Product lifecycle decisions

Softosaur preserves the history of retired software at its original product URL.

Four public states

Active products, products with ended sales and products with ended support remain in the active catalog. Only Discontinued products leave active categories, paid placement, new comparisons and recommendations.

Evidence and human review

A discontinued status requires an explicit retirement statement, or evidence that normal sales and support have ended. A rename, acquisition, missing price page, timeout or inaccessible website does not establish discontinuation.

Monitoring signals can request review. An editor makes the public decision, records its reason and supporting sources, and can restore a product if it returns. Vendor feedback follows the same moderation process.

Historical facts and prices

Old answers, price assertions, user reviews and vendor responses remain available. Historical prices are not current offers. Unknown dates remain unknown; a year or month is displayed with its original precision.

Active alternatives

An active official replacement appears first where one is documented. Other suggestions are active products in the same category, ordered with the usual ranking methodology. A subscription does not make a discontinued product eligible for recommendation.