23 Comments

I developed Directory Monitor a couple years ago because of a need that could not be satisfied by any software on the internet. This was a great exercise in developing and releasing software online using PAD files and also keeping customers happy with feature requests and automatic updates.

I kept it up to date for free (thanks to some donations) and got a pretty good reception from people using it (check out the comments on my previous blog), won plenty of awards, made it on blog articles and software websites etc. Directory Monitor is currently being used by almost 11,000 users, not to mention it was downloaded 120,000 times last year. Everything was going so well I decided I was going to offer a paid for version with requested features like running it as a service, that was until I was looking at reviews and competing software…

This is a screenshot of what directory monitor looks like so you have something to compare to:

Bad Reviews

A review from “brain” on Softpedia blew me away. He goes on to conclude that the software is quote “A nice idea implemented using the wrong tools” because it requires .NET 3.5. The rating weren’t exactly flattering either. His final verdict, good--, how clever [insert insult here]++.

Competing Software

Seeing as I had to make Directory Monitor really good to justify asking users for money I wanted to see what I was up against. I was surprised to see how much competition had appeared and even more surprised at how bad it is (images link directly to the third party websites, if any of them are not visible let me know).

1. 365DirMon – This is such plagiarism it’s not even funny. The grid is a nice touch but even calling it “Directory monitor expert” with it’s retro 16 colour icons (256 at most) is a huge exaggeration:

2. TheFolderSpy – This guy “will” on ILoveFreeSoftware blatantly says that this is “a better program” than Directory Monitor. Curious since it also highlights all the features that I offer I stumbled upon this green monstrosity which also claims to be “the ultimate” hard disk monitoring tool:

This is also rated a staggering 4.4 (at time of writing) on Softpedia compared to the measly 3.0 rating that Directory Monitor gets. Can someone explain this?

3. Monitor Folder For Changes Software 7.0 – Not only is this in version 7.0 (that’s right, not a typo) but they are charging $20 for this:

This is also rated higher than Directory Monitor on Softpedia with a rating of 3.1 (at time of writing).

Conclusion

Doing this quick investigation really opened my eyes and actually irritated the hell out of me. I’m not bitter (not much) but I’m definitely going to update Directory Monitor soon…

So the question is, with this brutal competition and bold claims why do people rate bad software so highly? I would love to hear your comments.