I’ve always been a believer in supporting the apps that I use the most. So many small, useful apps go out of business every year, so I try my best to support them and I encourage you to do the same.
Snipd
For example, the popular “Airr” app on iPhone was forced to shut down last year. I never used it because it was iPhone-only, but I know a few folks that did. These days I’m using a similar product called Snipd, and I don’t want them to fail. In the case of Snipd, the free version is really all that I need, but I’m paying for the premium (like $70/year) to help support them.
Anki
This is another tool that I find indispensable and I want them to last. In their case, however, they make it fairly difficult to give them any money. The app is free to use, and they don’t accept donations, which makes it tricky to try to support them. They make a little through the sale of the iPhone app ($25). The other option is to donate to their Android app, which I do from time to time.
Evernote
Back when I used Evernote, their free version covered all that I needed. However, I still paid for their basic premium package to help support them. I hate that they’ve fallen so far (and their price has risen so high), but I was happy to pay back when I relied so heavily on their service.
It adds up
There are other apps that have small fees (like Dex and Readwise) and I’m happy to pay those. There are some amazing tools that I use, and want to see them all succeed. My tiny payments won’t help much, but it adds up.
Speaking adding up, though, is the cost of all of these things. It’s only a few dollars here and a few dollars there, but can become a decent chunk of change every month. I try to be careful not to pay for too many services (particularly those that I’ve forgotten about), but the ones that I use frequently are well-worth the cost.
I feel good about most of these services sticking around whether I donate or not, but anything I can do to help increase their odds will only serve to keep making my life easier.
