Is it really free?
ReallyFree puts a dot next to the results you were going to click. Green means you get everything you need. Yellow means something is missing. Red means it costs money. You find out before you spend an hour on it.
The extension is finished and headed to the Chrome Web Store. The moment the listing is live, this button turns on. Ask us to tell you when it is, and in the meantime the collection works today, in any browser, with nothing installed.
Free should mean you can finish the job and keep what you made. Advanced extras can cost money. Getting your own work out shouldn't.
That is the whole rule. Read the standard we judge by.
Six marks. That's all there is.
Four colours, one dash, one question mark. The colour is the verdict; the word beside it says what the catch is. Every time we're tempted to add a colour, we add a word instead.
Green: you can finish the job and keep your work
The word beside the dot names what it asks of you instead of money. A cap is fine — that's the whole tool, just less of it: ads account open source features locked 25 a day
Yellow: you can't keep what you made
You can use it. You just can't walk away with your own work — it comes out branded, or it doesn't come out at all: watermark no export
Red: it costs money
A paywall, a subscription, a card up front, or a trial with a clock running. A paid product with a sample is still a paid product.
Grey dot: we read it and couldn't pin it down
We looked and couldn't say for sure — and we never guess a colour. Tap the dot and we'll dig deeper, right then.
Grey dash: nothing to judge
An article, a review, a list of ten best things. It isn't offering you anything, so we don't give it a verdict.
Blue question mark: not checked yet
Not checked yet — tap it and we'll go check, right then. The mark updates when we're done. We never guess a colour to fill a gap.
Your call: ads and in-app purchases
A free app can still show ads, and a free tool can ask for an account. Neither costs you money to finish the job, so they start green — the word beside the dot just names them. If ads are not ok for you, say so in the extension's settings and any green offer that shows them turns yellow — only for you.
In-app purchases start yellow instead. Most apps that sell things inside are built to push you toward buying them, so we don't assume you're fine with that. If in-app purchases are ok with you, flip the toggle and those offers turn green — again, only for you. Nobody else's dots change.
One thing is never a preference: an app that needs a subscription or any payment just to work is red, for everyone, always. On the collection the same choices are filters: no ads, no account needed, no in-app purchases.
We judge ourselves by the same rule. We come out green.
reallyfree.app: green. No word beside the dot, because there is nothing for a word to say: you can use it and keep what you get, without paying, without a daily count, without a clock.
Our use is unmetered. No membership, no paid tier, no meter hidden in the free part. It's free the way we mean the word when we judge everyone else.
We also judge from the United States. Prices and availability differ by country, so we can be wrong about where you are — tell us when we are.
The collection — the things that really are free
Every site we've judged, in one list you can sort, filter and click through. No install, no account, nothing to set up. If we've missed something, there's a box on that page and a person reads it.