What Just Changed

Health: New category — 13 listings. Health was the one subject the site covered offline, under Free in Real Life, and not online at all. The category opens with the crisis lines and the public references, the meditation and training apps whose free tiers are real, and three whose free tiers are not what people assume — MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind Premium on 1 October 2022, Strava's segment leaderboards went to the subscription, and Headspace's permanent free tier is a sample rather than a practice. Every claim was checked against the provider's own page.

DreamSite Site Checkup: Removed — the site changed hands. Verified Free is now owned by Sufrin Studios. The DreamSite listing and its consultation offer both carried a same-owner disclosure that stopped being true, and a disclosure that is no longer accurate is worse than no listing. Both removed rather than rewritten.

Adobe Stock Free Trial: Free Score 18 → 14; the trial's annual commitment made explicit. We described Adobe's cancellation fee as something annual-plan 'variants can carry'. Adobe's own trial page shows the annual commitment billed monthly is the default the trial enrols you in, with a published fee of half the remaining year if you cancel more than 14 days after it converts. Also records the 14-day full-refund window, a second exit our page never mentioned.

Trello: Free Score 82 → 74; the members claim corrected. Our page said the free plan included unlimited members and called that unusually generous. Atlassian capped free Workspaces at 10 collaborators on 8 April 2024 — counting guests and pending invites — and a Workspace over the limit has its boards turned view-only with automations halted. The verdict stays Free forever, because the tier really is permanent and cardless, but the score drops: three hard fences, and an overage penalty that removes access you already had.

WordPress: Split into .com and .org; free storage cut recorded. Search data showed people asking 'is WordPress free' and landing on a page about WordPress.com only. The .org/.com distinction is the answer, so each now has its own verdict: the software Truly Free, the hosted service Free-ish. Also records that WordPress.com's free storage dropped from 3GB to 1GB.

Link audit: Six listing links repaired. Checked all 161 outbound listing links. Two FTC guidance pages had 404'd after a site restructure, and four products had moved domain: Anchor to Spotify for Creators, zoom.us to zoom.com, CS50 to its course page, and Google Digital Garage into Skillshop. The Digital Garage courses remain free.

Peacock: Free tier confirmed closed to new customers. Peacock stopped offering its free ad-supported tier to new customers in January 2023; existing accounts were grandfathered. Our listing still described the free tier as available, which was wrong for anyone signing up today. Re-verified and re-graded, free score 42 to 4.

Adobe: DOJ settlement — $150M over cancellation dark patterns. Adobe settled a Department of Justice lawsuit over hidden early-termination fees and obstructive cancellation flows: $75 million in free services to affected customers, $75 million to the DOJ. Customers charged the 50% exit fee between January 2019 and July 2025 may be eligible.

Mailchimp: Free plan cut to 250 contacts. Down from 2,000 contacts in 2021, then 500, now 250 with a 500-send monthly cap. Fourth cut since the Intuit acquisition.

Crunchyroll: Free tier killed entirely. Ad-supported free streaming shut down December 31, 2025. Every plan now requires payment. Some older titles still surface on Tubi and Pluto TV.

Duolingo: Energy meter replaces hearts on mobile. The new energy system drains even on correct answers, capping most free mobile users at a couple of lessons per day. Web version still runs the gentler hearts system.

Zoom: 40-minute limit now includes 1-on-1 calls. One-on-one calls were previously unlimited on the free plan. Now all meetings hosted by free accounts cap at 40 minutes.

Amazon Prime Video: Ads added to paid plans. Even paying Prime members now see ads unless they pay an additional ad-free upcharge — a second toll booth on a service already behind a paywall.

TurboTax: FTC rules advertising deceptive. The Federal Trade Commission found Intuit's 'free' advertising deceptive — most filers who start the 'free' flow are forced into paid tiers mid-return.

Midjourney: Free trial suspended indefinitely. The ~25-generation free trial was suspended due to abuse and demand. As of July 2026 it has never returned to the main platform.

LastPass: Encrypted vaults breached. Attackers accessed encrypted password vaults. LastPass says strong master passwords protect users; security researchers noted weaker defaults on older accounts.

Intuit / TurboTax: Left IRS Free File program. Intuit withdrew from the IRS Free File partnership that required genuine free filing for low-income taxpayers, making TurboTax's 'free' its own definition rather than the IRS's.

LastPass: Free restricted to one device type. Free users can now sync passwords on mobile OR desktop, not both — crippling the core purpose of a password manager. Drove mass migration to Bitwarden.