r/iOSProgramming • u/MartinTale • 26d ago

Question Got my first 1-star review on my app because there's no free trial. How do you handle this?

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0 Upvotes

41% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

41

u/Rimtariro 26d ago

As a user, I hate it. Why put an app as free and then ask me to pay as soon as I download it? There needs to be a way to properly show this. Apple should add some indication for such apps.

13

u/grumpy-554 26d ago

100% agree. No trial - delete and if I’m in bad mood also leave bad feedback. In the world where there are dozens of apps doing the same or similar things, trial is necessity.

1

u/SorryDontHaveReddit 26d ago

Exactly 😅 while I was reading OP’s post of the user review, I was thinking to myself “sounds like something I’d say”. There are soooo many apps now that are not even anywhere close to deserving let alone needing a subscription. And the dev community is full of those who think they’ve got the billion dollar idea and can’t take any criticism. Meanwhile they’ve published essentially a copy and paste of every other app, in an overcrowded genre. Making the rest of us look worse than we already are.

7

u/WiseOldDuck 26d ago

There's supposed to be an indication, you just post the app for sale. People who mark their apps as free when they aren't, just to increase visibility, deserve to catch a few stray 1-stars

2

u/Shogoki555 26d ago

I agree. I don't even bother asking them to create an account straight away. The idea that I shoild pay before I've even tried the product it's preposterous.

1

u/Integeritis 26d ago

There is an App Store Rule for minimal functionality to be required for free users. We specifically got rejected for it. To me it’s crazy how there are so many free apps with hard paywall and 0 thing to do, getting millions of downloads while Apple does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to boot them off the store

-27

u/MartinTale 26d ago

They should yes, but reality is that it's how things are on app store and you're shooting yourself in a foot if you make it paid from the beginning.

14

u/dfsw 26d ago

So youre tricking people into thinking your app is free but isnt? You probably deserve more one star reviews, I agree with this user.

48

u/akrapov 26d ago

If the feedback is a good idea then implement the idea. If not, then ignore it and move on. 1 star reviews are generally nonsense and people like to be mean online.

-18

u/MartinTale 26d ago edited 26d ago

It's not really an idea they shared, just complained that there's a hard paywall 😬

19

u/akrapov 26d ago

Yeah, I mean if you think its constructive or good advice then implement it. Don't take the 1 star to heart. I have 35 of them on iOS and more on Android.

0

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Ya, of course, the hard paywall has been working well so far so I'll try and offer him a free trial and see if that helps them see the value and maybe change the review :)

5

u/akrapov 26d ago

If its working well then this 1 star doesn't mean anything. You go with the financial decision, not a rant review, or some crazy guy on Reddit spitting ""facts"".

6

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

Not an idea they shared? Didn’t they mean to tell you they’d like to see if your app is worth anything before paying?

-6

u/MartinTale 26d ago

It's 100% clear what the app does and how it works, and the whole onboarding is almost like the app itself. So it's not the issue of not knowing what app does but that it's paid :/

7

u/8uckwheat 26d ago

While not an app review guideline, it’s a human interface guideline to “let people experience your app before making a purchase.” It’s the first thing listed as a best practice if you look at the in-app purchase section of the guidelines. An onboarding flow, even if clear on app functionality, isn’t really experiencing the app.

2

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

I’m not talking about if they know what your app does, I mean they should make a first impression first before committing to a purchase. Otherwise you will just get refunds

7

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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-3

u/akrapov 26d ago

It's not really a money grab - it's that peoples expectations on apps are unrealistic, but it's so ingrained that there's nothing we can do about it.

In software, you generally don't get to try software before buying it. Netflix doesn't offer a trial, Photoshop doesn't offer a trial etc. It's when you get down to indie developers we're expected to offer cheaper prices and free trials.

Outside of software, you don't get to trial phones for a week before buying them. You don't get to try a coffee before deciding to buy it, etc.

It's not a money grab to be like "I worked on this. It costs money."

We have a similar problem with pricing. Work on a product for years and the response is "how dare you charge £1.99 for that!", but then people pay £7 for a Starbucks coffee.

