I love locking in a cheap subscription deal during a discount period like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It always feels like I've gotten away with something — for the rest of the year, I can relax in my Scrooge McDuck money pit while all the other losers are paying full price. Just as one example: Black Friday streaming deals on Disney and Hulu are cheaper than ever right now, so take advantage as soon as you can.
On this list, we've gathered the top sales of all kinds of subscriptions. We've got some of the best VPNs to keep you anonymous online, MasterClass deals to continue your education with thrilling celebrity-led courses, and streaming deals for TV marathons on those long winter nights. Grab your favorites and join me in the money pit (actual swimming not advised).
Best Black Friday subscription deals
MasterClass MasterClass Plus (one year) $90 (50 percent off) $180 MasterClass is one of our favorite gift subscriptions. If you often find yourself on the internet without knowing why, MasterClass has hundreds of celebrity-led courses to help you put that time to good use. Each one is split into bite-size videos so you can control how much you study at a time. Highlights right now include creative writing classes from Margaret Atwood, home cooking lessons from Alice Waters and a crash course in battlefield tactics from General Stanley McChrystal. $90 (50 percent off) at MasterClass
Quicken Simplifi (one year) for $36 (50 percent off): We named Quicken Simplifi the best budgeting app this year largely because it lives up to its name. This is the cleanest budgeting app on the market, with an interface designed to welcome newcomers and no key information more than a scroll away. It's also cheap, especially with this Black Friday deal, and very good at detecting and categorizing your important transactions.
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Monarch Money (one year) for $50 (50 percent off with code MONARCHVIP): Monarch Money, our other favorite budgeting app, is giving new users half off for Black Friday. It's a little more complex than Quicken Simplifi, but it also gives you finer-grained control, including detailed reporting, balance sheets and instant graphs. The standout goals feature lets you establish savings and wealth baselines that feel amazing when you hit them.
Rosetta Stone Lifetime Unlimited subscription for $149 (60 percent off): Rosetta Stone was pioneering visual language courses back when software still came in boxes, and it's still one of the best language learning apps. Today, its method works as well as ever, with patient learning based on pictures, terms and recordings. This deal gets you a full lifetime subscription with access to all 25 languages in the library.
Audible (three months) for $3 (80 percent off): For literally $1 per month, you can get access to Audible's enormous library of published audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals (which can be anything from never-before-heard books to live performances). It's only three months, after which you'll have to cancel or renew at the regular price, but an audiobibliophile can cram a lot of listening into the 90 days after Black Friday.
Headspace (one year) for $35 (50 percent off): Out of all the meditation apps available, Headspace is our favorite. It doesn't just help you relax and de-stress, but also teaches you to practice meditation as a skill, with sessions building on each other in organized courses. There's a massive library of standalone guided meditations with all kinds of instructors, and it's easy to search for the ones that work best for you. This deal gives you half off a full year.
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