15 Legal Ways to Get Paid Android & iPhone Apps for Free (Without Jailbreaking Your Phone!)

But the good news is that you don’t have to pay!

And no, we’re not talking about downloading illegal files or jailbreaking your phone.

We’re talking about totally legit and legal ways you can get paid apps for free.

How to get paid iPhone apps for free

iPhone is one of the most popular phones on the planet.

According to Fortune, citing a study by the research firm IHS Markit, iPhone 6s was the most popular in 2016 with more than 60 million units sold.

That explains why there are more than 2.2 million iPhone apps out there, many of which cost money to download.

The good news is, there are a few ways you can get paid iPhone apps without paying a penny.

1. AppsShopper

• Official site: http://appshopper.com/free

This is one of the best platforms for getting paid iPhone and iPad apps without paying for ’em.

They have one of the biggest selections I have ever seen.

Every day you can find around 10 free paid apps.

These apps range from games and trivia to productivity and even finance related apps.

Their quick filtering tools lets you find what you are looking for quickly and easily.

What I truly appreciate about this platform is that everything is marked clearly so you don’t “accidentally” spend money you hadn’t intended to spend.

2. AppZapp

• Where to get it: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/appzapp-notify-personal-alerts/id845046425?mt=8
  

This is an awesome app that I think anyone who purchases iOS apps should have.

It’s a 100% free app that basically scours the web looking for apps on sale.

It alerts you when it finds apps that are on sale as well paid apps that are currently free to install.

And yes, you can filter the lists to only display apps that you are actually interested in.

And you can also set your preferences for only free apps if you only want to see paid apps that are available for free for a limited time.

3. iTunes special offers

One of the most overlooked ways of getting premium iPhone (and other iOS devices) apps for free is through Apple’s own official app store, iTunes.

They regularly run special offers that give you the chance to get a paid apps at a heavily discounted price or completely free.

To find those offers, all you have to do is keep an eye on the app homepage and look for specials.

You can also use notification apps (more on that below) to keep an eye on the app store for such deals.

How to get paid Android apps for free

With over 2800000 million Android apps available, Android is right next to iOS when it comes to popularity.

There are also a lot of ways you can download paid android apps for free..

The free ways to get paid Android apps include:

4. App Sales

• Where to get it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.tsapps.appsales&hl=en

This is another free Android app that helps you “discover and download the best apps and games on sale and keep an eye out for apps gone free deals.”

What I like about this one is that they manually review sales and only feature the hottest sales with most dramatic price drops.

5. Paid Apps Gone Free – PAGF

• Where to get it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chikisoftworks.pagf&hl=en

This is an app by Chiki Softworks, an app developer company that has tons of other apps under its belt.

Every day, they post a list of paid Android apps that have gone free for a limited time.

So be sure to check back daily so you don’t miss any.

Their user reviews are actually very impressive and suggest that their users really like the app.

Here is one of the reviews for PAGF I saw on the PlayStore:

“No ads, no BS, just listings of paid apps on sale for free, does what it says on the tin. I’ve easily gotten 10 bucks’ worth of free apps in the last 2 weeks alone. Occasionally an app listed as free will not show as free on the Play store, but that could be the apps expiring sooner than the originally stated time, not something this app dev could possibly control. Thanks for a no-frills app that gets the job done without trying to extract data or shove ads in my face. The only complaint I have is running out of storage space!”

6. GetJar

• Where to get it: https://www.getjar.com

GetJar is basically a Google Play Store alternative that has been around almost as long as the Play Store itself.

It was originally created as a beta testing stage for app developers to beta test their apps before releasing it into the market, but it has since morphed into a giant app store.

Not only you can find apps not found in the official Google Play Store, you can also get normally paid-for apps for free.

7. App of the Day

• Where to get it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d…eday2015&hl=en

App of the day is one of the easiest ways to get paid apps without paying for ’em.

True to its name, each featured app stays up for just 24 hours. So be sure to bookmark the site and check once a day to see if what’s available is interesting to you.

