PCKeeper Antivirus Tests Pay-What-You-Want Business Model

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Security software vendor lets YOU set the price.

One of the arguments software pirates throw around for stealing digital content is because they can't afford the asking price. That doesn't exempt them from the moral implications of paying for versus stealing software, but what if a company was willing to let you set your own price? It's not a new concept -- there's the awesome Humble Indie Bundles, and we've seen music artists go this route, too -- but it's not something we've seen among security vendors, until now.
A company called Kromtech is letting its customers decide how much or how little to pay for its PCKeeper security software. Pitched as an all-in-one security solution, PCKeeper is a collection of 14 different tools bundled in a single application, including antivirus, anti-theft, file recovery, disk cleaner, and several other tools.
"Letting people choose their own price is an interesting way to open up our product to consumers who price shop and also build trust with those customers once they use the software and see just how useful it is. The belief is that once users try it they will like it and they will tell their friends they are PCKeeper user," says PCKeeper Communications Manager Ilias Melikov.
The software normally runs $40, though you can pay as little as $1 or as much as $80. What's it really worth? Well, we've never heard of the program, let alone used it, thougha little research led us to discover that it's a ZeoBit product, which you can find entries for in Virus Bulletin's comparatives.
A Kromtech rep tells us that PCKeeper goes one step further than any other AV program by including a human element that actually looks at the reports the program generates for system errors or conflicts.
"We call it Human Inside and we are the only ones who do it," Kromtech tells Maximum PC.
Intrigued? You can find out more on PCKeeper's website.
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