Major Price Slash for Newsbin Pro

[zot]

The cost of a *lifetime* license for Newsbin Pro just went from $35 to $15. A better deal than Newsleecher - which costs $20 per year - as well as a better news client, in my opinion. (like Newsleecher, Newsbin's search function costs extra)

If anyone was sitting on the fence, maybe this price slash will be good incentive to take the plunge for what is arguably the best binary newsreader out there.

And before anyone says "just use a cracked copy" - I should add that there are as yet no Version 6 cracked releases available (AFAICT).

www.newsbin.com

[Hypatia]

well..
lets take a look at a subscription for a year.

newsbin. one time payment is $15
+ search service $60/(!!)year
And as of now their built-in search is somewhat a joke. Well, at least when talking about servers update rate which is slower than of FREE WEB INDEX SITES

newsleecher - $30/year ( very good search service included, that is when it works lol)


I confirm that as a newsreader NB is better than newsleecher which is still buggy and lacks lots of features.
BUT newsbin search suckz hairy ballz compared to newsleechers.


And also.. speaking of what i consider the most sophisticated(in a good sense) newsreader out there -Usenet Explorer(many useful features, the most stable, the best of the best)

$35/year . Very good search service included supporting boolean wildmats and great uptime. When your search subscription expires you can still use this newsreader just without a built-in search.
And it doesnt connect to an authentication server. Uses very little memory, doesnt need to be installed, very easy to move around etc etc

But this software requires some experience.
One needs some time to fully recognize its full potential. And it pays off later, of course
http://usenetexplorer.com


This comes strictly from experience. Ive used for a long time newsbin\nmewsleecher\usenet explorer and i even gave crappy ultraleecher a try

[sandman_1]

I like NB Pro 5 but beta 6 sucks IMO. They claim b6 is better, faster, ect. but I tried it out and found it more convoluted than v5 and slower. I have no issues with v5.

I do not use their paid search service. Why pay when you have ones on the net for free?

[Hypatia]

Why pay when you have ones on the net for free?

- free web index sites can be a subject to DMCA takedowns (like nzbindex, it has a certain icon-notice and takedown)
- free web index sites sometimes dont index stuff you have to jump between them
- update rate is slow.sometimes you need stuff right now and fast without getting headers
- since they are free you never know when they might go down
- some built-in search engines allow complex search queries
- its more convenient
imho

[nntpjunkie]

I don't use paid searches, unless you count VIP with NZBMatrix as paid....nominal fee for like 10 years of return Newsbin Pro has been a favorite of mine since '99 and it remains still to be the most powerful and feature rich newsreader on the planet IMHO. Newsleecher blows at least in terms of the fact that they are now charging for an app that is so simple it should be free and the search service is over priced IMHO. SABnzbd/Newsbin pro and nzbmatrix is all you need This is an awesome deal, thanks for the post.

[zot]

All good points, Hypatia.

I was not really comparing the cost of search-engine service - as it's something that I think tends to be over-priced anyway.

Until the client-based search engines start including the ability to look inside rar files, I think they're probably overall less useful than free websites like Binsearch and Mysterbin that offer this must-have feature. And as pay-services go, I think that websites like Newzbin and NZB Matrix, which index human-verified files and have a comment section, are probably a better value for the money compared to raw-search engines, which can miss a lot of scene releases (like something posted as "ro-icu2" with no other title present). The integrated search engines serve an important niche function, and a lot of people seem to like them, but to me personally they're barely worth the money, and I often don't even use mine. And software appz like Newzfinders do a decent "supersearch" for free.

Another thing worth mentioning about NewsbinPro is that the developer seems to always be 100% dedicated to the project, (perhaps with practically no outside life?). He is always there on the forum to answer questions quickly, and has been consistently, for many years. Just about all the other for-pay newsclient developers appear to have other (full-time) jobs, and do support duties in their sometimes-scarce spare time. That's just my impression, noticing the time-lag between when a person asks a question, and when the developer responds -or doesn't. Also, how fast new emerging technologies, such as SSL, NZB, and compressed headers, have been adopted. Many, like Newsleecher's developer, work very hard for awhile, then seem to lose interest (or have other priorities) and drift away from time to time. Newsbin seems to be the rare exception to this 'rule'

[jefffisher]

quick question what does, well what are the advantages of the three
newsbinpro
newsleecher
usenet explorer
why is newsbinpro so much better what does it have that the others are missing or whatever?

[zot]

quick question what does, well what are the advantages of the three
newsbinpro
newsleecher
usenet explorer
why is newsbinpro so much better what does it have that the others are missing or whatever?

Perhaps Newsbin Pro's biggest advantage over Newsleecher and Usenet Explorer is that it does not have their annoyances. Although lacking their best features, Newsbin is a good compromise between UE's power and complexity and Newsleecher's simplicity and ease-of-use.
Unlike most free clients, all 3 support compressed headers, as well as fill-servers.

Newsbin:

Pro: low price client w/ lifetime upgrades, always cutting-edge, good tech support.

Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

Newsleecher:

Pro: Easiest and most intuitive (of the 3) to use, good search function.

Con: Most invasive DRM, client won't work at all whenever license-verification server goes down. Can lock up or crash a PC if connection goes down. Developer often goes AWOL for long periods, service sometimes unreliable and in disrepair.

Usenet Explorer: Full-function Newsreader/NZB grabber/binary poster all-in-one

Pro: very advanced/extreme configurability, efficient coding, low resource use. No DRM, no installation needed/ can work as "portable" and free trial can be re-used over and over without requiring registry-scrubbing. If a downloaded file is too incomplete for pars to repair, a fill server can be added later, and it will only download the missing parts skipped in the first cycle. (most other clients force you to 'start over')

Con: Not intuitive, highly complicated and confusing for many people; simple tasks like starting/pausing/resuming an NZB can take a long time to figure out.


Some observations:

When Astraweb's compresssed header standard first came out, Newsbin and UE quickly jumped on it. Newsleecher users were still begging for compressed header support a year later.

I find it most ironic that although UE's lack of DRM would make it very easy to crack, no cracked copies ever seem to get released, going back years.

I can't remember if it is Newsleecher or Newsbin (or maybe both?) that injects a tagline ad on every post it makes. To me, that's ridiculous for a paid newsreader to force upon a user - free newsreaders don't even stoop that low - but then as pure binary clients they originally did not even support reading/posting text messages at all.

[Hypatia]

what he said!!

i totally agree with zot's minireview.

[sandman_1]

@zot

Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

They do have a standalone install. If you go to their download page and to the Help section, it is the last bulleted item. Had to do that one time because for some reason my PC couldn't communicate with their server to install NB v5.

@hypatia

Never had any problems finding content on the free search sites like Binsearch, NZBIndex, or Mysterbin. I have used NB Pro's Internet Search before, when they do a free weekend every now and again, and it isn't any better than the free ones I use all the time.