A few examples of paid apps that were offered for free to their users in the past include:

• Bio Inc
• MAPSE ME
• Solar Walk
• Photo Collada
• Easy Speaker Booster
• Emoji Keyboard
• Runtastic Running & Fitness
• Simple Currency Converter
• Wifi Hotspot
• Helium Voice Changer

One of the best features of this site is that they sometimes allow you to unlock paid features within apps for free. Think of Candy Crush and its paid features. Using App of the Day you may be able to get those extra lives on Candy Crush without paying for ’em!

According to the company, they also negotiate with app developers to get exclusive free bonuses or ad-free versions of their apps just for App of the Day users. Now that’s awesome!

8. Aptoide

• Where to get it: http://en.aptoide.com/

Aptoide is a rather unknown independent Android app marketplace. It’s a platform for app developers to create their own Android Store.

Essentially it acts as a huge app repository.

They also carry a lot of discounted apps along with paid apps you can get for free.

9. Google Opinion Rewards

• Where to get it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.paidtasks&hl=en

If you like taking surveys for money, you’ll love Google’s own Opinion Rewards app.

It’s essentially a survey and reward program that gets you free gifts for answering short surveys on the go.

Their surveys are usually centered around gathering information about internet usage of everyday people, as well as getting feedback on a variety of topics.

To get started, download the free Google Opinion Rewards app, fill out your profile and wait for surveys to become available.

About once a week, they’ll send you surveys (sometimes more sometimes less.)

The questions usually require short and quick answers, so you won’t have to spend much time on them.

For example:

• Which logo is best?
• Which promotion is most compelling?
• When do you plan on traveling next?

For each survey you complete, you earn instant Google Google Play Store credits (about $1.00 in Play credit.)

You can then redeem your credits to buy apps, music, books, etc at the Play Store.

10. Play Store Sales

• Where to get it: https://www.playstoresales.com/

This is an awesome platform that only features discounted (up to 100% off) and on sale apps.

Although most of the available apps are heavily discounted apps, they also feature paid apps that you can install instantly for free.

Example discounted apps:

• Violett: $0.99 (Originally $5.99)
• R.B.I. Baseball 17: $1.99 (Originaly $4.99)
• Reckless Racing 3: $0.99 (Originally $2.49 )

At the time of writing this post, there were also a few paid apps available for free.

These included:

• Wallzy Pro
• Lensinator
• Oreo Square

What I love about their platform is that finding apps is easy with their easy to find category sections that categorize apps into groups that make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

11. Google Play special offers

Just like iTunes, Google Play store also hosts great deals and discounts on apps here and there.

Bookmark the store’s official page and keep an eye on current promotions.

You can also use the app sales notification tools we mention (below.)

How to get premium Android and iPhone apps for free

There are also sites/apps that offer free paid apps for both Android and iOS devices..

Here are a few:

12. Freapp

• Where to get it: http://www.freapp.com/

With more than 7 million downloads and users coming from 50 different countries, Freapp is one of the biggest communities for app lovers.

FAD is very similar to App of the Day – They offer a free app every day as well as heavily discounted paid apps.

How to find apps/games sales & deals

Premium apps, just like any other product, go on sale all the time.

The reason is simple…

Developers use sales and promotion as a way to bring in new users who may pay less than the original price, but will (hopefully) eventually spend more money on within app purchases and upgrades.

Sometimes the price drops by 10-20%, sometimes by 40-50% and sometimes up to 90%.

There are also rare occasions where they drop by 100% so you get a premium app for free.

So how do you find these deals without being glued to the app store 24/7?

Easy…

Use notification apps and Reddit!

Price drop notification tools for iTunes app store

13. CheapCharts!

• Official site: https://www.cheapcharts.de

CheapCharts is essentially a free notification app that keeps an eye on the app store and notifies you of price drops.

Not only does it notify you of apps that are on sale, but they also notify you of prices drops on other products like Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Audiobooks, and Games.

You can pick categories you are interested in. You can also do a quick search for current sales.

It really is easy to use and best of all it’s 100% free.

By the way, they also have an app by the same name that helps you save money on Amazon by notifying you of the latest Amazon deals and discounts.

