stereo widening often sounds very different from plugin to plugin, depending on how exactly it is implemented and on the signal you are processing, sometimes its substantially different.
and comparing this for a moment it sounded better than for example pa’s stereo maker on the source material i tried it.
when comparing a1 i in the past i found that it was rather not the best sounding widener on much material in general, i compared it to several other algorithms from izotope, plugin alliance, yum, audio fb, softube and others, paid and free.
ultimutility is really a stereo-utility toolbox with phase inversion and mutes, not just the widener.
i dont see what a1 could do more, or am i missing something? as far as i see a1 has the exact same nominal features but misses phase inversion for L or R.
also ultimutility is available in aax for mac with m1 compatibility which is not usual for freebies, and i find the interface quite good for its purpose.

would you name these other free plugins that are so much better?

i think you are right in the sense that it is good to know the possibilities that are already there in the personal repertoire of tools and to use them in sensible ways.

but not every daw offers the same basic tools in the same ways, and sometimes it depends on personal workflows and preferences and also not everybody does the same job with a daw.

i use another plugin for the exact same purposes like ultimutility, because pro tools doesnt include a plugin or direct buttons for flipping the phase of just one side of a stereo channel. sure you could divide the track into two mono channels and flip the phase of one, but thats some more mouseclicks than my plugin and maybe i rather want to keep it one stereo track for some reasons.

nobody should get talked into needing plugins by marketing or things like that, but sometimes plugins do have a good purpose and reason which you just cannot see from your point of view, which is fine.
but a sensible person would go the easiest or most efficient or simply the best way and that is in some cases a plugin like this.

ok sorry, found out that i was logged in already, and it was showing 0$ for plugins that i own.
never noticed that before.

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it seems that boz digital labs is giving away some plugins for free, maybe you want to have a look on their website.
right know they offer sasquatch, claps, stomps & snaps and manic compressor for 0$.