Ninite Review: Install or Update Freeware Programs

Keeping your software up-to-date is an annoyance. Can you even imagine how many times you’ve clicked “Next”, “Next”, “Next” and “Finish”? If you install a ton of applications and want an easier way of keeping them up-to-date, Ninite is probably one of the best tools for you. In this blog post, I’ll share my experiences with both the Ninite installer and the paid updater.

Ninite Installer

Installing great freeware has never been easier! Ninite promises to download 92 of the most popular programs in one go. And it does what it promises! Just go to Ninite’s website and select a bunch of apps.

Once you’re set, click on “Download installer” and run the file on your PC.

Ninite then automatically downloads all of the programs you selected and silently installs them—meaning that you will never need to click on “Next” again. The tool even detects and selects the correct language for you.

What I also liked about Ninite is the fact that it skips toolbar installations. Plus, when you re-run the installer again, you’ll automatically get the latest versions. Speaking of updates, there’s also an easier way to get updates (as well as notifications) without having to re-download all of your programs again.

Ninite Updater

Ninite Updater promises to keep more than 92 freeware applications up-to-date for $9.99 per year. Let’s see if it’s really worth the price.

After a small download and quick install, I got the following message:

Upon launching the updater, Ninite showed that I needed to update Flash, Silverlight and Adobe Reader that were previously installed on my system.

While keeping these three products up-to-date is extremely important (especially in terms of security), I was a bit disappointed that none of my installed programs, such as Google Chrome, Shark007 codec pack, Cyberlink PowerDVD, FileZilla, Media Player Classic, K-Lite TeamViewer and WinRar, got their updates.

Before testing Ninite Updater, I made sure that I had slightly older software. The tool supports Google Chrome, TeamViewer and K-Lite, so I wonder what happened here. However, I still think Ninite is a good deal if you’re using a good portion of the 92 freeware products.

Freeware collectors, enjoy!

I think Ninite is the perfect tool for anyone who’s in the habit of installing freeware programs. It will just save you a lot of time in the long run. I don’t even dare count the hours I’ve spent clicking “Next” and selecting the right options during applications’ setup.

Ninite Updater is also a great tool to easily and quickly ensure that your freeware applications are current. However, the one thing that’s missing for me is support for commercial products that don’t have a built-in updating mechanism.