I've been using mGalaxy for a few months now, it's one of the best frontend packages I've used to date. I've had a few issues related to specific MAME romsets (I use 0.139u1, as this is the latest working Android build, and prefer to use the same romset across devices), and download their corresponding artwork/covers.
Being updated regularly doesn't make software value for money, especially if everything works. Sure major version updates are understandable, but not bugfixes for existing features. For example, the issues I've had regarding artwork/covers, I have since discovered this issue is related to being able to log into the server, a issue fixed in version 8. This issue relates to a existing feature to version 7.x, adding the ability to login to the server is potentially a bugfix, yet it has been introduced into a major update. It essentially leaves those who purchased a version 7.x, with a "broken" application. This isn't very fair, and has somewhat put me off purchasing a premium licence. It also took over 6 months for this to be addressed, which does IMHO seem like an excessive amount of time for something relatively crucial to a feature of mGalaxy to be fixed.
I respect the developer's choice in how they licence their software, but it does put me off purchasing. $45 to some is very little, but to others that is a huge amount of money! The current paid version appears to focus on skins, something personally I'm not overly bothered about, for me full feature functionality is way more important. It would be nice to see some sort of open beta project, allowing those who are unable to support the devs by means of funds, to give back a little. Possibly this group could have full feature ability, allowing new features to be fully tested on a multitude of devices. A win, win for both Dev and user.
Regarding the latest version 8 download, when will that become available to free users?