Apps, Free apps, Paid Apps, Which One Should I Get.

  I love free apps.  I love them personally and I love using them at school.  When given a chance I go for the free apps.

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that free apps fall into one of three or four categories.

First, there are the free apps for companies whose material you have to have a school subscription to in order to use such as Power School or certain reading, writing, or math programs.

Next are the apps you can subscribe to privately for so much per month in order to access their services.  The only thing that is free is the app and possibly a trial. Some of these apps are designed by private citizens who are interested in monetizing their product.

The third type of app is the free app which shows people what the app can do but to unlock most of the features or the premium ones, you have to upgrade to the paid version.  I like these because they give you an idea of what the product can do before you buy it.

The last type are those which are totally free and do everything you want them to do.  The only problem with these apps is the developers often move on to their next app and these are not updated so they cannot be used after a while.

As a school teacher, I hate purchasing an app I have not tried.  I am afraid of buying the app only to find out it is not what I wanted or it didn't do what I thought it did.  For me, I love the light or free versions of the app.  It gives me a chance to taste it and discover if it is something that will work for class. 

I know an app that requires some payment is signaled by having the phrase "In-App purchases"  but I can never seem to find the place in the adds which tells what you have to purchase.  Are you purchasing access to the materials?  The server?  What? 

Still, I'd like to know what I am going to have to pay for.  Its nice to know before downloading an app if you have to pay for the service, for additional levels, or for premium items.  Often, I can get by without the premium features.  I'd also like to know if the app needs the internet to work or if you have an offline option.  I often end up in places without reliable internet and cannot use apps that require internet connections.

The bottom line is I prefer the lite or free versions so I can test the app first before investing in it.  This is important for school teachers because we hate buying apps only to find out they are not what we wanted. 

Let me know what you think.  Tomorrow I'm looking at multiplication apps for high school.  Let me know what you think.