The highly-referred quote, “the best things in life are free“, by French fashion designer Coco Chanel is often read without the part succeeding it, “the second best are very expensive“. Looking at this from the perspective of smartphones, you’ll agree that while some of the greatest apps for both Android and iOS are the ones available for free, there are many great apps that require you to pay. For example, while games like PUBG Mobile and Fortnite are great examples for the dandy freebies, other games like Final Fantasy, Limbo, The Room Series, and more are not. If only there was a way to get paid apps for free.
Well, for those of you who do not wish to (or cannot) pay for such apps and games, we have listed some of the sources you can use to grab paid apps for free legally. Most of the options listed here will serve Android users whereas a few apply to iOS, Windows, and macOS users as well.
Get Paid Apps For Free Using These Services (Updated July 2020)
Here are the 10 different ways you can access paid apps for free. You can click on the link below and easily navigate between all the services. Also, if you want to learn how to install paid apps on Android devices through third-party stores then go through the below guide. With that out of the way, let’s go through the article.
- AppsFree
- AppSales
- Paid Apps Gone Free
- Aptoide
- XDA Labs
- Freapp
- Shareware
- Giveaway Of The Day
- AppShopper
- Google Opinion Rewards
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How to Install Paid Apps from Third-party Marketplace
Below, we have mentioned some third-party app stores. If you want to install apps from those stores then you will have to allow installation of apps from unknown sources. Here is how you can do it.
Open Settings and move to “Apps and Notifications”. After that, navigate to Special App Access -> Install Unknown Apps and then enable the toggle for the third-party app store.
Download Paid Apps for Free
1. AppsFree
AppsFree is a simple and straightforward app that notifies you about the apps which are available for free at a particular moment. On the homepage itself, you can see a long list of paid apps that you can avail 100% discount on at that moment. If you want to fine-tune this list, you can apply search filters based on parameters like the minimum rating, number of downloads, categories etc.
It also gives you the option to exclude apps that use a specific keyword or are developed by any particular developer from the search results, as well the liberty to chuck out apps that come with ads or in-app purchases.
While there is no option to search a specific app or be notified when any of the apps you aspire to have becomes available for free, you can set category-wise notifications. Furthermore, you can also dismiss those apps from the list which you do not wish to see in the future.
The app also has an option to remove ads for 24 hours by watching a 30-second-long video. Overall, a search feature and the ability to add app-wise notification would have made AppsFree the best service to find and download paid apps for free.
Download AppsFree: Free, in-app ads
2. AppSales
Created by the same developer as the app above, AppSales also helps you download paid apps for free, but offers better sorting and listing features. Inside the app, you will not only be able to find the top paid apps which can be downloaded for free but also find a histogram showing the price of the app in the past. By long-pressing on a specific app, you can see this detail and get access to other options.
Besides downloading paid apps when they’re available for free, you can utilize the app to check out apps which are on sale or have striking discounts on them. However, the developer has taken due care to not merge the two streams and kept totally free and partially discounted apps separate.
AppSales lets you either blacklist a particular app so that it is not visible to you next time it is on sale, or add any app to your Watchlist such that the next time it is on sale or available for free, you will be notified. While there is no option to search an app directly, you can look for a particular app while adding it to your Watchlist.
Overall, I find the ability to see both free deals and discount offers in a single app but unlike the previous one, there’s no option to remove ads.
Download AppSales: Free, in-app ads
3. Paid Apps Gone Free (PAGF)
Paid Apps Gone Free or PAGF, as implied by the name, curates a list of apps which are available for free for a limited time. However, unlike the two listed above, the PAGF app simply redirects to a blog by the alias of “Ubuntu Vibes“, which features a list of paid apps available for free and this list is refreshed daily. While on the outside, the blog may seem less visually attractive compared to dedicated apps listed above, PAGF’s search is commendably fast and fetches results in real-time.
Besides this, the app offers you a host of sorting and filtering options including the choice of category, and sorting on the basis of overall ratings, the number of total downloads, and the usual price of the app. You can also filter out apps that come with ads or in-app purchases and even change the style in which this list of temporarily-free paid apps is displayed.
Download PAGF: Free
4. Aptoide
Unlike other apps on this list, Aptoide is a third-party app marketplace similar to Play Store. It competes directly with Play Store and offers some great Android apps for free. Aptoide has struck deal with many developers who publish apps on Aptoide for free which are otherwise available at a premium on Play Store. For example, Nova Launcher is a paid app on Play Store, but you can get it for free on Aptoide. Apart from that, you will find apps from major publishers like Facebook, Roblox, Supercell, and more.
If you are worried about security then be assured, all the APKs on Aptoide are directly uploaded by the developers and further verified by Aptoide through many security checks. So there is no third-party fiddling in the process. To sum up, Aptoide is a great way to download paid apps for free on Android devices and you can give it a try.