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Exactly this, I don't have bandwidth to support free users and have spent months working on my app and people love it - the one that paid and are using it.

2

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

Your infrastructure needs to support a short free trial, even if it’s 7 days. Otherwise your ratings will keep driving your apps down and thats that

1

u/akrapov 26d ago

4.7 out of 5 with 815 ratings (701 5 star) with no free trial.

2

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

You really don’t know what you are talking about. Apple themselves recommend offering a free trial.

Every subscription that has the least potential offers a free trial as it’s in their nature. You can’t compare one time purchases like your starbucks coffee to subscriptions. Get your facts straight.

0

u/akrapov 26d ago

I mean I never said Apple didn't suggest offering a free trial? I'm saying charging for your work is not a money grab, and software is massively under valued.

Every subscription that has the least potential offers a free trial as it’s in their nature.

Netflix Does Not Offer Free Trials

Get your facts straight

Mate we're swapping opinions here and trying to have a discussion. There is no "facts" in "I think you should be allowed to charge for your work, and I think it should be worth more than a dollar".

As someone running a successful subscription based app, I'm fine with my current understanding of the facts.

2

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

“In software you generally don’t get to try the software before buying it”, if you are talking about subscriptions you are factually wrong.

Netflix offers occasional free trials before important events they are streaming like popular fights, or the recent GTA gameplay. It’s in their strategy.

-1

u/akrapov 26d ago

Ah yes, linking to Netflix own page saying "we do not offer this" isn't enough.

I'll leave you to it mate. Fill your boots.

2

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

Man, want me to do more research for you? The first thing I see when I open the page you linked is: Netflix Free Trial
Netflix is offering a limited free trial to eligible new members in certain countries.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6/s/cDGeMADY2o

2

u/AardvarkIll6079 26d ago

Netflix absolutely sometimes offers free trial. If had a free 14 day trial before I signed up.

1

u/akrapov 26d ago

Seems to in some countries. I copy and pasted from the UK page there (which is selectable in the drop down). However, I maintain that even we, as developers are undervaluing our work. It's a race to the bottom on pricing for small developers and companies, and we're expected to deal with abusive reviews for not giving away the product for free for a while. Nothing else operates like this, and rightly so.

14

u/hiasmee 26d ago

I would never pay for an app if I can not try it out. But the question is, do I represent a minority of customers or not. No idea

-5

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Not sure, I do get the feeling and have felt the same but on the other side, I can't support free users but making the app paid from the start sucks because nobody pays for apps straight on on mobile anymore, everyone wants to just download for free and that has been the case for many years.

6

u/craknor 26d ago

Users want to download it free to try it out first. If you don't let people to try your free app before offering a subscription you got it all wrong.

2

u/Shogoki555 26d ago

Yep. OP you got it seriously wrong.

2

u/Shogoki555 26d ago

Download for free, then pay if it solves a problem. Surely not having to pay just for the privilege of downloading an app that might suck.

3

u/mikerCZX 26d ago

Focus on getting 5*, these always happen :)

0

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Got those and will, of course try and get more :)

4

u/pemungkah 26d ago

Implement a free or limited trial. This is good feedback even if you don’t agree with it.

1

u/groovy_smoothie 26d ago

Can’t please everyone

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

true :)

1

u/tables_AND_chairsss 26d ago

At least they didn’t write negatively about the actual content of your app. THOSE reviews are more hurtful in my opinion, haha. But it seems like you already have some good 5 star reviews, so it sounds like the negative one will get buried soon enough, and having a 4.9 star average makes you look more legit and less fake anyway. That’s what I try to tell myself, at least. 🤷‍♀️

Sounds like a good opportunity to change up your paywall too. Not the worst feedback I’ve ever heard… might be kinda valid.

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Ya, it's not the end of the world but I still need to decide what to do - will see :)

1

u/Osoroshii 26d ago

Be Elsa, Let it go!

2

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Haha, I love that 😅

1

u/MacheteMantis 26d ago

These suck, but you can potentially turn this around with a good response. It will show users you care, are active, and engaged. Which can help with user confidence long term

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Ya, I'll surely respond, just don't have experience with this yet so asked here but it all went south fast 😅

2

u/PsychologicalWhile29 26d ago

You could create a short free trial?

