Metageek abandoning the casual user market

[RMerlin]

A few years ago, people got angry at Metageek when they not only stopped offering a free version of inSSIDer starting with version 4, but they also took steps to remove all traces of the free version 3 release.

I just discovered that now they also abandoned sales of inSSIDer 4 Personal. Now, the cheapest InSSIDer licence costs... 149$.

https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/

It's sad that something that used to be THE reference back in the day managed to dig themselves into oblivion by shifting to strictly a business/professional market.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Since they removed the free version there have been some other products that have offered similar functionality at no-cost, like Acrylic and the numerous phone apps.

On the one hand I can understand them trying to encourage customers to buy their paid-for products, after all they're a business. But I can't see people buying the Personal version at $149 when there are free alternatives. Of course the thing that differentiates them from the free products is their spectrum analyser dongles, but that's another $100 for 2.4GHz or +$500 for 2.4 & 5GHz!

I guess they thought that providing a permanently free version, rather than the current 7 day free trial, didn't make business sense for them. Shame.

 

[avtella]

Yeah I noticed this a while back, I was wondering about updates (I bought it in 2014) and saw they discontinued inSSIDer 4.

 

[sfx2000]

FWIW - I've always found value with Metageek on their WiSpy product line - some might be surprised at the pricing there, but compared to others, they're a tremendous value in the right hands and skillsets...

https://www.metageek.com/products/wi-spy/

InSSIDer was always kind of a value added thing - still a bit useful, but not a core product compared to Wi-Spy...