Hangar Addons launches with 'free means free' as its founding rule.

A new home for flight sim addons opened this month for MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024, and X-Plane, built on a rule its founder says the dominant platforms drifted from: no download timers, no ad walls, no premium tier. Everything on the site is free.

What the rule means
The about page is explicit: the site will never force an ad before a download, never throttle speeds to push a paid tier, and there is no paid tier. The most it will ever run to cover infrastructure costs is plain inline ads — sidebar or between posts, no pop-ups or pre-roll, and no countdown timers.

Creator terms
The founder went to creators before builders, with an open call on the official MSFS forums that set the terms in plain language. Creators keep ownership, get credit and a link to their own site or Discord, keep their licensing and distribution requirements, and can withdraw anything on request. Only content a creator explicitly authorizes gets hosted.

Who's behind it
Hangar Addons is Michael Geise, a principal engineer who ran NFSCars for over 15 years — one of the largest Need for Speed modding hubs, hosting more than 50,000 community cars and drawing over 20 million page views a month at its peak, by his account. He frames the older addon model as treating the community as something to be monetized rather than served; this site exists because he wanted a version that doesn't.

Early signs
Got Friends, which pulled content during the 2023 Flightsim.to boycott over its premium membership and revenue-sharing program, is one of the first developers to sign on — describing the move as supporting a community project rather than leaving any existing home. The library is young but moving: 139 addons and 797 total downloads in its first week of public life.

Sources: hangaraddons.com/about, MSFS Addons, official MSFS forums