[Solved] Free and paid version of iOS app [closed]

I have seen many developers publish a “Lite” version of the app for free with limited features, and a full featured version of the app that costs $$.

I think there is plenty of precedent for this approach that you shouldn’t get any push back from Apple. But I have heard they can be somewhat subjective about these things from time to time. It is my understanding that you would publish these as two different bundles as they are essentially different apps.

A more recent trend is to publish only one version of your app that is free with limited functionality, and then use the in-app purchasing API to allow users to buy additional features or content.

Take a look at “Candy Crush Saga” and similar games for a good idea of how to approach this.

Just when you get to a certain level in the game and are frustrated out of your mind, you can buy additional lives. Or alternatively you can tell your friends about the app on Facebook to get more lives, which gives the app developer some free advertising.

Be aware that either of these approaches can be frustrating to people who like the “free as in beer” model of the open source world and don’t like to pay for their apps. Most of those folks probably own Android phones anyway, so may not be a concern in the iOS community where users are more accustomed to forking over a buck or two to get extra functionality for an app if it is important to them.