Why Free Software Matters
"Free" is a loaded word in software. It can mean free as in beer, free as in speech, or free as in "we'll charge you later." At Hicya, when we say free, we mean something specific: our software costs nothing to use, and that will never change.
But this isn't just about pricing. It's about what kind of software ecosystem we want to live in.
The Problem with Ad-Supported Software
The dominant business model in consumer software is advertising. You get the app for free, and in exchange, the company sells your attention (and your data) to advertisers.
This creates a fundamental misalignment. The company's real customer is the advertiser, not you. So the software is designed to maximize the metrics advertisers care about — time spent, engagement, clicks — rather than the metrics you care about, like actually getting value from the product.
The result? Apps that interrupt you with notifications to drive "engagement." Interfaces designed to be addictive rather than useful. Privacy policies that read like data collection wishlists.
The Subscription Trap
Subscriptions were supposed to fix this. Pay a monthly fee, and the company's incentives align with yours — they need to keep you happy to keep you paying.
In practice, it hasn't worked out that way. Many subscription apps still collect and sell data. Prices creep up over time. Features you used to have get locked behind higher tiers. And the cumulative cost of subscribing to everything adds up fast.
A Different Approach
At Hicya, we build software that's genuinely free. No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no premium tiers. The software is the product, and you're the user — not the other way around.
This means:
- We design for utility, not engagement. Our goal is to help you do what you came to do, not to keep you scrolling.
- We respect your data. We collect only what's necessary to make the product work and we never sell it.
- We respect your attention. No notification spam, no dark patterns, no manufactured urgency.
- We build for everyone. When software is free, it's accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation.
How Is This Sustainable?
This is the question we get most often. If the software is free, how do you keep the lights on?
The honest answer: we keep our costs low and our team small. We don't have a sales team, a marketing department, or a fleet of servers running ad-tech infrastructure. We build lean, efficient software and host it affordably.
We're also exploring sustainable funding models that don't compromise our values — things like voluntary donations, grants, and partnerships with organizations that share our mission.
Why It Matters
Free software matters because it proves there's an alternative. You don't have to accept ads in exchange for using an app. You don't have to hand over your data to play a puzzle game. You don't have to subscribe to yet another service just to use a basic tool.
We're building the software we want to use. We think you might want to use it too.
If this resonates with you, check out Vexling — our multi-game puzzle platform — and let us know what you think at hi@hicya.org.