Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2026/02/02/do-you-use-it-tidbits-reader-subscription-habits-revealed/
The results from our “Do You Use It? Audit Your Subscriptions” (22 January 2026) poll are in. They’re fascinating, but as always, remember that they reflect the habits of TidBITS readers, not Apple users overall or the general public. Also, only about 170 people answered the questions, unsurprisingly, since doing so required significant effort to count subscriptions, tally fees, and categorize everything. Let’s look at each of the questions in turn and then examine subscriptions, and software subscriptions in particular, more closely.
How many subscriptions do you currently pay for?
I was curious how the answers would pan out here, since a vocal minority of TidBITS readers are adamantly opposed to subscriptions, particularly for software. However, the most common response was 6–10 subscriptions (selected by 29% of respondents), followed by 11–15 (21%). That places half of the respondents in the 6–15 range, with another 22% reporting more than 15 subscriptions, suggesting that subscription accumulation is occurring even among an audience that is nominally skeptical of subscriptions. About a quarter of the respondents are on the low end, with 26% reporting 5 or fewer subscriptions. Only 2% of respondents (3 people) report having no subscriptions.
About how much per month do you spend on these subscriptions?
Spending clusters tightly in the middle, with nearly two-thirds of respondents spending between $25 and $149 per month, and $50–$99 emerging as the most common range. I find the high end of the distribution notable: more people spend over $300 per month than $200–$299, and more spend that amount than $150–$199. About 17% spend more than $150, about 21% spend less than $25, and only 3 people report $0. In short, most of us are spending meaningful amounts of money on subscriptions each month, suggesting that it’s worthwhile keeping an eye on subscriptions to make sure you’re getting value for your money.
How does that amount split between productivity/utility and entertainment/content?
The distribution of answers to this question is remarkably balanced. The largest single group leans mostly toward productivity (28%), but nearly as many respondents report entertainment-heavy or roughly balanced spending. This suggests that subscriptions are no longer primarily a media phenomenon; for many readers, ongoing payments for tools, storage, security, and services rival or exceed entertainment spending.
Into which categories do your subscriptions fall?
Cloud storage/backup leads decisively at 78%, followed by video streaming (68%) and news/information services (61%). Internet-related services, music streaming, and password/security tools also exceed 40%. The interesting point here is breadth rather than dominance: most respondents selected multiple functional categories, reinforcing the idea that subscriptions now underpin core computing activities rather than just optional content consumption. Toward the bottom, AI subscriptions appear in 16% of responses, which is modest but high for a category that barely existed a few years ago. The least popular categories—education and gaming—are undoubtedly linked to the TidBITS audience’s above-average age.
Over the last 12 months, I have added/canceled…
Stability dominates this answer. Nearly half of respondents say they added about as many subscriptions as they canceled, and while there is churn, with 21% canceling more than they add, that’s more than balanced out by 25% adding more than they canceled. My takeaway is that most people actively manage their subscriptions rather than letting them accumulate passively. If you haven’t audited your subscriptions recently, it’s worth doing!
Types of Subscriptions
The poll numbers tell part of the story, but the comments revealed something more interesting—I was struck by how opinions vary widely by subscription type. The word “subscription” merely implies a regular, ongoing payment, but precisely what you’re paying for falls into a handful of categories. Much of the confusion around subscriptions stems from treating fundamentally different economic models as the same:
- Access: With access subscriptions, you pay for permission to use the app or service. If you stop paying, you immediately lose complete access. Nearly all streaming services fall into this category, including Apple Music, Apple TV, Spotify, and Netflix. Many software subscriptions are also access-based—stop paying for Adobe Creative Cloud, and you can no longer use the apps and may even lose access to your documents.
- Maintenance/support: With this sort of subscription, your payment funds ongoing development, upgrades, and support. If you stop paying, you can continue to use the app as is. This model was more common in the past, but examples still exist today, such as ForkLift, TablePlus, and UltraEdit. Maintenance subscriptions have become less popular as many customers opt to skip upgrades, reducing revenue for developers.
- Issuance: Subscriptions that provide new work produced during the subscription period are the easiest to understand and the least controversial. Newspapers and magazines used this model in the pre-digital era, and even if what you get now is access to the New York Times website rather than a daily newspaper, your subscription is still paying for new content.
- Consumption/usage: Paying for cloud storage or bandwidth is as close as the digital world gets to paying for resources whose cost tracks with usage like electricity or water, even if pricing is often simplified into tiers. 2 TB of iCloud+ storage costs Apple more to provide than 50 GB, so it makes intuitive sense that the associated subscription costs differ. Given the prevalence of cloud storage and backup subscriptions in the poll responses, it seems that most people accept usage-based subscriptions.
- Insurance: Some subscriptions reduce the impact of high-cost events like damage or theft. AppleCare+ is the primary example here, though Internet backup services like Backblaze also qualify. In part because these services are highly optional, my sense is that few people object to them as ongoing subscriptions.
- Convenience: Finally, subscription bundles such as Apple One, Amazon Prime, cellular plan bonuses, and Setapp make it easy for consumers to subscribe to multiple services for a single fee. Even if some features of the bundle go unused, subscribers find the convenience and discounted cost worthwhile.
