To give context I'm from MVPS as well and was there from the beta. Pretty much the owner keeps making promises and then going long gaps without updating only to return and then promise it will not happen again with even more promises. Before this disappearance the owner went missing while a bug rendered any older user or their site's members unable to even see the site. It redirected for months to another site. May I add that I was contacted by another person who was asking me where the owner was because she promised to help this person program on their site (not related to MVPS) but was not responding to their contact attempts.
It was very much
NOT %100 free. You have to spend money to to upgrade your site to get much done. I've spend over $50-60 (maybe more thanks to USD to GBP charges) on upgrading my site so I most certainly did not get what I what you pay for. Sorry to be sharp but unless you know the full story it's not the same..at all.