There may be no difference between free and Pro but I fancied donating because I have been using ccleaner for years and wanted to give something back. There are two minor differences. One being in program updates rather than having to download them manually and the other is being able to turn monitoring off.
At the end of the day its what value you place on the software you use.
I can confirm that the Pro license is one time purchase.
There is a difference between the versions of CCleaner as shown on this page. CCleaner - Free Download - Piriform Back to my original question when I sent a email to Piriform I got a auto reply back. In the auto reply was a link to check my license info. By using the link Piriform sent me a email with all my license info. It showed my products, my name, my license keys, Expiration dates (blank) and download links. I'm still waiting for someone from Piriform to reply.
I am going on about 2 years with CCleaner Pro ...only paid ONCE!!! Why would anyone who paid for the Pro version , switch back to the free version....that just don't make sense.
I received a reply to my email to Piriform today. I copied the important part so others will know how the Pro license work.
"Hi,
Thank you for your email, please accept my apologies for any confusion over your license.
Our Professional licenses are valid for one year from the date of purchase. I can see that you've purchased your license on Mar 26 2015.
We've recently started to notify users when their licenses expire, to make sure that you know that you're no longer benefiting from the full Professional feature set.
When your license expires, the product will continue to work, but you will lose some additional features such as automatic updates and priority support. The remaining Professional features will continue to work."
I probably will be renewing my license just to support IMHO a great program. :)
Quote