Sorry, there is no up-to-date free version. I'll do it in the future, but for now the free version is extremely out of date and isn't supported.
I don't see how you can expect people (or well at least me
) to buy NGUI, when it is made perfectly clear that the free version is very old and shouldn't be used. What is also made very clear is the very strict "no refunds" policy.
So there isn't much of an alternative, it seems.
I can understand it not being worth the effort to not update the free version frequently, but due to the huge differences, as you say, between the current and the free version it sounds like it is probably about time to release one.
