12 November 2025

How Do Free Apps Make Money In 2020 Examples

This strategy is popular among training and educational apps. LinguaLeo utilizes this model – the application has free and paid English lessons, providing premium subscription mode. According to Sweet Pricing report, only 5% of most successful apps are using subscriptions, making it one of the least used monetization models among developers. Only 5% of successful developers are using subscriptions to monetize their mobile apps. However, trying out these tactics and analyzing what competitors are doing is a good starting point. To create online revenue there are other ways than ads, paid installs, in-app purchases.

how do free apps nake money

Neither the Google Play nor Apple App Store pays for app downloads, even there are millions of users who completed this action. Instead, stores take some share from an app’s earnings (30% from in-app purchases). Just like any other website or app, free applications make a profit from ads. In fact, many popular and well-known apps allow users to earn money by displaying ads.

Hire our experienced app development team that has experience building 4400+ mobile apps. According to Mobile Growth Stack reports, non-gaming mobile apps are highly preferable in crowdfunding. Another monetization way to make money from free apps is crowdfunding, which is new in the industry.

In-App Purchases

This monetization strategy is successfully employed by Apple Music. Users can enjoy the benefits of the service for 3 months at no cost. And if they like it, they continue the subscription, if not ⁠— they can cancel it any time. Auto-renewable subscriptions allow users to buy access to particular services or periodically updated app content. It presupposes that users don’t pay to download an app, but they are offered optional in-app purchases.

how do free apps nake money

Once an app proves its value, the users are prone to conducting more in-app transactions, purchases, and to unlock extended functionality. Snapchat is one of the most popular messaging app in the world with over 1 billion active monthly users. While it’s not clear how much money the company makes from advertising, it does appear that paying for ads is worth it to them.

Freemium vs Premium app search

Different apps have different monetization strategies like advertising is the most used method to monetize the apps. It is said that mobile advertisements spend are going to top $290 billion in the year 2021. However, these days advertising is being outdone by in-app purchases. If you plan to launch a free app and look for effective app monetization strategies, we discuss the various app monetization methods.

The penalty is likely to be bigger if you take out a five-year CD instead of a one-year CD. And yes, brokers are offering CD rates too for bank-issued CDs. While the Fed will raise rates in 2023, many anticipate that it will ease up next year and could be nearing the end of its rate hike binge. At some point, the expectation is that interest rates won’t keep climbing and it could be a good time to lock in a higher rate for a five-year period. As of a Dec. 1 survey, Tumin said, the online average one-year CD had a 4.15% APY and the online average five-year CD had a 4% APY.

You can still attract new users with the help of free features. When you open the app, you choose whether you want to try extra services or not. The opportunity to try a wider set of options is appealing to every client, which makes the sales higher. This guest post from JatApp gives an overview of the top 4 proven monetization models for free apps, so you can choose the right one for your app. Such a non-obvious monetization strategy is a possible way to earn a living without excessive investments. Just make sure your fee is insignificant and you have at least several thousand users.

Go for the MVP model

And it is not likely to work for single-purpose apps, gaming apps, shopping apps. To avail, great reviews, these apps, are a great way to optimize your app on the app store. You can either track what users do and sell data to outside companies and researchers, or you can use the raw data for your own purposes. As you know, apps collect a lot of users’ data, in terms of user behavior or other app usage. All these user behavioral data are desired by many researchers in different fields. Now, have a look at these pros and cons and decide for yourself whether to go for this monetization model or not.

The income from the apps could not only be your passive income but can become your biggest blockbuster. Companies collect the email addresses of the people and then send corresponding marketing material. If your app has a good user base then definitely you will get many clients who would love to run their ad on your website. Users have become selective in recent years, with only 4-9 applications active on a daily basis. An application can make anywhere between $0.60 to $1.20 per download. Companies can sell the data they collect with permission to other companies and researchers.

