What Is Apple One, and Should You Subscribe?.
There are so many Apple subscription services to choose from these days that it could hit your wallet. Apple One promises to be the solution, but is it worth it?
Apple offers several pricing tiers for its Apple One subscription package, but determining the best price can be tricky. Before we move on to the individual components of the service, we will address the issue of price.
Apple One Pricing
For potential Apple One subscribers, there are three monthly payment options:
1-Apple One Individual – $14.95 per month.2- Apple One Family at $19.95 per month. 3-Apple One Premier for $29.95/month.
The Individual plan is exactly what it sounds like: an Apple one subscription for one Apple ID. The family level offers the same services, but five family members have access. You also get four times the amount of cloud storage, but if all five slots are used, that’s less storage space per person than with the individual option.
The Premier plan adds two additional services known as Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+. It also increases the total storage by a factor of ten, offering 2TB of iCloud. That’s 400 GB per person if all five slots are used.
The Premier tier offers the best value for money and the most significant savings, but only if you find value in the extra storage space and services. Let’s take a quick look at each service so you know what you’re getting for your money.
Apple Music ($9.99/mo Individual, $14.99/mo Apple Music Family Sharing)
Apple Music competes directly with services like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Tidal. According to Apple, there are more than 75 million songs on the service, and their catalog is constantly growing. Indeed, almost all famous artists are present and accounted for.
In our experience, there are a few more obscure artists that are missing from Apple Music, even though you can find them on YouTube Music. However, the vast majority of Apple Music users have no complaints about the choice.
Apple Music is the industry’s leading music streaming service. We especially like the hand-crafted list that will help you sort through the discography of artists you’ve never heard before.
This service itself has four pricing levels. In addition to the two mentioned above, there are Student ($4.99/month) and Voice ($4.99/month) options. These are special pricing plans so we don’t take them into account as not everyone is eligible for the student plan and the voice plan is limited to Siri and doesn’t offer the whole experience.
Apple Arcade ($4.99/mo, Family Sharing)
iOS tends to be way ahead of Android when it comes to optimized hardware, support for peripherals like gamepads, and top-notch gaming experiences when it comes to mobile gaming. However, you still get the same issues with free games and microtransactions in iOS games as you do on Android.
Apple Arcade is a bit like Game Pass on Xbox, acting as the “Netflix” for gaming. As long as you’re a subscriber, you’ll have full access to a curated collection of games that’s constantly growing.
Apple Arcade games are guaranteed to be premium games and do not include microtransactions. If you pay a subscription fee, you will have full access to everything. Family Sharing is also enabled by default, so for about $5 a month, your entire family group can play on iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple TV.
Apple TV+ ($4.99/mo Family Sharing)
Apple TV+ is Apple’s answer to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. It offers the best original shows made by Apple, as well as series and movies from various genres.
The selection of shows is much smaller than the libraries offered by competing services, but there are some real gems here like Ted Lasso, Foundation, and The Morning Show.
While there is a lot of great content to watch and more being added, we don’t think Apple TV+ alone deserves a permanent subscription. It makes sense to subscribe for a month, watch all the top shows, and then unsubscribe again.
Apple iCloud+ (Starting at $0.99/mo)
All Apple accounts get 5GB of free cloud storage that can be used to store photos and back up user data. If you want more than this amount of space, you will have to pay for it.
Apple has a rather curious pricing structure, but one user can get 50 GB of space per dollar per month. Then it’s $2.99 ​​for 200GB and $9.99 for 2TB of iCloud storage. The 200GB and 2TB options include Family Sharing.
The Apple iCloud service is really useful for anyone with one or more Apple devices, although we wish there were more intermediate tiers and larger tiers for professional users. However, we can’t argue with its fantastic ecosystem integration and recommend that all Apple gadget owners invest in some iCloud storage.
Apple News+ (Apple One Premier Only, $9.99/mo Family Sharing)
If you’re tired of facing paywalls when searching for news on the web, Apple News+ might be for you. Works through the Apple News app. As part of the subscription fee, you will get access to several premium paid news outlets and magazines.
Sounds great, but unless you live in the US, Canada, Australia, or the UK, you won’t have access to the service. On the other hand, family access is included in the flat rate. This means that up to six people in your family group can access premium news through the app.
More than 200 magazines are offered, the back issues of which were released several years ago. However, as far as we can tell, you won’t find the entire print run of any given magazine on sale. These magazines cover different subject areas, so there is sure to be something for everyone.
You will get access to The Wall Street Journal, LA Times and Toronto Star in terms of newspapers. Considering the cost of magazine and newspaper subscriptions, Apple News+ is a pretty good buy. Especially when compared to apps like Zinio, you can pay the same amount for just one issue.
Apple Fitness+ (Apple One Premier Only, $9.99/mo)
The Apple Watch series has been a resounding success for Apple, drawing in tech nerds and fitness fanatics. Having established itself as a major player in the smartwatch market, Apple announced the Fitness+ service.
This Apple Watch service gives you access to home workouts with qualified instructors. The idea is to combine this with tracking your Apple Watch’s physical activity with training videos to make sure you reach your fitness goals.
While you need an Apple Watch to set up Apple Fitness+, you can then follow your workouts on your iPhone or iPad without a watch. Of course, if you’re not wearing an Apple Watch, you won’t see any live metrics on the screen. You can also use AirPlay to put the workout on your TV, but the metrics aren’t currently displayed there either.
When Is Apple One Worth It?
If you’re already using all four services included in the Apple One individual tier, it makes sense to pay $6 less for the same service. The main issue is that this tier only offers 50GB of iCloud storage. So if you need more (and we think 200GB of iCloud storage is the best place), you’re better off paying separately.
The family plan offers the best value for two people who can share a 200GB iCloud allotment, but if you’re more than two people, storage is pretty limited and doesn’t include News+ or Fitness+.
Our recommendation:
Get Apple One Individual if you’re happy with just 50 GB of cloud storage and live alone with no interest in Fitness+ or News+. Buy an Apple One Family if you are 4 people or less and don’t need News+ or Fitness+. Everyone else must qualify as Premier.
Each level has great value even if you don’t use all the services. But don’t forget to calculate the cost of individual subscriptions for the services you use versus those you don’t, to make sure you’re saving money.
What Is Apple One, and Should You Subscribe?
What Is Apple One, and Should You Subscribe?