Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality. How about a way for the user to “test drive” the app for a full 30 days without any feature limitations? This is the tried-and-true “shareware” distribution model that has been around since the era of floppy disks.īut how to do free trials in the App Store? Historically App Store’s reviewers had been disallowing trials and demo to the extent that apps must not have these wordings in their descriptions and user interface language.Īs confirmed by the App Store Review Guidelines, section 3.1.1(viii) you can have free trials in the App Store. You could be selling yourself short if the user perceive the demo app as “all there is to it”. But by giving a crippled version of the app, the user won’t be able to evaluate it to the fullest. But how can you give out these samplers without giving out the shop? You could have “demo version” with reduced feature-set. If only you could give out samplers of your apps to the right potential users - so that they can rightly decide for themselves whether they want to be your customers. More often than not, you would need potential users to review the app for themselves to determine its suitability. These writers may not be in the same audience as your target market, hence would just look at your app “on its surface” and not giving it a justifiable in-depth review. Being an independent developer you can’t rely too much on 3rd party reviews to sell your apps.

Free appstore money