Why Free? How will Comodo Make Money?

[Melih]

@Staind post:20

Exactly! It’s a very good strategy and I think it will work out. It’s very aggressive and innovative. Not only are your security products excellent, but also your business planning is as well

Thanks! we would like to innovate at every level
;D

Melih

[V4V]

Hi,

I have only come to know of the existence of Comodo last week and I am testing it out on my windows pc’s. I like the GUI and so far it is running great also without confilicts with other downloaders, security software (Avast AV and Sunbelt Counterspy) and browsers.
I have tried Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, Kerio and Outpost in the past.
Sunbelt-Kerio is also great (not completely free) but it somehow caused a lot of BSoD’s (yikes!!) on my XPsp2. Outpost completely crippled my internet connection so I had to uninstall it.

I think it’s really great that you are offering this level of a product for absolutely free. Your strategy in offering free security to the enduser and building up trust in the internet community will in the end lead you to a greater success, like you have already mentioned.
It is also good that you guyz have a forum like this, because, the active interaction with a larger pool of users will create accordingly a larger and wider knowledge base for the benefit of the whole. 8)

However like someone has mentioned already, it still would be nice to have an option to donate without any ties. I think a lot of people would like to show a sign of appreciation for a good product, especially in these days where everything has a price. (Even if it is only a couple of dollars…). This way you could use your comodo SSL on it as a demo, too. So far I’ve seen a lot of Verisign logos on SSL sites, but I don’t have come across any Comodo SSL logos. (Maybe I have never noticed it… sorry!)

Thank you for your good work.

[Melih]

@V4V post:22

Hi,

I have only come to know of the existence of Comodo last week and I am testing it out on my windows pc’s. I like the GUI and so far it is running great also without confilicts with other downloaders, security software (Avast AV and Sunbelt Counterspy) and browsers.
I have tried Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, Kerio and Outpost in the past.
Sunbelt-Kerio is also great (not completely free) but it somehow caused a lot of BSoD’s (yikes!!) on my XPsp2. Outpost completely crippled my internet connection so I had to uninstall it.

I think it’s really great that you are offering this level of a product for absolutely free. Your strategy in offering free security to the enduser and building up trust in the internet community will in the end lead you to a greater success, like you have already mentioned.
It is also good that you guyz have a forum like this, because, the active interaction with a larger pool of users will create accordingly a larger and wider knowledge base for the benefit of the whole. 8)

However like someone has mentioned already, it still would be nice to have an option to donate without any ties. I think a lot of people would like to show a sign of appreciation for a good product, especially in these days where everything has a price. (Even if it is only a couple of dollars…). This way you could use your comodo SSL on it as a demo, too. So far I’ve seen a lot of Verisign logos on SSL sites, but I don’t have come across any Comodo SSL logos. (Maybe I have never noticed it… sorry!)

Thank you for your good work.

Thanks V4V

It certainly is in our wish list to create the ability to contribute to charities. As to how long it will take, i don’t have an answer yet.

Well, yes Verisign might have slightly more SSL out there then we do, but that’s only temporary

Melih

[nixda]

@Melih post:3

We are already an operationally profitable company. We have been in existence since 1998. We are the 2nd largest Certification Authority in the world (after Verisign)

(WCF11)

O.K., one person less which did not know that before. Before some notes about some good freeware offered here at Comodo, I never heard about your company (sorry) … or I do not remember it. And I am using 15+ years the Net. So, maybe your way is not so wrong.

Nixda

[r2baruch]

@Melih post:5

No most definitely we are not!

We already have hundreds of thousands of (if not low millions) users using our free products. We have a good customer care dept and have created enough infrastructure for the customer care to be minimal. So we will scale well plus we have lots of good people in the forums who are kind enough to help with Comodo users which help reduce customer support costs.

Melih

I can vouch for the helpfulness of the forums and the promptness of the support staff when I dropped them a line.
Keep up the good work and what seems to be well on the way to becoming a great product.

[BullHorn]

The way Comodo’s free software progresses, Comodo will soon control the internet security market. (:NRD)

(L)

[Melih]

@BullHorn post:26

The way Comodo’s free software progresses, Comodo will soon control the internet security market. (:NRD)

(L)

Well, people have dreams! My dream is to secure the internet, and the best way of doing it is by shaping its future!

Melih

[AMADHA]

@Melih post:23

Thanks V4V

It certainly is in our wish list to create the ability to contribute to charities. As to how long it will take, i don’t have an answer yet.

Well, yes Verisign might have slightly more SSL out there then we do, but that’s only temporary

Melih

As the president of a small charity that provides services to Autistic Children having a method to securely obtain donations online that didn’t cost an arm an a leg would be nice but that’s within the infrastructure of our ISP. We can lobby, but it’s their choice and we live with it. Regardless, thanks for thinking of us.

However, I believe that the original respondent was requesting that you establish a mechanism that we, your grateful and ecstatic users, could send some cash your way. So we can say “thank-you” with various cash amounts from very small to big to support the free products you provide. This would monetize the service in some small way. (Also, when your AV hits production and buries (or ties) the current standards in a test like the one recently run by Consumers Report, perhaps corporate America will sit up and take notice. If you are commited to free desktops, regardless of location, perhaps a “recommended” corporate donation of 10% of the previous license costs to further development and support would be reasonable? For my company that’s a big savings and still a chunk of change for the recipient.)

I know I’d throw a few personal dollars at you if this service was available. (It would also provide an active demo of your core service.)

[Melih]

@AMADHA post:28

As the president of a small charity that provides services to Autistic Children having a method to securely obtain donations online that didn’t cost an arm an a leg would be nice but that’s within the infrastructure of our ISP. We can lobby, but it’s their choice and we live with it. Regardless, thanks for thinking of us.

However, I believe that the original respondent was requesting that you establish a mechanism that we, your grateful and ecstatic users, could send some cash your way. So we can say “thank-you” with various cash amounts from very small to big to support the free products you provide. This would monetize the service in some small way. (Also, when your AV hits production and buries (or ties) the current standards in a test like the one recently run by Consumers Report, perhaps corporate America will sit up and take notice. If you are commited to free desktops, regardless of location, perhaps a “recommended” corporate donation of 10% of the previous license costs to further development and support would be reasonable? For my company that’s a big savings and still a chunk of change for the recipient.)

I know I’d throw a few personal dollars at you if this service was available. (It would also provide an active demo of your core service.)

Thanks for the response. Well, we don’t want donations to go to Comodo. I understand that our user’s wish to express their appreciations thru donations to Comodo, however, we have other revenue streams that we rely on and we very much want to channel “user appreciation” donations to Charities.

The world would be a much worse place without the good work that charities do. At Comodo we try to follow a responsible business model in order to better life for the human race and the world! Helping the organisations that tries to better lives of millions of human beings out there is one of the ways that Comodo can help.

Melih