Paid apps used to be $5 or less upfront. Nowadays, it’s increasingly common for paid apps to cost that same amounteach month. App subscriptions have become increasingly common and, in many cases, it’s completely justified. Here’s why.

It’s no secret that people do not like spending money on apps. We tend to think differently about the cost of tangible goods and digital goods. It’s easier to get a sense of the immediate value and return when you’re paying for a consumable you’re familiar with. Spending $5 for a coffee that lasts you 30 minutes is no big deal but $5 for an app you’re going to use multiple times a day for potentially years? Outrageous!

Therise of subscriptionsfor apps has only made this matter worse. Instead of paying for an app one time when you download it, you’re being asked to pay for it each month. While some apps and services have certainly abused this trend, no doubt about it, it makes a lot of sense for many of the apps you may use on a daily basis.

Apps are Not Temporary

Let’s go back to the example of the cup of coffee. It’s very easy to understand why a tangible item costs what it does. The price you pay for the cup of coffee scales up or down depending on how much coffee you get. You give the barista $5, and they give you $5 worth of coffee. The size or flavor of the coffee does not change after you buy it. A simple transaction.

Apps are very different. Even if an app isn’t receiving frequent updates, it will almost certainly be usable for many months and probably years later. It’s not a finite resource like that cup of coffee at the coffee shop or a bottle of ice water you purchase on a sweltering day. That makes it difficult to put a price tag on apps. An app could be used for only a week by one person and several years by someone else. Was $5 a fair price for both of them?

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In most cases, paid apps are in constant development. New features and fixes are being rolled out consistently, which has become even more important with modern operating systems. And that development is being done by people—often small teams or even just one person. Paying for something only once that continues to be worked on and improved over time doesn’t seem fair.

For example, I paid $4 to remove ads from Sync for Reddit in 2016. I continued to use the app almost daily right up until it shut down in July 2023due to Reddit’s API changes. That’s a very long time, and the app received tons of little updates and a few major upgrades in those seven years. I easily got more than $4 worth of use out of the app. The same can be said for many other apps I’ve purchased over the years.

The developer of Sync recentlyreleased a version for Lemmy, a federated Reddit alternative. He’s offering a premium “Ultra” subscription for $2 per month or $17 per year. There is still a one-time payment option, but it’s a hefty chunk of change: $99. That’s a lot of money, but when I think about how much usage I got out of Sync for Reddit, $99 doesn’t sound so crazy.

Defining App Value

I think most people understand that developers who continue to work on apps deserve to continue to be paid for their efforts. That’s how most jobs work. However, there’s still this big disconnect when it comes to being willing actually to shell out the cash for it. Why is that?

In the example of Sync for Reddit, I had no idea how long I would use the app. $99 for seven years of usage certainly sounds fair now, but hindsight is 20/20. That’s why there’s such a big difference in how we think about paying for apps vs paying for tangible goods. I generally know what $5 worth of coffee looks like. Figuring out how much value I should get from a $5 app is much more abstract.

It’s simply hard to know how much you’re going to use an app, but I think that can be another point in favor of subscriptions. Rather than shelling out $5 upfront, maybe you may pay $1 for the first month and see how much you like it. Sure, over time, you’re going to spend much more than that $5, but if it’s a great app that you often use, is $1 per month unreasonable?

Look, I get it. Subscriptions add up. $1 per month for a great app isn’t a big deal, but when you add that to the countless other subscriptions you’re already paying for, it gets to be a lot. Unfortunately, there’s not a great answer to the problem. Subscriptions are the fairest way to pay people for their workandsubscriptions have gotten a bit out of hand as some app creators and companies lean in hard on microtransactions that seem a bit heavy handed and unfair. Both of those statements can be true. But when it comes to apps you use and derive real value from, paying a small sum every month to ensure the continued development of the application and support the creator is a small price.