Download Aptoide (Free)
5. XDA Labs
XDA Labs is another promising platform from where you can download paid apps for free. While it does not have a rich library of Android apps, but it surely boasts of many indie apps which costs you a dollar or two on the Play Store. One of the best examples is MiXplorer– an excellent file manager for Android— that costs around $4.49 on Play Store, but it’s available for free on XDA Labs. Similarly, EasyJoin comes at a premium of $10 on the Play Store, but you can download it for free on XDA Labs.
There are many such niche apps that go mainstream after word-of-mouth publicity. After some time, developers introduce a paywall on the Play Store, but apps on XDA Labs are still kept free. That said, keep in mind, XDA Labs doesn’t have an Android app, instead, you will have to rely on its website to download and update apps. All in all, I would say, XDA Labs offers much-needed apps without any charge and you can definitely give it a shot.
Visit XDA Labs (Free)
6. Freapp
As another platform to satisfy your hunger for premium apps available for free for a limited duration, Freapp shows you a long list of free and discounted apps. You can add your Google account in Freapp so that it can learn about the kind of apps you prefer using and downloading from the Play Store and thus, recommend you the apps suited for your usage.
You can tap on the first icon at the bottom to learn about the on-going discounts and sales on paid apps. Freapp appears is an app recommendation platform, not just for paid apps momentarily free but also most downloaded games and apps, segmented as per categories. Besides Android, you can also use Freapp on as a web app.
Download Freapp: Free, in-app ads
7. Shareware on Sale
Unlike other options in the list, Shareware on Sale is an online portal (not an app) which lets you find several Android and Windows apps which have undergone a price cut lately or are available for free. While the ads on the platform can be somewhat overwhelming, it can be a good option for those who do not want to install a special app to score discounts. However, do note that there is no option to get reminded or notified if you’re fishing for discounts on a specific app available.
Visit Shareware on Sale: Android / Windows (Free)
8. Giveaway Of The Day
Giveaway Of The Day is another discovery platform that lets you download paid apps without spending a single penny. Like others in the list, it also shows you an assortment of daily deals, not just for Android but also for Windows and iOS devices. Besides showing you a list of apps discounted by the developers, this platform also hosts exclusive giveaways at its end, with a limited number of activation licenses to offer.
To grab a great offer as part of these giveaways, you’re required to sign up and share a specific link on your social media. Based on the number of times you share the link, you get the points and the top users with the highest points can download the paid apps for free.
Visit Giveaway Of The Day: Android / iOS / Windows (Free)
9. AppShopper
AppShopper is an app directory helps you discover new apps for iPhones and iPads by skimming through the best deals on the iOS App Store. It works pretty similar to the options like PAGF and AppsFree (listed above) and uses a very simple interface with no advertisements, allowing you to browse apps with great ease.
Besides searching for apps, you can also create an account on AppShopper and add apps to your wishlist in order to be reminded when a paid iOS app goes on sale or is available for free. While there’s an iOS app for AppShopper, it has not been updated for a while and you will not be able to run it unless your iOS device is running on iOS 10 or lower.
Visit AppShopper: iOS / macOS
10. Google Opinion Rewards
If you didn’t know, Google rewards you for helping it improve the overall user experience. If you can spare a few minutes and answer questions related to your usual web browsing, as well as preferences related to YouTube viewing habits, choices of movies, shopping taste etc, you will be repaid with monetary rewards which can be collected over time.
The app is not only available on Android, but also on iOS. While Android users can use the rewards points as Google Play credits which can be redeemed in exchange for paid apps, iOS users can transfer the money into their Paypal accounts (since they cannot buy Android apps).
Download Google Opinion Rewards: Android / iOS (Free)
Bonus: Reddit
While these apps and platforms can keep you abreast with the latest deals and discounts on paid apps, subreddits like r/googleplaydeals and r/AppHookup can also be useful for tracking the latest discounts. On the former, the pinned post keeps a tab of some of the popular apps and games that are discounted frequently, so you can refer to it if unless you’re looking for a niche app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How Do You Get Paid Apps for Free?
Sometimes, developers remove the paywall from their premium apps on particular occasions like festivals or during the monthly sale period. Within that moment, you can grab the paid apps for free. And to make things easier for you, there are certain apps that alert you whenever a paid app goes free.
Q. Is Downloading Paid Apps for Free Illegal?
If you are downloading the paid app through official means (which we have discussed above) then it’s not illegal. However, if you grab the paid APK by downloading a cracked version then it’s surely illegal.
Q. Where Can I Download Paid Apps For Free?
You can get paid apps for free on Play Store itself, but you will have to wait for the sale period. Apart from that, there are other app stores from where you can get the paid app for free.
Paid Apps for Free: A Blessing in Disguise
We hope that a few of the above-listed options will help you make the best out of your software experience by downloading paid apps for free. Furthermore, all of these options are completely legal and will free you from any sort of guilt associated with piracy. All of these options land you to official stores for the respective operating system (except the ones for Windows) which is the safest bet while downloading apps.
This will ensure that you not only get a great deal but also download an app without causing potential harm to your smartphone or computer. What do you think about these services? Did we miss any such service which should be on the list? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