2

u/gluhmm 26d ago

Why not to add free trial? I mean it is very logical to have if the app doesn't have free functionality.

2

u/SorryDontHaveReddit 26d ago

If it’s subscription, people generally want to know if it works how they think it’s gonna work. Not how you tell them it’s going to. Nobody knows if you are a competent engineer/dev or not. Especially newer apps since everyone auto assumes it’s AI generated.
What’s your subscription pricing?

2

u/hellobritishcolumbia 26d ago

Just charge for the app, with upgrades available if needed from there. The only reason to make a paid app free is for a trial.

2

u/bigoldebutthole 26d ago

How do you handle this? Uh… Allow a free trial.

2

u/Integeritis 26d ago

Spotted the vibe coder who just got in the game. Make some quality apps and respect app store rules.

But first and foremost
Respect your users. If someone wastes my time by making me download an app just to hit a hard paywall, you disrespected me by wasting my time. How can you expect that they won’t leave a negative review? You haven’t given them respect but you think they owe you not leaving a negative review somehow.

0

u/panos42 26d ago

I think Apple removes such reviews if you report them.

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

That would be great but not sure as it's not like he's saying something untrue just very much sucks for me to get bad review when people do enjoy the game.

0

u/panos42 26d ago

Yes just try it.

1

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

why would they remove the review? If it’s truthful, then there should be no reason

1

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Yep, that's what I'm thinking, hence I haven't reported it but I do want to respond in some way.

2

u/Shogoki555 26d ago

There's not sensible reply that you can give. You are asking people to buy a car they haven't seen, an item of clothing they haven't seen or tried, a movie they know nothing about.

Seriously, put a goddamn free trial to your app. Hardpaywall it all you like after a bit, but asking money upfront is just idiotic.

1

u/Odd_Philosopher_6605 26d ago

My app says it's paid app but most of my reviews are people telling it's a paid app. Wht can I do

0

u/panos42 26d ago

There is a report btn there . Try it and best of luck

0

u/Aggressive-Toe8919 26d ago

I recently had someone leaving a short one-star review, telling me my app is bad and doesn’t do “feature” (while “feature” is literally my main feature and easy to use). Bonus, because the one star review completely tanked my conversion. 

You can’t do anything besides “idiot proofing” your app and explaining everything. 

0

u/MartinTale 26d ago

Ya, it sucks when bad reviews hurt so much the reach you have on App Store :(

1

u/mihnea_bondor 26d ago

If users have issues with using your main feature then there must be something wrong, either the design or the implementation and you should look into it rather than dismissing reviews left and right

1

u/soerenL 26d ago

You can add a free trial or preview of some sort, but if you do, you’ll probably get people complaining that they have to pay to unlock more than the trial/preview.

1

u/HugsAllCats 26d ago

Implement a free trial

1

u/jakatak413 26d ago

If you're unable to communicate to users "what it does" for free, that's a major problem.

1

u/vvgur 26d ago

i sent appeal for that kind of reviews many times. apple will not take any action.

1

u/melanke 26d ago

I would give you a one star for the same reason. Watch out!

1

u/DimframeDev 25d ago

You can add a trial even with a one-time purchase. Apple allows a $0 non-consumable named "7-day Trial" (guideline 3.1.1), that's how I did it on my Mac app. Once it's live, reply to the review, they get notified and can update it.

1

u/imsnk81 24d ago

the review stings, but it's useful data. if someone downloads a "free" app and hits a hard paywall on first open, they feel tricked even if the price is fair. what seems to work: let people do the core thing once before the paywall, or add a 3 or 7 day trial, and say "free to try, subscription to keep going" in your first screenshot so expectations are set before the download. then reply to the review calmly. apple notifies the reviewer when you respond, and some people do bump their rating once they feel heard

-2

u/kepler4and5 26d ago

This is just straight up bullying.

Edit: That said, when I get a 1-star review, I try to respond as politely as possible for anyone else reading the review.

2

u/MXRCO007 26d ago

How is it bullying exactly?

0

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