What is a free app?
The app can be downloaded for free. Users don’t have to pay money to use this app and can delete it at any movement and time without any hurdles. Free apps aim to decrease purchase costs for customers and enhance user engagement. Moreover, free apps have a higher download rate than paid apps. Unsurprisingly, most users want to test the app functionality, user interface, and user experiences before opening their wallets to purchase the app.
Important note:
Being free doesn’t mean you cannot make money from free apps but every free app has a different monetization strategy to earn. Let’s talk and learn how free website and application development services make money.
“There is nothing free in this world
Whenever there is no cost, you’re the product
And you pay with your valuable data”
Point noted👉: We eagerly invite you to share your thoughts on this statement, do you agree or disagree? Your efforts are worthwhile for us!
Understand free apps vs paid apps.
The main difference between free apps and paid ads is that paid apps require users to pay a fee to access all features while free apps are available to download without charge. Paid apps are often premium and don’t have ads on the other hand free apps can make money by heavily relying on paid ads. In paid apps, there is certainly you can make money with each user visit while in the free app, there is uncertainty that users just came for apps tested or likely to chance to earn revenue.
There are different models to earn revenue from free apps Let to discuss them in detail.
How free apps make money here are the most common strategies
1. Advertising
Advertising is the most common and easiest method to earn money through free apps and it is also done via third parties and networks. You just need to display commercials inside their application .get Opt (opt advertising is a type of digital marketing that involves asking users to consent to receive targeted advertising, personalization messages, and other communication) for affiliating marketing to get paid from third party ads networks. Additionally, advertising is the finest way to earn money. You are required to showcase your commercial within applications hence you can be paid easily from third-party networks and commercials. Mostly the app’s owners are paid when the users click or hit the ads or when users install or make a purchase from the ad’s links.
. Views:
The apps receive payment based on the number of views of video ads.
. Click:
The apps receive payment based on the number of clicks on the ads.
. Installation:
The apps receive payments each time the promoted commercial aims are installed through its advertisement.
2. Subscription
Thinking about how an app makes money without ads is not a big surprise. Using a subscription strategy is considered the finest and most useful app monetization method. App publishers can choose to offer free content in their app for a limited amount of time and then charge those users who want to continue the app. Finally, the user pays a subscription fee that will allow them to access full content without any restrictions. This is the most common popular method that publishers use in subscription-based apps. More often used by cloud services, audio and video streaming, and online news. Doubtfully you most probably thinking about how a free app is defined by a paid. We clarify here free app doesn’t mean they will offer you fully free. It means a free app can be downloaded free doesn’t require upfront cost, and is used without any initial cost. Below is the difference between freemium and paid subscriptions:
. Freemium subscription:
Offer free access with optional paid features or a limited amount of time content available after that users have to pay to access the content.
. Paid subscription:
Charge a one time for full access to all content and features from the start.
3. Collecting and selling data-based free apps
As we all know every app collects a lot of user data in terms of personalization, user behavior, or other app usage. All this data is very crucially required for the business’s initial stage or improving it. This data is desired by many researchers in different fields. This means that free apps can sell users’ behavioral data to these researchers and make a big amount of money. The data generally contains user’s emails, social media accounts, and personal preferences. There are two ways to benefit from this model. The one is either you can track what users do and sell data to outside the company or you can use the raw data for your own purpose. Below are some examples that data collected for different purposes:
. Business purposes:
The app can use data to learn how to improve the business to offer customers the best.
. Functionality:
The app needs to collect some data for functionality purposes such as GPS data to provide location services.
. Personalization:
The app can use data to personalize user experience.
. Advertising:
The app can use data to advertise more effectively.
4. Services-based apps
Service-based apps are those free apps that provide specific functions or services to users. The purpose of these apps is to target customers who need fast and easy services. In this type of app, users don’t need to pay the payment of the app, they are only for pay when they place the order for services. The services are based on the delivery of shopping items, foods, and groceries, logistics, or transportation services booking. Suppose you have built food and grocery apps, the food and grocery owners will make digital stock at your apps. As an owner depends upon how you will set the earning money method such as do you will charge according to stock duration time, order base, and commission base. Secondly, you can make money by promoting other food and grocery items or the same categories of apps on your app.
. Delivery app:
Customers order from specific free apps and these apps offer delivery services as a party or directed party to convey the order and receive the amount or commission or unit base.
. Transportation apps:
transportation-based free apps that enable users to request rides from drivers. The money is earned from what distance is covered and divided into commissions based on an application publisher.
Conclusion
In the light of above information, we can take the logic that no app is free. If there is any fully free app it means we are the product for the app publisher in terms of selling our valuable data and then they earn money. In this context, there is no single free app, for all website and application development services charge the cost but their only logic is that their business app model is different. Some apps are designed directly to pay for the one-time downloaded fee and some are after downloaded they ask you to charge. There are free apps the publisher uses them just to make money by placing advertising and affiliating marketing. They can generate money through views, clicks, installation, and placing orders from the links. Some are subscription based base offer different kinds of subscription fees. Moreover, free apps make life easy for routine tasks such as service based apps. Offers food and grocery items or transportation booking. The most important we often don’t pay attention but crucial those don’t charge you directly or indirectly but collect data and sell them for business purposes and earn in bulk.
One Response
Great breakdown of how free apps make their money! The section on advertising strategies was particularly insightful, especially how it involves third-party networks.
I’m curious, though: how do developers strike a balance between ads and user experience, ensuring they don’t get intrusive? Also, with the push towards privacy, do you see a shift towards subscription models succeeding more compared to ads?
I found a related article on https://sebbie.pl/tag/javascript/ that talks about monetization in apps, and it really highlights how important a solid strategy is in this field.
Keep up the awesome content!