How To Make Good App Store Purchase Decisions

When buying an app in the App Store on the iPhone, iPad or Mac, it can be hard to judge which apps are worth it. Here are some ways to quickly assess an app based on the information shown in the App Store and elsewhere.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's talk about making good purchasing decisions in the iPhone, iPad, and Mac App Stores. 
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So when looking to purchase an app whether it's on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac you're probably looking in The App Store. Sometimes it's hard to know if you're making a good decision when buying an app. There are lots of things you can look for in The App Store entries and elsewhere to know whether that app is the right one and if it's worth buying.
First, when you look at an App Store, like here on the iPhone, you can sometimes search for something and the first result won't actually be the app you're looking for. For instance, here I'm getting shown an ad for another app ahead of the app I actually want. I searched for Word and there's Word. But above it was an ad. Now it was for a game in this case so it was easy not to get fooled but sometimes the app that's there will be one very similar to the one you want to buy and it's easy to just go with that first item and not realize you're getting the wrong app. Other times there are going to be apps that have very similar names. For instance if you're looking for the popular word game Wordle you'll find a couple of apps that seem to be the right thing in The App Store but in fact Wordle is a web based game. You play for free on the web even on the iPhone. You don't need an app. These apps are not the actual Wordle game. So always be sure to scroll down and look at several of the entries that come up when you search to make sure that you're getting the right app. 
One thing you could do is when you're looking at the app's page you could always go to the developer. Go in there and you'll see other apps by the same developer. This usually lets you figure out if it is the right app and you could also then look and see some of the other apps the company has made. This is useful sometimes if the app is new and doesn't have many reviews or much information and you could look at some of the reviews of apps previously developed by the company. 
Now it also pays to checkout the website of the developer. Not all developers have websites. Most of the time you'll find them. As a matter of fact in The Mac App Store you can easily click right here and then go right to their webpage. Now going to the website is useful because a lot of times there is more information here about the app than there is in The App Store. Sometimes you could even find trial versions of the app and other times there may be multiple versions of the app. One in The App Store and one that you can get from the developer's site. There may actually be more features on the developer's site. If you can purchase from the developer's site more of the money you spend goes toward the developer than it would in an app store. You can also look for other things at the developer's site, like support sections and things like that, that could make you feel more confident about buying their app.
Now when you're looking at an app's entry in The App Store when of the things you want to pay careful attention to is whether you see In-App purchases right here next to the Buy button. But you don't have to settle for just that basic piece of information. Also, scroll to the bottom and you'll find In-App purchases right here and then you can get a list of exactly what's available. Sometimes there will be one time purchases. Other times you'll see subscriptions. So if you see an In-App purchase that's one or two bucks it's not too bad. But then if you notice it's every month or every week, well that can add up. The list of In-App purchases can give you a good clue as to what you get for free in a free app and what you have to pay for. Not all In-App purchases are bad. Sometimes getting a free app and then an In-App purchase to upgrade to a full app is better because it's like a trial. Whereas the alternative is to just pay for the app up front before you even get to use it. 
Another thing to look for is Version History. If you go there what you find are descriptions of all of the updates. Seeing a lot of updates with good descriptions is a sign that the developer is very active and working on improving the app all the time. You can also take a look on the right to see how frequently these updates occur. 
Of course you're going to checkout reviews. At the top you'll see a rating here, up to 5.0 is the highest, and you can go down to reviews and read reviews. Now it's important that you understand these are user reviews, not professional reviews. So they may just focus on one or two things that are important to them and not review the app as a whole. Very often you find bad reviews where somebody simply didn't read the description and got an app that they didn't want and now they're complaining about it. So you really have to kind of take each review with a grain of salt. Read it and kind of try to digest what the reviewer is trying to say. But also keep in mind that what they're criticizing may not be the same thing that you care about. Also some reviews can be old and before there were updates made to the app. I usually like to discount a few bad reviews and also discount some overly good reviews thinking they may be friends of the developer as well. So just kind of get a good sense of what's in the app. Maybe look for information in there about what the app does more than just the actual star rating. 
Also, pay careful attention to whether there's a developer response for critical reviews. An active developer that really cares about making their app better is going to probably  post lots of good responses. So take a look at those to get an idea of how active the developer is in making the app better. 
Another thing to check out is the size and compatibility for an app. So you can find that in both app stores. Here for this app in The Mac App Store we can see the size and sometimes apps will surprise you. An app you think should be pretty tiny is actually pretty big and may make it difficult for you to keep the app on your device at all times. Also looking at compatibility gives you an idea of whether or not you might be able to use it also on an older Mac or an older iPad that you have.
So take all these things into account when purchasing a new app in The App Store. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 3 Responses to “How To Make Good App Store Purchase Decisions”

Frank Salvatini

3 years ago

Very useful. Several items on the App Store I didn't know about...Thanks. (PS: How can I get one of your MacMost caps?)

Gary Rosenzweig

Frank: https://www.zazzle.com/macmost_baseball_cap-233550602178064640

Rick Grossman

I also find it helpful to see when the app was written/last updated. There are old apps that just haven't kept up and may no longer work with file formats or the latest operating system.

Comments Closed.

How To Make Good App Store Purchase Decisions

Comments: 3 Responses to “How To Make Good App Store Purchase Decisions”

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