Do you prefer free apps or paid ones? [poll]

Published by Adam Fraser on August 24, 2012

Money

Last month, I debated the benefits of free apps versus paid apps. Is one better than the other? I decided that paid apps are better as they’re usually better quality and you’re also helping somebody make a living. However, that’s just my opinion. What do you think? We think the best way to find out is to conduct our own reader poll. So cast your votes now!

Now, for apps to be free they usually come loaded with adverts. The hope is that you’ll click on one of these ads and the app developer will earn money from it. This isn’t necessarily a bad business model. It can certainly work well for both users and developers. However, navigating around a screen with popup ads can be annoying.

There is one way to avoid ads in apps, and that’s to opt for the paid ones. Yes, you’ll pay a small price, but you’ll have full access to the app without those flashing ads that sit at the side of the screen.

In our poll, we’re asking you to vote which you prefer. Free apps with ads, or paid apps with no ads? Click away.

Thanks for making your vote; we’ll look back at the results next week.

Image credit: Rodrigo_Amorim

Comments

  • Robert Österlund

    i’d say payed apps are usually better, in regards of less internet traffic due to the removal of adds… BUT this don’t generally mean that they are better than say a free app doing the same thing… generally speaking :-)

  • http://www.kurotsuki.web.id/ Kurotsuki Kaitou

    I prefer paid apps …. Unfortunately, Microsoft limiting the way users (or … customers) pay those apps. Credit card is currently the only option used to buy apps. Which is bind by region. My live id is US region (since I create it long way ago when hotmail still stand on it’s own). But I’m not living in US and no way I would switch to new live id since it would be troublesome. Hence, credit cards from my country will be rendered invalid (different region than the live id).
    So, if Microsoft is supporting additional top-up mechanism (like those iTunes vouchers), it would be great for us to buy some apps.

  • http://twitter.com/vedhaspatkar Vedhas Patkar

    Paid apps are more better; but then carrier billing should be an option

    • Sp12er

      Absolutely… I completely agree with you