.NET Reflector’s Prices Have … Doubled?

For those who know me know I’m a huge fan of RedGate’s .NET Reflector. I’ve used it since the days it was originally released for free (before RedGate’s announcement on Feb 2, 2011). Since then, I’ve held onto my copy, which according to its license terms says I can use my copy as long as I want. It just so happens that my copy never came with full Visual Studio integration, something I would like, but don’t necessarily require. A while back I was looking at this functionality and even considering RedGate’s VS edition of Reflector going for $65 at the time (this supported full VS integration). It seemed reasonable, and I almost considered getting it, but ended up not pulling the trigger. Now, I sort of wish I had, because that same edition now costs a humble $130. In fact, all three editions have seen all doubled in price:

I tried finding the original prices using WayBackMachine … but it seems like RedGate offers dynamic pricing versus static pricing, so pricing didn’t even show up. If anyone has a screen capture of the original prices and would like to share, feel free to send it my way. BUT, I was able to find this, dating back to March 10, 2011 … Version 7 starting at $35. (Note: you can also see the Feb 2, 2011 announcement when they decided to switch Reflector over to a paid for product.) I’m not sure when RedGate put in the official price changes, as they have nothing on their site stating the increase, it just happened.

This is quite a shame really, .NET Reflector was one of my favorite .NET decompilers. But for now, I will have to continue using my previous edition and have to deal with no VS integration, because there’s no way I’m spending $130 simply for VS integration.

On another note, there are only two updates on RedGate’s “update” page. One shows the new release of Version 7 and the other announcement is the announcement that .NET Reflector is no longer free. That’s it. No announcement of future price increases, no other announcements on the future of Reflect, nada. I’m not against a price increase in general, I personally believe if you have a great product (which .NET Reflector is) you have every right to sell it, but doubling your prices instead of a slow increase, plus without notifying your customers, that I don’t like.

Another I noticed was the extended 30 day free trial (originally only 14 days):

I still don’t think this makes up for the drastic price increase.

Hopefully, RedGate will change their minds about the price increases (or offer a lower priced edition), especially with other comparable free alternatives.