Free items go through exactly the same review as paid ones, carry the same licensing and are downloaded the same way. The price is the only difference in how they are treated.
When free is right
- The job is small and well defined
- You are trying an approach before committing to it
- You have the skills to maintain it yourself if the seller moves on
- It is for something internal where downtime costs nothing
When it is not
Anything running your business. Not because free items are worse, but because a free item has no revenue behind it, and revenue is what funds a seller answering you in eighteen months. Paying is partly buying somebody's continued attention.
Check the same things anyway
Update history, the demo, the seller's other work. A free item with no updates for two years is exactly as risky as a paid one, and there is no refund to fall back on.
What support looks like
Sellers often help with free items and are not obliged to. Assume goodwill rather than entitlement, and you will usually be pleasantly surprised.
Rate it
Free items are how new sellers get started. A rating on something you paid nothing for is the cheapest way to help somebody who helped you.
