Free vs. Paid iPhone Apps

Over the past year I’ve been developing an iPhone app called Box It Up. It was built upon a framework called Titanium Appcelerator, and was initially created as a learning experience for mobile development.

Sales over the past year have been sparse. Priced at only $0.99, I averaged around four sales a day, with peak sales between 20 and 30 during the spring cleaning/moving season. In the year since I started, I’ve only made around $300 total. With development of the app stalled since March and sales declining, I decided this past week to try something: take Box It Up off of the app store and then release it as a free app.

The Result

In just two days Box It Up has received over 3,000 free downloads – more than all downloads completed in the past year – and has skyrocketed to become one of the top 50 Productivity app in the iTunes Store. It’s also been mentioned on numerous websites and forums, and has received a lot of positive feedback from users. With 10 times the amount of free downloads in two days than paid downloads in a year, it’s become clear to me that free apps will have a better chance of success in the iTunes Store than paid apps.

Lessons Learned

Next time launch an app as a free, ad-supported version, with an option for users to upgrade using an in-app purchase. Not only will you get more exposure, but it will be more profitable in the end.