How to Save Money on the Apps You Use

You can easily find yourself spending a substantial amount of money on the apps you use every day—whether through up-front payments or monthly or yearly subscriptions.

It always pays to shop smart, and that’s as true for mobile apps as it is for anything else. While we can’t make everything free of charge, we can give you a few tips to save money. You may be surprised by how often apps and mobile games go on sale, and there are ways of watching out for those price drops. There are also tricks to trim your app subscriptions—you might even save enough to be able to afford a few new apps. 

Track Prices

If you have your eye on an app but don’t want to pay full price for it, a price tracker like AppSliced can be very helpful. It alerts you to games and apps in the Apple App Store that have been marked down or even made free, and you can see what’s popular with other users, as well as tracking specific apps. It’s a free service and simple to use.

Over on Android, the AppSales app does a similar job for you. You can quickly get lists of apps that are available for a reduced price or are now available for free, and you can track up to 200 apps to watch out for price drops. The app links neatly with the Google Play Store and is free to use—though you can pay a small monthly fee to remove ads and get extended price history records.

There is a basic wishlist feature available on Android in the Play Store app, but it doesn’t do anything fancy, like alerting you to price drops. It can help you remember to check in on app deals though. On any app listing, tap the three dots (top right), then Add to wishlist. To find your wishlist in the Play Store app, tap your profile picture and pick Library, then Wishlist.

App Subscriptions

Both Google and Apple offer monthly subscription services that get you access to hundreds of titles for one flat monthly fee—and if you buy a lot of apps and games, it can save you some money. It’s also worth mentioning Apple One, which bundles subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, iCloud Plus, Apple News Plus, and Apple Fitness Plus for a reduced price.