As everyone was posting their Subs at the end of the year and what they plan to cut for 2024 I thought I would post my list of what I currently have and what I plan to add over this year.
At the end of the year I can revisit this post and see how it actually turned out, so let’s go:
Apps
Ivory (20$) 💸 - It fits the way I enjoy Mastodon (and Twitter before that) the best and it’s an easy one to keep, especially since the Mac Version is out as I primarly use it there
Carrot Weather (32$) 💸 - I like the banter, the timely comments and since the later half of 2023 I also enjoy the timely rain and snow updates since I upgraded my subscription. Do I need it? No. Do I like it? Yes! Let’s see if it stays
Parcel (3$) 💸 - Costs almost nothing and makes waiting for packages more fun than with the terrible delivery company Apps
ReCaf (11$) 🤔 - Tracks my Caffeine intake, but since it’s mostly always the same I’m thinking of letting this run out and do it with a Shortcut
Timery (11$) 💸 - Just got this at the End of 2023 as an experiment for 2024, I plan to track all my freetime activites the whole year to have some nice graphs at the end (I’m a sucker for Your year in review things) how much time of it my game consoles, podcasts, books etc have eaten up
GifWrapped (12$)💸 - I love GIF’s and this one let’s me keep my most used ones sorted and tagged to find the one I want really fast and easy. Also, if there’s something I need it automatically goes to one of the biggest engines to find me a match
1Blocker (6$) 💸 - Have to, the Web is almost unusable these days with all the ads, whole page shit and things with the TINY x’s to close them. In Addition, the tracking is totally out of control
Widget Smith (25$)👀 - Thinking about getting it sometime this year, maybe even just for a month or 2 at first to see how much I really use it, but it’s beautiful, useful and the coverflow widget for apple music is really cool
Zero (44$) 💸 - Have jumped on the 40% off deal at the end of the year and will be using it this year to get some of the weight I put on due to the cookies and great christmas food and easter food to come out of my system. Intermittent fasting is not as difficult as people believe, it’s good for you and this will hopefully help me stay on track
Albums (22$) 👀 - Thinking of getting this as a way to get better Statistics and Year in Review Summaries than what Apple provides (Like I said, I’m a sucker for those). Also, the playing experience is quite good too if you listen to whole albums. It’s free to try out some of the stuff, so give it a go if you want!
PocketCasts (45$) 👀 - Used to be on Overcast but made the switch in the last months of 2023. I’m sorry for Marco but since he now twice said he will be implementing Podcast Year in review things and hasn’t done it yet I had to switch. Maybe I will come back once he actually does it….Currently using Pocketcasts in free mode but quite like it so far, so maybe I will take the plunge and buy the sub to personalise it a bit more
Infuse (15$) 👀 - Thinking of getting this one as well since Plex has stuffed more and more stuff into their app that doesn’t interest me and cloggs up the interface.
Peak (2$) 👀 - Thinking of getting this one during the summer months when I’m more active with sports to have a nice visual representation of what I already achieved to keep me motivated (don’t think I will get a full yearly sub)
Play (22$) 👀 - Thinking of getting the Sub to completely ignore the youtube website and just grab my few subs from there as to not sink extra time in the recommended videos there (it even has an AppleTV Version)
Services
Micro.blog (60$) 💸 - My personal little home on the internet
Matter (60$) 💸 - I love this read later Service, it has a great parser and even greater reading voices (which is how I consume most of the Sites I save there)
ChatGPT plus (240$) 🤔 - use it almost every day and with Dalle3 now it even has a Picture component…but let’s see what the year brings, there’s so much movement in this space, I also might try out to switching to Copilot for free and change to Midjouney, we’ll see
Hover (58$) 💸 - It’s where my domains live, might go up if I grab some more
Kagi (60$) 👀 - Still evaluating but so far I’m down for the results
Youtube Premium (30$) 🤔 - I HATE youtube ads, they have gotten so obnoxious it’s not funny. If I weren’t in the Family Plan of a friend though I would skip this one and rely on my ad-blockers for this as I don’t watch enough youtube to justify the full single price for me
NextDNS (0$) 💸 - Same as 1Blocker, fuck ads and tracking, currently I’m just under the included minimum, so might need to pay for it soon
Feedbin (45$) 💸 - It’s where my feeds live and it’s a great service that’s being actively developed, the new Podcast Client looks rad!
SmartDNS&VPN (20$) 🤔 - This is from my old Netflix Days when Netflix wasn’t yet available here. It’s more hassle to unsubscribe than 20$ is worth (and good to have in any case) but first thing to go if I should need to cut down
Last.fm (30$) 👀 - Thinking of grabbing it for better End of Year Wrapped Results than those from apple
omg.lol (20$) 👀 - I really like the vibe of the open web of this service and that alone would get me to subscribe, besides it’s not that expensive…seriously close to getting this one
PsPlus Premium (0$) 💸 - Still have about half a year left from my last time where I bought some time with the 30% off deal, need it and if there’s no sale during the “days of play” I’ll downgrade to extra as premium has no added value to me
Nintendo Switch Online (20$) 💸 - Need it for the cloud Backups and free silver coins for merch from time to time😅 Fortunately not that expensive
Entertainment and People Support
Shonen Jump Manag App (36$) 👀 - I love my Manga and I heard so many good things from friends about this service that I actually might pull the trigger this year
Apple Music (109$) 💸 - Have to, I need some kind of Music Streaming Service and since Apple One doesn’t make financal Sense for me the yearly Apple Music Sub it is (at least that way I save on 2 Months)
Stratechery Plus (120$) 💸 - I love Ben and Andrew’s Shows and the banter they have over big tech, it also is very informative what it going on in the wider tech industry. If need be I might be able to downsize and just go with the Dithering Sub and just get the free episode
iCloud Space (36$) 💸 - Need it, no questions asked
MacStories.net Sub (50$) 💸 - Love the Team and the extra Podcast I get out of it
SixColors Sub (60$) 💸 - I love Jason and Dan and their writing, plus the extra Podcast I get out of it. Technically there’s also the Discord Community but that’s too much for my time Budget
iPhoneblog.de (50$) 💸 - One of my german websites, Alex is a great guy, I love his writing and the sub Videos he does every week, also this is one community I can budget time for. Staying until the bitter end.
bitsundso (50$) 💸 - Another german podcast, love the team and with the sub I have something to watch every week with their video podcast version.
Amazon Prime (90$) 💸 - Grab it for free and faster shipping but also take the movies and tv shows and other benefits (though not as much that I want to pay 3$ extra every month for less ads)
And there you have it. Why so few video streaming you ask? Since most of my free time is spent reducing my gaming backlog it doesn’t make much sense for me to have yearly streaming contracs (especially since they don’t give any benefit to monthly) so I will subscribe a month or 2 to AppleTV+ or Netflix if I have an urge or some time and then cancel again. Maybe this will be different later in the year once my backlog is a little less full but we’ll see.
I hope you found something new or interesting about my apps or services and make a list yourself. And as I mentioned in the beginning, I will come back at the end of the year to see what I actually have gotten, gotten rid of or what new thing came on the scene.
P.S. For easy reading purposes I converted all monthly subs to year and unified the currency to $