Of course, subscriptions are not the only viable model. Some developers still succeed with perpetual licenses plus paid upgrades, while others produce open-source software paired with paid support or hosted services. These models work best for mature software with slower update cycles, but they demonstrate that subscriptions are an economic choice, not a technical inevitability.
Then there are the occasional innovative models that haven’t caught on more broadly. Agenda lets you pay for premium features and keep them even if you discontinue your subscription, and Panorama X’s flexible subscription billing charges for months with active usage.
Why We Have Software Subscriptions
Why do software subscriptions engender so much ire from users? And how did we get here? It’s simple: predictable revenue streams help developers make business decisions with greater confidence and reduce anxiety.
Long ago, nearly all commercial software was expensive and sold on a permanent license model, where you paid once for the right to use the software indefinitely. It’s important to remember that ownership was not a question—it was difficult or impossible to transfer a software license to someone else. That stems from the ease of copying—developers needed a way to control what happened to apps after purchase to prevent users from reselling copies. Licensing also allowed vendors to sell the same software to different audiences at different price points (personal, education, enterprise) and to limit usage by seat. (In many ways, today’s subscriptions are just traditional licensing on top of more powerful billing automation.)
Upgrades were infrequent and usually required additional fees, not least because physical distribution was expensive. (Remember those packages that came with five to ten floppy disks and thick manuals?) Companies had to manage their operations carefully to match the spiky revenue stream from new sales and occasional upgrades.
Arguably, the first software category to adopt a subscription model was antivirus software, which consumers accepted because it was framed as paying for ongoing protection against the fast-moving malware landscape. Around the same time, Internet services normalized subscriptions by combining software—such as AOL or Earthlink—with Internet connectivity. The software wasn’t the important part, but it familiarized users with the concept.
Then, in 2013, Adobe introduced the Creative Cloud subscription, bundling Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more for a single monthly fee. At the time, individual apps cost $600 or $700 (with $200 upgrades), and the full Creative Suite bundles ranged from $1300 to $2600, so the $50 monthly subscription ($600 annually) made it easier to get started but required ongoing payments. Creative Cloud was also more expensive for many people, who might otherwise have upgraded only every three years.
Around this time, two structural changes made it easier for developers to adopt subscription models: ubiquitous high-speed broadband, which made frequent updates practical, and the App Store, which provided the necessary billing services at scale rather than requiring developers to build their own subscription management systems. In 2011, Apple began offering renewable content subscriptions, and in 2016, extended a subscription option to all apps. The App Store also weakened the historical link between price and ongoing cost. One-time prices collapsed even as expectations for continuous updates, operating system compatibility, and support increased—an economic mismatch that subscriptions conveniently resolved. This pricing drop migrated quickly to subscriptions, so a $1.99 per month subscription felt cheap compared to a $50 one-time price.
The shift toward subscriptions emerged from real structural problems in earlier software business models, even as it caused significant user frustration. When developers rely on new sales for revenue, they’re always chasing new users and have little incentive to serve their existing audience. (The way App Store pushed low prices and free updates highlighted this problem.) If developers focused on paid upgrades, they had to convince users to pay each time, and many wouldn’t. Revenue was spiky at the best of times, and misguided or delayed upgrades could (and did) put developers out of business.
Why Developers Like Subscriptions
At this point, the story shifts from how subscriptions emerged to why many developers now view them as necessary. With subscriptions, developers get a recurring revenue stream that enables them to fund future development, justify compatibility and security maintenance, and generally keep the lights on. The focus shifts to delivering ongoing value; otherwise, users will stop subscribing. At least in theory, user needs become paramount.
Unfortunately, because subscriptions decouple payment from perceived value—you’re paying regardless of whether you appreciate the ongoing changes—it’s difficult for developers to make users feel as though they’re always getting their money’s worth. It’s important to keep software compatible with new operating system releases and eliminate security vulnerabilities, but users see that as worthwhile mostly if they experience negative consequences from not having those updates. Worse are design changes—many users actively dislike updates that alter the interface and require relearning and updated workflows. Even new features may not be welcome if users see no benefit.
Subscriptions also shift power toward developers. They enable forced updates, price increases after lock-in, and—in access-based situations—the loss of access to both tools and user-created data upon cancellation. These risks account for much of the emotional response to software subscriptions and are distinct from complaints about cost alone.
For many modern apps—especially those that require continuous compatibility work or cloud infrastructure—subscriptions have become the dominant survival strategy, even if they aren’t always the most efficient option for users. Especially for smaller developers, consistent subscription revenue is what keeps apps from being abandoned—few of these developers are getting rich and have to prioritize work that earns them a living. As a user, you may not appreciate routine maintenance, security fixes, and features that don’t affect your use case, but you likely want the app to continue working as the ecosystem evolves.
As a rough guide, subscriptions make the most sense when costs scale with continuous production (news), usage (cloud storage), or risk (insurance). They feel least justified for stable, standalone tools that change little year over year. Many of today’s frustrations stem from developers applying one model indiscriminately across all categories. When you next audit your subscriptions, that framework might help you decide which are worth keeping and which warrant closer review.
