Free Option

[Harm]

I have used Open Realty to create directories for local businesses, but overtime I have started to integrate Wordpress to have articles etc for these directories. I would love to have a single solution (Wordpress based as OR's CMS is terrible), but these are very low grossing websites that I really just do for fun.

Just wondering if there is ever going to be a free option, I have integrated the old free addon which works but would love to see about using this add on as I feel the OR project is starting to show it's age and limtations and these seems like a terrific fresh start.

[Chad]

The fundamental reason behind charging "something" is to get people to help support the products growth - without any money there would be absolutely NO reason to develop something for free and then have to turn around and support it for free as well.

I think you will see that over time here at WP Realty we will always be way ahead of anything that OR is doing and I think that if you were to take a closer look at what we give you compared to what OR doesn't, you will see the value is well worth it because we are including Templated Google Maps, Customizable Contact Forms, and basic Listings Syndication to Trulia etc. - You would have to pay "over" 75 bucks (Per-Site) if you bought those 3-addons from those guys over there.

In addition to what our core has we will be offering many additional addon items for people to download such as additional templates for advanced searches, quick searches, and various other addons and themes.

- Anyway - as soon as we get done with the current MLS integration we will be spending a day getting the next release ready to go out so everyone should be looking for our email this week with the announcement.

Thanks

[Jared]

One of the main reasons OpenRealty has had so much trouble is the amount of time it takes to support people at their expense. For this reason primarily, OpenRealty is a difficult solution to suggest to people because support does not exist. For that reason I'm understanding. I don't harbor anything against OpenRealty for that regard because I've been there, its frustrating, unappreciated and people assume that if you give something away free that its okay to take cheap shots at it most often fully unwarranted.

I'm under the belief that if OpenRealty were to charge for support options they would actually add value to their product. Image is important and a good start for OpenRealty would be to get rid of all their existing administrators and replace them with fresh faces.

Paid SupportWare / FreeWare
In our case, because we call this software "Supportware" we fund the development by the memberships. There are advantages for sure. All the things you would normally have to purchase for OpenRealty in terms of addons and such are included with ours.

Here is the method to our philosophy and the reason we chose to go with a supportware model.

Many open source projects on the web are gravitating to the supportware model because its more productive to maintain and support it for survival. There are many open source products that were real good products trying to survive on donations and eventually they fold.

We looked at all the things on the web that people were doing and compared existing models like freeware, supportware, memberships, theme memberships and the like. We discovered that people are willing to pay for a theme membership knowing that there will be a monthly update or new theme even if the membership only includes a few themes from the start. We took that concept and applied the same overall idea to supportware. People are willing to pay for a years support if they get the following over the course of a year.


New theme releases monthly
Plug-ins and Add-ons as we build them like google maps and client resource management.
Hosting discounts
Free version updates.
Technical support and blogging help


In fact our model isn't unlike the lease license for vBulletin. You pay for a year and you get access to all kinds of stuff.