I currently subscribe to 30+ apps. Most aren't worth the money. I keep them out of inertia rather than active value. After auditing my subscriptions, eight earn the cost. Here are those eight, why each is worth it, and what separates them from the 22 that aren't.
1. 1Password — /year
Password manager. The only one of these I'd call essential. The cost is small, the security benefit is large, and using it daily replaces a process that was previously friction-heavy and insecure.
Why worth it: daily use, large security upgrade over the alternative, low cost.
Alternative considered: Bitwarden (free) is also excellent. The price is nominal either way.
2. Spotify Premium — /month
Music streaming. I listen most days. The ad-free experience and offline downloads are noticeably better than free tier. At ~$144/year, the cost-per-use math is reasonable.
Why worth it: heavy daily use, meaningful experience improvement over free tier.
Alternative considered: Apple Music is comparable. Stick with what fits your ecosystem.
3. iCloud Storage 200GB — /year
Cloud storage for photos and backup. The free 5GB tier doesn't work for anyone with an iPhone for more than two years. The 200GB tier is enough for almost everyone.
Why worth it: photo backup is critical and the cost is genuinely modest.
Alternative considered: Google One offers similar storage at similar prices. Pick based on your ecosystem.
4. New York Times Digital — /month
News, cooking, games. Three products bundled. I read news daily, use NYT Cooking weekly, and play the puzzle apps regularly. Each individual product would justify part of the cost; the bundle is what makes it clearly worth it.
Why worth it: daily use across multiple sub-products.
Alternative considered: The Athletic is included in the bundle but I don't use it. The bundle is still worth it without that.
5. ChatGPT Plus — /month
AI assistant. I use it daily for drafting, research, technical questions, and brainstorming. The faster response times and more capable models in the paid tier matter for my use case.
Why worth it: daily heavy use, meaningful capability differences from free tier.
Alternative considered: Claude is comparable for many use cases. Anthropic's pricing is similar. Either is fine.
6. Notion — /month
Note-taking and personal database. Replaces several other tools (Google Keep, Trello, simple databases). I use it constantly for personal projects, work notes, and reading lists.
Why worth it: consolidates several tools into one, daily use across multiple use cases.
Alternative considered: Obsidian (free for personal use) is excellent. If you're Markdown-comfortable, it's a strong free alternative.
7. Audible — /month
Audiobooks. I listen to one or two books a month. The credit-based model means each book costs about $7.50 instead of the $25-30 standard audiobook price.
Why worth it: per-book savings if you actually listen to books, not worth it if the credits accumulate unused.
Alternative considered: Libro.fm supports independent bookstores; comparable price.
8. A streaming service (rotating) — /month average
I keep one major streaming service active at a time and rotate quarterly. Right now it's HBO Max. Last quarter it was Netflix. The discipline of single-service-at-a-time keeps total streaming cost reasonable while still giving access to most of what I want to watch.
Why worth it: evening entertainment is real, but only one at a time.
Alternative considered: any of the major services. Pick one for what you actually want to watch this quarter.
The 22 that didn't earn it
I won't name them all but the patterns:
- Apps I subscribed to during a free trial and forgot about
- Productivity tools I bought aspirationally and never used regularly
- Services that were great for a month and stopped getting use
- Bundle services where I only use one of the included products
- Streaming services accumulated past the "one at a time" rule
The audit revealed I was paying ~$140/month for subscriptions I wasn't using. After cancellation, I'm at about $75/month for the eight above. The savings: $780/year for no loss in actual use.
What separates worth-it from not
Looking at the eight that survived versus the 22 that didn't, the patterns are clear:
- Daily or weekly use. Apps used less than weekly are usually not worth subscriptions. Sometimes a one-time purchase fits the use pattern better.
- Replacing or significantly improving an existing process. The app needs to be doing real work, not just being a thing you have.
- Cost reasonable relative to value. Most of the eight are $10-25/month, which scales reasonably with use.
- No good free alternative. If a free or one-time-purchase alternative does the job, the subscription should be carefully justified.
The audit recommendation
Once a year, look at every subscription you're paying. For each, ask: did I use this regularly in the last 30 days? Is the value I got from it greater than the cost? If you can't answer yes to both, cancel.
Most people are paying for something like 5-10 apps they never use. The cancellation is painless and the savings compound across the year.
The pattern in subscription growth
Subscriptions accumulate quietly. Each individual addition feels small ($10/month, what's the harm). The aggregate becomes meaningful: 15 subscriptions at an average of $12 each is $180/month, $2,160/year. Worth knowing what you're actually getting for that.
The eight above are subscriptions I'd sign up for again today. The other 22 were not. Run your own audit; the numbers will probably surprise you.
