PAY FOR WHAT?: Brave previewed its new "Origin" browser a few weeks ago, asking users to start paying for a category of software that has been free for decades. Now the company is officially launching the stable release. At $60, the price tag is raising eyebrows – and prompting some users to ask why they should pay to have features removed that they never wanted in the first place.
Brave says its new "Origin" package delivers a premium web experience, but the one-time fee applies to all supported platforms except Linux. The San Francisco-based company developed Origin in response to user demand, pitching it as a fast, private browsing tool, and a new way to financially sustain the broader Brave project.
Brave is also making an argument it believes every web user should have internalized by now: there is no such thing as a truly free browser.
Chrome, it says, turns every user into the product, with Google harvesting vast amounts of personal data to fuel its advertising business. The standard, free version of Brave already works to block the worst offending trackers through its Shields system, while keeping the company financially viable through Web3 domains, privacy-first advertising (though hurting many websites in that process), a VPN, and other optional services.
