well see, my priroties are as follows.
1. I always try to find open source FOSS alternative of every service that is privacy friendly and ofc open source so i can see code.
If i got alternative of the service i am looking for, and it can replace service and fullfilling my work from that particular tool , so i go for that.
2. If i get alternative, and the open source is not got the features that i am looking for then,
i will try to find license keys , or whatever licensing system tool is using for paid versions.
3. if i am unable to get license key, etc. then finally i do download crack file, activator, keygen etc stuff
and i do manual file analysing with help of some tools in my 2nd pc that i mainly use for checking malwares and other stuff, and from there i check crack file and remove malwares and trying to make file clean, or simply generating licnese keys/ codes from there and using on my main pc with official site download link and using codes.
thats my approach of getting paid tools or premium versions of any tool, or better open source alternative for every app.
And most important, my main focus is always on the privacy policy page of every service of what data they are taking from me.
If i am ok with privacy policy then only i use those tools, else i keep searching for some alternatives that are open source...
"Data is the Money" and i am trying to stop my data being going to companies and maintining my privacy