I wonder how they can do this without compromising sales of their main product -- it seems like many people can now just use the free version linked from ux.se instead of getting a proper myBalsamiq account.
I've been at the table where Balsamiq has been purchased before. Here's a conversation I've had three times.
Me: So here's my concept for a redesign of the $FOO page. You'll notice that I moved the conversion buttons to ...
Engineer: Oh that's cool. What did you do that in?
Me: Balsamiq Mockups. It is a design tool written by a buddy of mine which...
Engineer: How much? (and/or Why not just use Photoshop? and/or You didn't pay for that, did you? You can do it in Excel.)
Decisionmaker: Doesn't matter. Get a copy for everyone, put it on the company card. You were saying, Patrick?
[Addendum regarding strategic use of freebies: Peldi emailed me a license key when asking for a review way back in like 2007. I don't think I ever actually blogged a formal review, but that email has been a big win for both of us over the years. He's got a Marketing For Startups blog post where he discusses that technique in detail. It's still one of the best actionable posts I've ever read.
http://blogs.balsamiq.com/product/2008/08/05/startup-marketi... ]
I don't read names first for some reason, but reading this, I thought to myself, "heh, sounds like Patrick". You're consistently great.
For a counter-anecdote, I will say that in +10 years of a software career I have never, not even once, seen a "decision maker" say anything near "Doesn't matter. Get a copy for everyone, put it on the company card." ¥
¥ Most likely because that would be a stupid and reckless thing to say.
It's also really obvious marketing -- Balsamiq now has exposure on a site that is its target market. Every visitor to the UX StackExchange is a potential customer, so it makes perfect business sense to integrate.
As soon as someone thinks, "I wonder where I can make mockups like those really cool-looking ones on StackExchange?" Balsamiq wins.
That said, there's one thing we did to prevent people from using the UX.SE.COM integration as a non-nagging web version: you cannot export from the editor, just Import. You can only save the BMML from the publicly posted image of the mockup on the UX question page. So if you want to save your work, you have to do it in public. Not a huge step, but we think it's enough.
Peldi
ux.stackexchange.com is exactly their target demo. Normally a company like Balsamiq would pay for ads on a site like this, that would entice you to try their free demo. This cuts out that step, they can try a basic version of the software right on page. And it's good for the ux.se community too.
Pretty brilliant move.
It's a good question but generally the overwhelming majority of customers of such products can easily afford them.
One way to think about it is imagine wanting a crunch bar. You can pay fifty cents in the vending machine steps from your desk. Or you can do down two levels and get it for free from your buddy. If I have fifty cents, I'd almost certainly just get it from the vending machine without even thinking twice(it's too little money).
Now if I was so terribly broke or inconvenienced because I had no quarters(and the machine only took quarters), it'd be a whole different thing and I'd go for the free one.
You can pretty much do that now by using the web demo at balsamiq.com anyway. You'll get a tiny nag screen every 5 minutes, but seeing that once or twice over the course of a quick mockup sketch isn't such a big deal.