PowerArchiver Free

No catch. ConeXware has been profitable for two decades on commercial-use licenses (Business £17.95 / Professional £29.95 / Toolbox £41.95) plus enterprise volume and Enterprise Unlimited contracts; commercial revenue funds development. PowerArchiver Free for non-commercial use is a way to (a) invest in the next generation of users — the student / hobbyist today is the IT decision-maker tomorrow, (b) support mission-driven non-profits that can't afford commercial software, and (c) get the product into people's hands so they evaluate it for their employer's commercial purchase. Same model OSS projects use to fund themselves via paid commercial licenses, just under a proprietary, supported-product wrapper with compliance certifications (FIPS 140-2, HIPAA, DFARS) at the Enterprise tier.

Honor system at signup. We don't require .edu email addresses (some legitimate students don't have one) or 501(c)(3) lookup verification (international non-profit equivalents would fail that check). Misrepresenting eligibility violates the license — if we discover that, we revoke the code and the installation falls back to needing a paid license. We may spot-check organizations later (look up your stated employer / institution / non-profit registration). The cost of fraud is borne by you, not us.

Once you're no longer enrolled, you're no longer eligible — you'd need a paid Business (£17.95), Professional (£29.95), or Toolbox (£41.95) license to keep using PowerArchiver legally. If you're starting a new job at a non-profit, you stay eligible under the non-profit category. If you're starting at a for-profit company, you (or your employer) need a paid license. We don't auto-revoke codes the day you graduate — but the license terms tie eligibility to current status, not "I was a student in 2026 forever."

Yes, one license per individual user. Each staff member who installs PowerArchiver Free gets their own code — distribute organization-wide via your IT or just have everyone request individually at free@conexware.com. There's no charge regardless of headcount. If your non-profit wants centralized deployment with a single registration key for the whole fleet, look at Educational Unlimited (cousins of which we offer for non-profits — email ordering) or Enterprise Unlimited.

Yes. PowerArchiver Free is the same Business codebase — Patchbeam pushes minor updates and bug fixes the same way it does for paid editions. Major versions: paid Business customers get free major-version upgrades via active PA Select (next major versions); PowerArchiver Free users get major-version upgrades automatically as long as they remain eligible. There's no "the free version is two versions behind" gotcha.

Yes. Different binary, different license-code namespace. You can't apply a Free code to the paid-Business installer or vice versa. Use the download URL we send you in the eligibility email; don't try to substitute the trial download from /download (which is a 30-day evaluation of the paid editions).

For your personal use at home, yes — Free covers it. For your client work, no — that's commercial use, regardless of business size. A one-person LLC delivering work to paying clients is a commercial entity for licensing purposes; the moment PA is part of how you produce or deliver paid work, you need a paid license. Buy paid Business (£17.95) if you only need core archiving; Professional (£29.95) if you need the Outlook add-in, FTP, OpenPGP for client work — most solo professionals land there. See PowerArchiver for Home Professionals for the solo-business buyer's guide. Buying both is unusual but legal — Free for personal stuff at home, paid for the business operation.

Yes — for personal (non-work) files only. Organizing your photo library, encrypted personal backups, hobbyist projects, family-document handling — all qualify as personal use under PowerArchiver Free, regardless of who employs you. The eligibility line is the activity, not your employer. The moment you use PA on work files (whether at home or at the office), that's commercial use and you (or your employer) need a paid license. Most companies handle this by buying Business or Pro licenses for their staff and not relying on Free for any work-related operation.

No. License codes are personal and tied to the email address you submitted. Sharing a code violates the license. Each eligible person should request their own at free@conexware.com — same answer, same code-distribution speed. Codes that show signs of mass sharing get revoked.