I just had the message that my latest trial version has expired - this is expected, but normally it then converts to freeware for another 6 months. This time however, I've got until November, after which there's no more freeware.
I've tried using SQL Dev but I'm not keen on it, after using TOAD for many years. My last company did buy a licence but my current one won't, they say it's too expensive.
I tried to click on the 'why we're doing this' link, but I just got a page not found error.
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Hi Tracey, I apologize that no one from Quest had responded. We have moved away from Freeware, but we are now offering a new subscription offering that we are running a promotion on right now for $195 for the first year. Here is a link to the details.
Hope this helps.
Marketing : "We heard you. Toad® for Oracle Freeware users have always told us they would rather use the restriction-free commercial version but it is just too expensive. To meet this need, we are changing our focus and replacing Toad for Oracle Freeware with a more affordable commercial version of our award-winning product. We now offer a single user subscription license of Toad for Oracle Base Edition for only US$195 for the first year."
Reality : "Even though TOAD was purchased from the original author with the contractual agreement there will always be a free version available, we are no longer offering a free version. But we're going to try to dress it up with marketing spiel like we're doing you a favour for charging you nearly $200 a year this time, and then about $500 per year in following years." 
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Hi Paul,
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of what agreements were or were not made when TOAD was originally acquired (that was way before my time), but I have forwarded your comments and concerns up to management for review, and I have been informed they are looking into it.
In the meantime, Toad for Oracle Subscription was created to help individual users be able to purchase and stay up-to-date with the latest features, fixes, and enhancements of Toad for Oracle as we release new versions. If you'd prefer not to use the Subscription-based product, we also still have our non-subscription Toad for Oracle product which can be purchased either through your Quest sales rep or on Quest.com's website. How to purchase and maintain your license of Toad for Oracle is still very much up to the user to choose.
I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. Please feel free to let us know if you have any others or if there's anything else we can do.
Thanks for letting us know about your concerns!
-John
Hi John
Thanks for your reply. It doesn't really affect me as I've always been a TOAD purchased license user, but I feel for people that use TOAD Free version, who only use a bit of the functionality like run a few queries every day or the odd script - I know plenty of people like that. They would never need 95% of what it is in the base version and would now have to pay several hundred dollars every year.
Although Quest will make money from Free Toad users who now have to move to the subscription, I think they'll lose many customers too - an exodus to free products, like SQL Developer, especially when the higher subscription rate kicks in after the first year. They'll also lose the Freeware users who naturally transition to other versions, through familiarity with it and who do more advanced Oracle stuff as their career progresses.
I especially think it's disingenuous for your marketing department to try to sell this change as a "benefit" to Toad Free users, it really isn't. They now have to pay, where before they didn't - it really is that black and white. It would've been better to be candid about it, saying you were no longer supporting the Free version due to rising costs and the maintenance of multiple code branches or something.
I was involved with TOAD from the very early days, when Jim McDaniel was authoring it - probably early 90s, but can't quite remember. I contributed components to the source and tested a lot of the releases and Betas, along with a handful of others. When Jim sold TOAD, he told us early adopters that part of the contract for the sale of TOAD was a stipulation that there would always be a free version of the product. If that statement was true, it might appear that has either been renegotiated, or conveniently forgotten about in favour of the green stuff. The cynic in me suspects the latter, it's the way of the world.
Regards, Paul.
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I've been using TOAD since the late 90's. My current company wouldn't pay for a license so I've been using the freeware version. I've tried alternatives but much prefer TOAD, even with the freeware limitations. I might be able to afford the intro subscription for the first year - but if it goes up in price after that, I'll be forced to move away unless my company will pay (unlikely). There must be many people like me whose custom you will end up losing forever. I would accept a freeware version which is limited as now and where no further enhancements/versions were made!
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