It all depends on what you need to do. Here is a link to side-by-side comparisons of the paid version and freeware (paid is relatively inexpensive!). You can't do encryption, compression is for speed only, not size, no wizards, no table level restores, no support...I guess it depends on what your needs truly are. For normal backups and restores with compression, it should be fine.

http://www.idera.com/Products/SQLsafefree/