marco's µ.blog

I use a variety of different apps and services on iOS and macOS. Most of them are based on subscription models, and even though I try to make sure that each program doesn’t cost more than 5 € / month, a not insignificant monthly amount¹ quickly adds up.

Here is a table of all the apps and services I’m currently subscribed to:²

In total, they cost well over 140 € a month, which is 1700 €³ a year! 😱

Time to go through all the apps one by one and consider whether I really need them and whether they are still worth their money to me.⁴

• 🟢 1Password: Until last week, my standard password manager. I am currently considering whether it could potentially be replaced by Apple’s Keychain; however, I am not fully there yet.
• 🟢 Anybox: My current bookmark manager of choice; I could possibly live with the free version of Raindrop.io; but even though the developer probably no longer lives in Russia, the proximity is somehow still too uncomfortable for me.
• 🟢 Arq: I use Arq since 2016 together with the countless TB of free OneDrive storage space available to me as part of the MS Office subscription; I couldn’t sleep peacefully without offsite backup.
• 🟢 Chronicling: I use it a lot lately, especially to fill my Daily Journal in Obsidian via Shortcuts.app; I really don’t want to miss it.
• 🟡 DayOne: Since I moved my Daily Journal to Obsidian in the middle of the year, I don’t really use it anymore. But I still let it be filled (automatically). My first entries go back to the year 2008, although I can’t figure out when it was actually published. Would feel strange without it.
• 🟢 Drafts: I used the app extensively in the past, then didn’t understand it for a long time, and currently, I can’t imagine life without it again.
• 🟢 Epic Weather Ride: An indispensable weather tool for planning bike tours.
• 🔴 FDDB: I regularly fail to track my calories consistently and thus control my weight. Most of the year an unused app because it is too exhausting to constantly weigh your food. I should cancel and only resubscribe when I really (for a month or two) want to use it.
• 🟢 HealthFit: One of the few ways to get .fit files from the Hammerhead Karoo 2 into Apple Health and much more. Subscription is even voluntary and IMHO extremely well invested.
• 🟡 iConnectHue: An alternative way to program and control Philips Hue lamps. In the past, the things I wanted to implement could only be set up properly through it. However, I should take a look during the brighter time of the year to see if most of it can now also be done via the native app.
• 🟡 ifttt: Oh, I actually only use it to import various things into Day One automatically. I don’t really need it but I love automating things 🤔.
• 🟢 Ivory: There are a number of alternative Mastodon clients like Mona etc. that do not rely on a subscription; also, the development speed is not very high at the moment. On the other hand, I’ve gotten very used to these very polished apps for iOS and macOS.
• 🟡 Kagi: A really good Google alternative. But ultimately “only” for the conscience. It’s not that I achieve anything with Kagi that wouldn’t be possible with google.com or duckduckgo.
• 🔴 Up Ahead: Incredible nice-looking app, but I feel like it hasn’t been updated for almost a year now. (How nice it would be if you could simply add entries from the calendar.) It’s hard, but
• 🟢 Mastodon: Completely voluntary and actually too small an amount.
• 🔴 Mercury Weather: I really like it, it has even won big at the MacStories Selects, but since I rarely travel to other places/countries and the Weather app is also getting better…
• 🟢 Micro.blog : What can I say …
• 🔴 Mindnode: Used to be one of my most used apps; it is now also available via Setapp and I only have the subscription because of the iOS version; however, I use the latter very rarely ATM.
• 🟡 MS Office 365: In the meantime, my sons through school as well as my wife and I through work theoretically have free access to Office at home, however, I paid for several years in advance a long time ago and now the subscription just runs. I use the storage space intensively with Arq (see above); I should check at some point whether it can be realized more cheaply.
• 🟢 Neptunes: Costs almost nothing and I use it daily on the Mac.
• 🟢 NordVPN: Everyone should have a VPN service, right?
• 🟢 Obsidian Sync: Without Obsidian, my computer life would be meaningless right now. There would be alternatives to synchronize the content between platforms, but the Sync subscription is a good way to support Obsidian in its entirety.
• 🔴 Overcast Premium: I never understood the UI concept of Overcast. However, it has Shortcuts support and I have automated a few things with it. Are they really necessary? No.
• 🔴 Personal Best: Nice, but the UI is still a bit too confusing for me and the actual benefit may be too small.
• 🟡 Play: I’ll take a look at it again in a year. Right now, I really enjoy the channels feature introduced in 2.0.
• 🔴 Photomator: Great app, but I don’t use it often enough.
• 🟡 Reader Readwise: The price is at the upper limit of pain for me but only thanks to an educational discount. I use the app very extensively; if it were more expensive, I would switch to Omnivore.
• 🟢 Setapp: Worth the money thanks to the Edu discount.
• 🔴 Söka: I like it. I travel too little to really take advantage of it. Maybe I’ll subscribe for a month or so before the next vacation?
• 🟡 Timery: I use it professionally, but I pay for it privately because it helps me keep a little better track.
• 🟡 trakt.tv: Actually, I watch too few series to justify a VIP account. But in this way, things can be automated very nicely and transferred to Day One via IFTT, etc. Oh …
• 🔴 Training Today: After the app once attested to me the best fitness despite fever and malaise, I believe it is just an (expensive) random number generator.
• 🟢 TV Forecast: I love this app.
• Waterllama: I have now bought a Live Time license.
• 🟢 YNAB: Without YNAB, we would be heavily in debt, I would have even more pointless stuff, and my wife would have left me with the kids and dog.
• 🟡 Zenitizer: The subscription reminds me that I damn well need to work on overcoming my inner laziness more regularly.
• 🟢 Apple One Premium: As a family, we need a large iCloud storage tier just for the photos. In addition, we use Apple Music and Apple TV+. In total, still more expensive than Premium. It’s a pity, really.
• 🟢 Disney+: Marvel, Star Wars, etc. - we can’t do without it.
• 🟡 Nintendo Switch Online: Necessary just for my son’s ZELDA backup, although 😈 …
• 🟡 PlayStationPlus: If I could understand what exactly happens to my 300 previously “acquired” games through it if I were to cancel it, it might even be conceivable to do so 🤷‍♂️.
• 🟢 wahoo X: The Zwift UI has too negative an impact on my blood pressure; I have therefore been looking for a long time for an alternative to indoor cycling that just works reliably. The Sufferfest / wahoo SYSTM does this. My way of exercising in the winter months.

Well, there are a few programs / services that I have now canceled as a result. I still have to think about the other 🟡 apps. It would probably be wise to cancel them as well and after the subscription expires, see if I can bear their loss and if not, just resubscribe.

But basically, nice things cost money and all these services and apps make my day easier or enrich my life. At least now I know where I stand at the moment. 😀

P.S. I totally forgot to include omg.lol, my e-mail provider, and Hemispheric Views' One Prime Plus, but those are all no-brainers for me. 😅

P.P.S: This list only covers tech related stuff. Charity and other related expenses are not listed here.

Update 2023-12-14: If you’re interested in other people’s subscriptions, you can have a look here: Robb, Canion, Kev, and Numeric Citizen.

Update 2023-12-17: And here is a post by pratik.

Update 2023-12-18: Posts from Otávio, Maique, and Zachary.