Yesterday an email came through from Guidance stating that they are now taking pre-orders for their new EnCase Portable product. The email didn’t contain any pricing infomation, as is typical in this day and age, but went on to extoll the wonderful features of said product.
Later, while looking at the emails I receive from the CCE mailing list I was shocked to see that someone was reporting that the cost of EnCase Portable is $2995 per license plus $599 for a year’s maintenance. So the obvious question would be: Has Guidance completely lost the plot?
This software is used solely for acquiring data so why is it more expensive that buying a single license of EnCase Forensic edition? With a little training (and significantly less cost) an acquisition of a computer could be made with a forensic boot disc instead. If you want to accomplish the same thing as EnCase Portable you could create a logical evidence file by using Windows FE (Forensic Edition) with EnCase Forensic installed.
One has to wonder at this pricing, especially when competing products are becoming more mainstream and receiving more public backing.
These prices have come from an email and may not be accurate, I will state when I’ve been able to confirm.
******UPDATE*******
A comment has been left by someone claiming to represent Guidance Software. This comment reads:
“Guidance Software contacted customers this week offering its maximum discount initial purchases—$750 for government and $900 for commercial customers. This product is all about convenience and leveraging available resources to make forensically sound collections to help the experts do their jobs. Guidance Software is also offering free training, even for non-customers, in August.”
We shall see if this pans out.
7 responses to “Update: EnCase Portable Pricing – HOLY (insert expletive here)”
Maybe they must refinance that hightech promotional video. I heard steven spielberg directed it and stephen king wrote the plot 😉
Last time I bought a copy of EnCase Forensic with ProSuite, it was over $6,500. $2,995 would seem like a bargain in comparison, but yes, I totally agree. Their pricing model has become corporate; cops can’t afford it anymore.
That does seem outrageous. Another opportunity for AccessData to create something. (Hint hint)
Hey Lee, saw you in the chat on Forensics Radio Sunday.
Not sure what to make of it, but I keep getting Emails from the folks at Helix offering several hundred dollars off their new paid version. So not sure if they are doing good business, either.
Guidance Software contacted customers this week offering its maximum discount initial purchases—$750 for government and $900 for commercial customers. This product is all about convenience and leveraging available resources to make forensically sound collections to help the experts do their jobs. Guidance Software is also offering free training, even for non-customers, in August.
Can you recommend software that are alternative to encase and does the same job (imaging and evidence gathering/analysis)? I would like to venture into forensics. Can it also conduct forensics on mobile phones? If not, what forensic software can you recommend for mobile devices? Thank you.
FTK Imager is free from the AccessData website.