Free items go through the same review as paid ones, and they arrive with the same licensing. Free is a price, not a category of quality.
What a buyer gets
Exactly what a paid purchase gets: a licence entry, a purchase code, free updates for as long as you hold it, and the tier terms shown on the item page. Checkout runs, it just does not ask for payment, and the licence appears immediately.
Same review
Code quality, security, whether the seller had the right to publish it. Free is not a way around review, and an item that fails does not go live at any price. A free item with a security hole damages the buyer exactly as much as a paid one would.
What free does not include
Support, usually. Sellers are generally not offering the same support window on something nobody paid for, and the item page tells you what it is, which may be none. Judge that before you build something important on top of it.
Still licensed
Free to download is not free to redistribute. One project per licence still applies, and reselling the item is still not permitted. See the free items policy.
If you are a seller thinking about it
A free item is a reasonable way to be found, particularly a small, genuinely useful one that leads somewhere. Be clear on the page about what support you are offering, so nobody arrives expecting a paid level of attention. Set that expectation and a free item works well for both sides.
Browse what is there under free items.
