Bandizip archiver utility now has paid versions and ads for the free standard edition

As of today's 7.0 release, popular archiving software Bandizip will now be separated into one free, ad supported edition and two paid commercial editions.

This latest release of the Bandizip archiver sees various changes and restrictions applied. For one, the free version can only be downloaded and installed by an online installer. Also, the free version only allows you to install the very latest numbered release.

Bandizip developer Bandisoft has published a comparison page showing all of the differences between the free Standard Edition and paid Professional and Enterprise Editions. The free Standard Edition can be used both personally and commercially, though its update policy is much more restrictive than that of its paid editions.

Not all is doom and gloom, however. No features from previous releases of Bandizip were forced behind a paywall. Everything that has been free throughout the application's history is still freely accessible for both personal and professional use. Additionally, all three different packages include quality of life improvements, such as support for displaying images with thumbnails and disk space pre-allocation in order to optimize speed and minimize disk fragmentation.

Bandizip is available for download from the official site for both Windows and macOS.

Further coverage: gHacks Tech News