doing trial periods

Chipp Walters chipp at chipp.com
Fri Apr 23 15:02:28 EDT 2004


Hi Chris,

If you need cross-platform support and want only one codebase then here 
are a few strategies to consider for creating a trial app.

1) Crippleware - have your app only provide a limited set of 
functionality until a customer pays for it.

2) Store a prefs file somewhere on the disk, and check it each time the 
app launches. You'll probably want to store it in a place *other* than 
the app folder so that a new install won't write over it, or an 
uninstall won't delete it.

3) Have trial versions check with a server online to see whether or not 
it's been activated. Perhaps this can be in conjunction with an 'update' 
feature.

4) Nag screens and delay tactics. Recently saw an app which had a fairly 
effective delay tactic using a nag screen. The delay accumulated on each 
launch. So, the first few uses there was little to no delay, but 
subsequent uses increments the delay by just a little.

best,

Chipp

Chris Sheffield wrote:

> I know someone brought this up a few months back, but I can't for the life
> of me find it or remember what the suggestions were.
> 
> I want to make a 30-day trial version of my program.  Does someone have a
> good way to do that?  I'd rather not save some obscure file out to the
> user's drive if at all possible.  And it needs to work on OS 9, OS X, and
> Windows.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Chris Sheffield
> Software Development
> Read Naturally
> 
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