In-App Purchase vs „Pro“ and „Free“ app

Zantafio

Hello,
I am in the process of finishing an app that I want to sell for Android and iOS.
This app will have some advanced features only professional or highly interested users might need.
Is it better to unlock those features via in-app purchase or just publish two independent apps?
It might seem to me, that in-app purchase creates more maintenance overhead.
What are your thoughts?

General

As far as I remember, not Google discourages publishing 2 versions of an app, and required feature unlock by IAP. But I might've been mistaken.

jonsi

I'd generally say IAP is the way to go. It's easier to get a user to upgrade within an existing app rather than get them to buy a premium app and it isn't too tricky to set up. If you use the ANE from Distriqt, they more or less guide you through what you need to do.

Zantafio

Hm. I do not like getting dependent on an external extension for core functionality, really.

TeotiGraphix

Zantafio There is always the option to just write an ANE for IAP, it's actually not that hard if you understand the Android API for IAP, if you don't then ignore. 🙂

General

But, in fact, you don't need external ANE for IAP.

Just go to https://enhance.co

Select In-app -> Air
Imgur

Then select Google IAP
Imgur

And that's all, basically 🙂

TeotiGraphix

My comment is no comment.

2dguy

fwiw.. I think a pro user would want to make sure the app is working properly before buying. Price is probably not the main factor here so you could error on the side of a higher price.

Zantafio

Absolutely. As a „user“ I always liked the shareware concept of try before you buy. But that does not really seem possible with the app stores these days.

leokan23

Hi Zantafio, I will give my opinion based on my experience. As a company we have several apps which are promoted directly by Google marketing team. They always tell us to make our apps freemium, as they are easier to download and install, then unlock features based using IAP.

On example is one of our apps for hotel booking management. Hoteliers can download the app for free but they are limited to 10bookings / week and generating 10 invoices / week. This is an OK number to test the app before paying. Then they have the option to buy credits (consumables) for more bookings / invoices, which are really cheap, unlock more features via IAP, or unlock everything (pro IAP).

this brought a lot more installs than one of our similar apps which was paid.

toddtucker

As a user, I am inclined to in-app purchase because some apps I am using (poweramp, moneylover apknite...) have the advanced features showing beside the normal that we can always see them and always be reminded. Moreover, I like the purchased/premium icon after paying.

sonnyhes

You could provide both a Freemium version and a paid Pro version. In the Free version you offer the users to unlock premium and also you provide a link to the Pro version. Some users prefer to unlock the Freemium version so they don't need to download the pro version another time. Other users prefer downloading the pro version after they tested the Free, so there is no uncertainty that something goes wrong on unlocking with IAP.

But with a paid version you might run into the problem that users start refunding after they downloaded the app, but they will continue to use it. With IAP is the advantage that you could check if there was a refund and relock the content that was unlocked.