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Free and Shareware Sites

There are a number of sites on the internet that provide ordered collections of freeware and shareware. A freeware product is one which the author has decided to make freely available at no cost (possibly subject to licensing restrictions). A shareware product is one which you can try and if, after evaluating it, you want to continue to use it then you are expected to pay for.

The sites included in this list are ones which offer either freeware or shareware. Sites which only sell software without including any free or share-ware titles are not included. Sites which do offer free and share-ware, but which do not provide software authors with any clear method of adding or updating titles are also not listed.

Contents

Alphabetical list of sites

At a glance comparison and ranking

The following table provides an "at-a-glance" comparison of sites offering freeware and shareware listed in rank order:

Free and Shareware Sites Free Submit Pop-up Free Own Review Site Search User Feedback Rating System PAD Files Download Figures
CoreDownload Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RocketDownload Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Global Shareware Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SofoTex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Download3000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
FileTransit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Download2You Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Shareware River Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Best Shareware Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
BrotherSoft Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
FreshShare Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
ShareUp Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
TopShareWare Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
ShareUp Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Softforall Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
SnapFiles Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
Soft Landmark Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
BillsSoftwarePicks Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
tucows Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
DownloadFreeTrial Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
FileHungry Yes Yes on payment only Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FileGuru Yes Yes on payment only Yes No No Yes No
DownloadAstro Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No
DevGalaxy Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Downloadpipe Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Fast64 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FileREX Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FreeWareSeek Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HotDownloads Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ShareSoftware24 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SoftPedia Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Wapti Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
winpcworld.com Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FindApp Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ListSoft Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Shareware Island Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
WinSite Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
askfiles Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No
Security Software Zone Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No
ShareSoon Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
SoftsList Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
5StarShare Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
DownloadFrenzy Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
DownloadGems Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
FileParade Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
FileNode Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
Softpile Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
1st Security Software Center Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
4 Software Downloads Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
BestSoftOrder Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
DownloadTip Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
EcoServers Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
FileOasis Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
FilePicks Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
FreeBizFiles Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
FreeFunFiles Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
GoLoads Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
GoodFiles Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
QWEAS Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
SoftAndCo Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Soft29 Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Softsia Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Software Vault Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Techwoods Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
TotalShareware Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
WorldSSP Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No
ShareTool Yes Yes No Yes No No ? No
Free Downloads Center Yes Yes No Yes No No No No
DownSeek Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
WebmasterFree Yes No No Yes No No No No
FreeShwarewareDepot Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Download No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
DownloadShareware No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Download-Soft No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
Free and Shareware Sites Free Submit Pop-up Free Own Review Site Search User Feedback Rating System PAD Files Download Figures

What these mean:-

Free Submit
Whether the site is free for software authors to submit to. A site that costs the author to submit to is unlikely to list any freeware.
Pop-up Free
Whether the site is pop-up (or pop-under) ad free. This does not distinguish whether the site carries adverts, only whether visiting it will generate a pop-up (or under) window.
Own Review
Whether the site conducts its own reviews of the products it lists. A site which does not conduct its own review is likely to rely on the author's own description. Whilst there may be nothing wrong with the author's description, a review may give a more unbiased description of a product.
Site Search
Almost every site will provide some sort of hierarchical listing of products. This is whether the site also provides a search facility.
User Feedback
Whether the site provides any form of user feedback system.
Rating System
Whether the site provides its own ratings system. Where a rating system is provided it will normally be based either on a review or on user feedback.
PAD Files
Whether the site accepts PAD files. A PAD file is a means of an author providing all the pertinent information about a product in a single document. It also has the advantage that sites that accept PAD files are likely (but not guaranteed to) to check for updates, so the listings on those sites are more likely to be up to date.
Download Figures
Whether the site gives an indication of the number of downloads of the product.

Blog comments

This list of free and shareware sites started life as a list of sites to which our own freeware could be submitted. Since then it has taken on more of a life of its own with new free and shareware sites starting up and with some sites closing down.

One of the questions we are occasionally asked by software developers is which of these sites should new applications be submitted to? The answer is simple: as many of them as you can, because if you are promoting an application then you want as much exposure as possible.

This list is also useful for trackign down the applictions, as some applications only appear on a few sites.

If you know of other free or shareware software sites that you would like to see listed on this page or wish to report any errors on this page then please e-mail: feedback@cryer.co.uk.

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