There are differences between free and paid. Vimalin is available for free if needed, but you have access to more features when you buy a license.
You will always be able to make and restore backups with the free version.
You are welcome to do so, because if you have a good backup of your important VM’s then an important part of our mission has already succeeded.
Of course we prefer that you support ongoing development by buying a license. However our main mission is that VMware users of the desktop products VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation Professional have a good backup.
Having said that, here is the list of the differences between free and paid:
| Feature | Free | Paid |
| Backup VM’s that are shut down | Yes | Yes |
| Backup running virtual machines | Yes | Yes |
| Add notes to your backup | Yes | Yes |
| Compress backup to save space | Yes | Yes |
| Decompress backup | Yes | Yes |
| Detect existing backups on disk | Yes | Yes |
| Manage backups in backup archive | Yes | Yes |
| Backup to local disk | Yes | Yes |
| Support for multiple hosts | No | Yes |
| Backup to network location | No | Yes |
| Schedule backup jobs to run at a specific time | No | Yes |
| Send an email confirmation about a scheduled backup | No | Yes |
| Get our support via email | No | Yes |
| Support ongoing development | No | Yes |