what is shareware

Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. It is often offered as a download from a website or on a compact disc included with a magazine. Shareware differs from freeware, which is fully-featured software distributed at no cost to the user but without source code being made available; and free and open-source software, in which the source code is freely available for anyone to inspect and alter. Shareware software is distributed free of charge for trial, and the programs distributed with this type of license are usually old versions or with some limitations in the time of use, in functionalities or with notices on the screen indicating that they are trial versions. Shareware allows software developers to give users a taste of what they would get if they access the full product, but that full product isn’t free. Shareware offers limited free use of a piece of software, but it is a very different thing from freeware. After the trial period, users are encouraged to pay for the continued support of the software.