FREE Vs paid software

hi everybody this is my first post, allthough i have been browsing for a while now. i am thinking of buying PGP purely for on demand file encryption, before i decide to buy i would like to know if there are any advantages to buying a paid for program (pgp in my case) and can they be trusted, are they as secure as the free alternatives ?. also are there any free alternatives i should consider ?. my main considerations are strong encryption and doesnt slow my system to a crawl. i would also like to be able to store my encrypted files on a usb pendrive or external drive and decrypt them at for example a friends computer without leaving any traces or leaving sensitive data ie.bank details,logins etc behind.

thanks in advance

Garry.

 

'Software is like sex: it's better when it's free'

Try http://www.freeotfe.org/

 

I have approx. 130 Apps., about 95% are Freeware and run like fun.

Many of them I got from Snapfiles, this might be worth a look at for
Pendrive use and they probably have very good freeware Apps. for
other Encrypted use.

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/usb-safeguard/usbsafeguard.html

 

.
SafeHouse does what you want. It's free, has a simple, attractive UI and will run from a USB flash drive.

www.safehousesoftware.com

 

I use GnuPG on my Linux box and it is excellent. There is also a Windows version. GnuPG is basically a FOSS version of PGP -- it does just about everything PGP does with the added advantages of being free of charge and licensed under the GPL.