# Free or paid anything, which one is better?

## 1. Software
## 2. Services
## 3. Stuff

Better for who?

For the receiver (or sometimes called consumer) of these free or paid things we tend to think free is always better. But what about the quality and hidden agendas?

For the companies probably free is better because the illusion of free "sells" easier to clients.

# 1. Software - free or paid ?

When we talk about free software we often think and want to think that it is also open source so it's safe to have and adopt such options, but there are also free software and apps made by companies for their profit even if it's free for you in appearance.

Examples:
 - a free app that has advertisements everywhere
 - a free app and service like Whatsapp that can be used by the company that made it to track people behaviors to build advertisement profile and maybe even sell data for their profit

# 2. Services

Similarly, services can exist for free in appearance.

Examples:
 - gmail
 - facebook
 - apple ecosystem

And again, these services can exist for "free" because you are the product and pay the companies in other ways.

# 3. Stuff

Now, free physical stuff is probably less common. 

Examples I can think of:
 - promotional items with a brand name on them or contact number/website (i.e. advertisement again) to sell you later other stuff
 - free snacks or food sponsored by some entity for a reason (often of financial gain in the future)
 - real donation from people or even organizations (sometimes non-profit and no hidden agendas) without any strings attached

The last point is normally rare because of the costs involved and sustainability of the donation.


We all know that paid version of these things exists (paid software - example: MS Office, paid services - example: haircut, paid stuff - example: food and clothes).

But question remains, which is better ?

Probably there is no easy answer. It all depends on:
 - preferences of quality (and paid does not always mean better quality)
 - affordability
 - beliefs, ideologies, customs, lifestyle, religion, etc.