Should My App Be Free? The reason we say YES! – sort of…

Months of hard work, countless hours plugging away at code, 150 cups of coffee and finally your app is finished! Now comes the question of whether to make the app free, paid, or both. Sidebar: A lot of the decision will be based on the type of application. The free model is not always apposite. Consider “exempli gratia” the ticket price of your app. If your app is a high-ticket item, ad revenues may not recover the loss of sales from a paid version. In this case a trial version of your app or an in-app purchase to unlock all features may be more appropriate.

After weighing the cost, if you do decide to go with a free version have no fear! There is still opportunity to make money. Paid vs. Free in some ways can be compared to selling a house or renting it out. If you sell (paid) a house, you can receive a large sum of money at once, however by renting (free); you are able to generate steady income over a protracted time period.

Ads can generate a substantial amount of revenue if you have enough active installs, a high eCPM and a high Fill Rate. For obvious reasons, free apps generate more downloads. Reports have shown that almost 80% of all paid android apps have less than 100 downloads compared to fewer than 20% of free apps. Understanding the composition of the market your app will be in is also important. The Android Market based on the open source theory, can acclimatize a free app, whereas Apple has created an ecosystem based upon a philosophy friendly to paid apps.

Screen real estate for your ads is another point of consideration. Does your app provide adequate space for an ad? Android users are accustomed to ads, however making overly obtrusive ads can result in uninstalls and less time spent enjoying your game. With enough downloads, a great marketing plan, and sheer determination, you may even be able to have your app sponsored. A sponsorship would benefit a company looking for a cluster of the market to advertise their product to, while allowing you to reap the benefits through revenue. This would be compared to Google and their business model.

If you are still apprehensive about making a free version of your app, why not do both?

Make a free version minus some of the features of the paid version, and focus your marketing towards the free app assuming there will be some spillover to the paid version.

Word Crank is currently making more money with the free version than the paid.