  • Doesn’t renew automatically, so users need to renew each time.
  • Additionally, you as the user of the apps or games can also use in-app purchases to buy a lot of things.
  • Then make required revisions based on feedback and continue including the other useful functionalities.
  • Networks like Flurry, the all-powerful Google’s AdMob, Facebook Ads, and AdColony are the top picks.
  • However, some people stand to benefit by creating a budget for 2023.
  • Moreover, the more engaged your users are, the more money you can make on your free apps.

Moreover, it allows to use iTunes or Google Play app stores to track inbound traffic. It enables founders to see where the clicks are coming from. The most effective model of app advertising is a native one. Native ads is an organic and seamless way to present your app. In-app video ads introduce an app and give a direct link to download it. If you do not bring your own unique value proposition, then no matter what you do, you cannot make money from it.

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According to Google, only 1 in 2 people ever paid for an app. The figure explains why developers are ditching the paid apps model in favor of freemium apps. Eye-catching design and user-friendly interface are vital for user satisfaction and conversions in mobile apps. Make your product stand out on the market with RubyGarage’s mobile app design services. Free apps that don’t run ads can make money through in-app purchases, affiliate marketing, subscription plans, sponsorships, and crowdfunding, among other ways. Freemium is the most common form of app structure used by any app developer for their apps.

how do free apps nake money

This growth in mobile ad revenue is set to continue until something drastic happens. The app’s design, its look & feel, UI, and UX make or break any app’s fortunes. Your app may be a nest in functionality, but if the users do not like it, then everything is in vain. Market and audience research is absolutely necessary as if you are going to target and grow your audience then you very well must know about them beforehand. Or like despite having too many wallets, PayTM is the clear market leader as it was present in critical mass way before any other micro-payment app was.

Rovio used Google AdMob network to increase their Angry Birds downloads among Android users. None of the above-mentioned monetization options could be described as https://globalcloudteam.com/ inefficient. In fact, app publishers have gained skills in using these models in particular cases. The cost of app development ranges from $10,000 to $1,00,000.

Leading Trends in App Monetization in 2020

Overall, this is an interesting model for converting non-paying app users into paying users without being too intrusive. Although, you’ve to keep users hooked in your free mobile apps so that they keep paying. Our experienced app developers have created more than 4400 mobile apps. Only 5 to 10% of users are willing to pay for an application, but only with high quality, performance, and specific functionality.

Functionality is the soul and the core of any app and you cannot compromise on them. Proof of Concept for your idea is necessary before you invest in servers and other technological tools. If the concept is proven to be successful, then only should you move ahead. And then there are free apps – like WhatsApp, GBWhatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Ludo King, Adobe Scanner, and millions of others. This enables app owners to connect with the sponsors belonging to that industry. A subscription is valid for a set amount of time and must be renewed when it expires.

Best Ways to Promote Your App

That kind of targeted marketing dominates online advertising today, so businesses may pay a pretty penny for relevant data. As a result, companies are willing to spend quite a bit on advertising their products or services in popular apps. App how do free apps nake money developers can then rely on this ad money as their chief source of revenue, earning a considerable amount while keeping their apps free. The numbers speak volumes of how users tend to go for free apps and are turned off by paying for an app.

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Consumable in-app purchases are used once, and then need to be purchased again. You can also offer an opinion leader or famous blogger to become an ambassador of your brand. People tend to listen to the opinion of famous people and are likely to at least check what they are promoting. Is closely linked to the previous model ⁠— in-app advertising.

App publishers should do a market research, define target users, check other app developers success stories. The main challenge is to get awareness, acquire loyal users and choose the right revenue model. This will lead to greater profits and help keep your customers satisfied. If you are looking for a simple digital storefront tool that allows in-app purchases, Swarm is there to help. It unlocks additional features that are not available on initial free downloaded version.

How do free apps make money?

But you need to keep in mind that it is better to refer to a crowdfunding model as to a channel of extra income. Founders use CPI pricing to incentivize visitors to download your app. This model often costs founders more money and lower the quality of the incoming traffic. They can watch an in-app video ad, install an app, engage with app features and so on. Interstitial ads are full-screen ads shown within the entire mobile screen.