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Macrium Reflect- no free version

#1

Tazz

Tazz

FYI

Macrium Reflect has moved to the subscription model no longer offering the free version. Support for free version ending in 2024.

https://forum.macrium.com/69449/What-happend-to-the-download-link-for-the-free-version


#2

P

PHolder

It's worth nothing they have a 50% off (plus an additional 6 months) Black Friday sale on right now for their subscription, if you're in need of a paid solution. Of course the timing of this will also help move people along into their new pricing model.


#3

rfrazier

rfrazier

I hate subscription models. I'd rather pay a reasonable amount for something then have the option to upgrade later but not be required to to keep using it.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron


#4

P

PHolder

I hate subscription models
pay a reasonable amount

Okay, well they offer that too, if you have the need. *shrug*


#5

B

Bplayer

While "support" for the Free version will end in January 2024 the program will still continue to work until there is some change in Windows that prevents it from doing what it has always done very well.

There is a very small chance that the 50% sale on the subscription model may not be as successful as previous Black Friday sales and they my actually extended this offer to the One-Time Purchase before Black Friday ends.

Buying the One-Time Purchase edition at this time at full price may not be best option as Version 9 of the program is expected withing the next year.


#6

T

TProbst67

While "support" for the Free version will end in January 2024 the program will still continue to work until there is some change in Windows that prevents it from doing what it has always done very well.

There is a very small chance that the 50% sale on the subscription model may not be as successful as previous Black Friday sales and they my actually extended this offer to the One-Time Purchase before Black Friday ends.

Buying the One-Time Purchase edition at this time at full price may not be best option as Version 9 of the program is expected withing the next year.
+100 - to your first comment!

I've been a user of Macrium Reflect (paid version, 4 pack workstation) v5 -- v7...great product, has never let me down and always worked beautifully. A couple years ago, I decided to just go with the free version [8.0] and all was well during that time. Of course, recently I was disappointed to hear the news that "support" for the free version was ending, (but I was not surprised) so I contacted Macrium sales and was hoping to get a reasonable discount on an upgrade since I was a previous customer -- ...not exactly -- the sales rep quoted me the same discount that was available publicly at that time (20% - "Halloween" special)...we went back and forth a couple times on email, but to no avail. After learning of the Blk Fri sale (from this thread), I did a little more investigating on their website and I found a link for prior licensees to check upgrade pricing...of course, there was no way to change from 4-pack license to single license (which is what I wanted to do), but the discount *WAS* for 50% off -- it wasn't clear whether this was for the "subscription" version or the "stand-alone" version...either way, I didn't go for it. However I *was* still interested in possibly purchasing the 8.1 upgrade, mainly because they (Macrium) claimed v8.1 was "significantly" faster than 8.0. So, last night I downloaded the 8.1 Home Trial version (which requires a portal registration, btw) and did a test vs my existing 8.0 FREE version installation...guess what?...NOT "significantly" faster,...NOT a little faster......about exactly the same (~6 mins and change to create a 28GB backup file of my primary disk in my laptop).
Soooo, needless to say, I'm sticking with the v8.0 FREE edition for the foreseeable future.

Regards,
Thomas


#7

B

Bplayer

@TProbst67 In the performance test did you enable the Rapid Delta Restore option? The results would have been the same without this.

I was hoping to get another non-subscription for a second PC. The advantages of the full version are:
1. File backups (to replace my current WinZip process)
2. Enabling Dark mode (nice, but not essential)
3. Rapid Delta Restore (very infrequent use & an extra 5 min is not going to change my life)

Maybe their Black Friday sales strategy for next year will change if v9 is released by that time.


#8

T

TProbst67

@TProbst67 In the performance test did you enable the Rapid Delta Restore option? The results would have been the same without this.

I was hoping to get another non-subscription for a second PC. The advantages of the full version are:
1. File backups (to replace my current WinZip process)
2. Enabling Dark mode (nice, but not essential)
3. Rapid Delta Restore (very infrequent use & an extra 5 min is not going to change my life)

Maybe their Black Friday sales strategy for next year will change if v9 is released by that time.

@Bplayer The "test" I did was about as simplistic as it could get, my only interest was in "time to create a FULL BACKUP of my system drive" -- I did NOT test restore performance, as this is something I don't have to do too often, and if it takes a while, so be it. Typically, I have not gotten into incremental/differential backups as such either, as I do all the backups manually and I just prefer to have the entire system disk in a single backup file.

I just found a link to where I read something of this "significant" speed increase with version 8.1 over 8.0...


...had my results been anywhere near this remarkable, I would have purchased v8.1 immediately.
Of course, my specific installation may not have required the optimizations of v8.1 that account for the speed increase. Their test case was obviously "best case" scenario, as going from 3:39 secs --> :49 secs is pretty amazing if you ask me.

Regards,
Thomas