Megan Ellis / Android Authority
I feel like 2025 has been the year of quitting apps for me. Some of this has been due to moving to more privacy-focused open-source or self-hosted apps, but a pervasive theme has been free apps simply getting worse as a way to try to push users to a paid tier.
Many of us are used to the trend of free platforms becoming worse in the pursuit of monetization — it’s what has made me skeptical of any new free product Google or Meta launches. But when it comes to smartphone apps specifically, I’ve noticed that apps are increasingly marketing themselves as free while being almost unusable without a paid subscription.
What's your biggest frustration with freemium apps? 21 votes The attempts to push me to a paid plan. 43 % The ads. 33 % Data privacy. 5 % Limited functionality on the free plan. 19 % Something else (let us know in the comments!). 0 %
‘Free’ is becoming a loaded word when it comes to apps
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
There have always been trade-offs when it comes to free apps, especially in recent years. But for a long time, this was limited mostly to ads. Premium tiers were introduced as a way to remove ads or add additional features, but mostly felt optional rather than a necessity.
However, as shareholders and companies push for more profits, the way freemium apps have started trying to incentivize free users to upgrade to premium plans feels a lot less like paying for a few extra perks. Instead, certain apps have gutted their free tiers to the point that they feel unusable without a subscription. You’re not paying for a few extra features or to avoid ads, you’re paying to use an app in the same way you once did as a free user.
Apps cut away at their free features while still marketing themselves as free to use.
At the same time, these apps never pivot their advertising away from pushing their service as free. This lures more people into using the apps, not realizing how limited the free features are. Only after you’ve signed up for an account are you greeted with the numerous prompts to upgrade as you run into paywalls over and over again.
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