. Everyone who purchases our products already thinks they're great -- if they didn't, they wouldn't become our customers!

Return to Semicolon Software Main Page

Last modified Tuesday, February 4, 1997 rmh