Price drop notification app for Google Play Store

14. Free App Notify

• Official Google Play store page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.notifyapp.iag&hl=en

Unlike CheapCharts that notifies you of any sales, this one only notifies you of sales with 100% off.

Yes, it only finds you premium apps that go on sale making them available to the user for free.

And yes, the app itself is free to install.

15. Reddit

I am a big fan of Reddit.

If you can think of it, there is a subreddit dedicated to it!

And deals and discounts on apps are no different.

Reddit is a goldmine for finding amazing deals on premium apps.

There are active subreddits where members find and share deals and promotions related to Google Play and iTunes store.

You can even subscribe to subreddit and share deals you find online.

• For iTunes deals: https://www.reddit.com/r/iTunesFree/
• For Google Play deals: https://www.reddit.com/r/googleplaydeals/
• For deals and discounts on both Android and iOS apps: https://www.reddit.com/r/app_deals/

Why do developers give away their paid apps for free?

So why would developers give away their paid apps for free?

The answer is marketing!

This is one of the oldest and most proven marketing tactics, especially when it comes to products that rely heavily on reviews and ratings to increase sales.

That’s exactly why so many Amazon sellers give their products away in exchange for reviews.

Now, when you use the sites mentioned in this post, you are not obligated to leave a review for ’em. In fact, they don’t even ask for it. They are hoping that if you use the app and like it enough, you’ll take a few seconds and write a review on Google Play or Apple Store.

They get to increase their review and rating counts that will ultimately increase their sales without spending thousands of dollars on advertising and we get to enjoy apps for free that otherwise would have cost us anywhere from $0.99 to $6-$7 and sometimes even more.

Note on Amazon App Store & & Amazon Underground

Just a quick note for those of you who might have heard about Amazon offering free apps.

Amazon had two programs previously that offered free Android apps to users.

The first one called Free App of the Day where each you could get one free app. But they replaced that a while later with Amazon Underground Actually Free program that essentially did the same thing.

Sadly, they shut that program down as well, sometime in the summer of 2017.

Thankfully, with many other companies and websites stepping up to fill the void, you don’t have to worry. There are many other ways you can get 100% free apps without illegally downloading paid apps.

How to Enable “Unknown Sources” in Android third-party apps

Android system is set up in a way that you can only install apps from the official app repository, Google Play Store.

But there are some third part platforms mentioned in this post that helps you get paid apps for free.

So how do you install apps from those platforms?

Fortunately, there is a simple way – all you have to do is enable an option known as the “Unknown Sources” on your phone.

Here’s how:

1. Go to “Settings”
2. Within the Settings menu, scroll down to “Security & fingerprint” or “Security” for devices that don’t have the fingerprint feature.
3. Once the Security Settings menu launches, scroll down to find “Unknown sources.” By default, this option is set to “disabled.” You want to change it to “enabled” which you can do by toggling the switch to ON position.
4. Before the feature is enabled you’ll get a prompt that tells you of the risks involved in installing apps from unknown sources. Hit “Ok” to enable the feature.

That’s it. Now you can install apps from any unknown source.

Google Play Return Policy

Google Play’s return policy lets you return any purchased app (from the Play Store) within 48 hours.

So you have 2 days to test the app and see whether or not you like it before you actually commit to buying it

This allows you to try out new apps that you aren’t sure if they re worth the price.

Now, initially, I didn’t want to mention this because I don’t want people to abuse it. After all, app developers put a lot of their time and effort into creating these apps and selling paid apps is one way they make their living.

So, it would be unfair to them to use this policy to scam them out of their money.

That said, there are legitimate cases for using the return policy to get a refund for apps that didn’t deliver what they promised or apps with a lot of bugs that render them useless.

How do I know if an app is safe?

With so many million of apps out there, there are bound to be hundreds of thousands of malicious apps.

So how do you ensure what you’re installing is a safe app and not a malicious one trying to install malicious stuff on your phone or steal your personal information?

Thankfully, there are a few ways you can ensure you only download safe apps.

Starting with only installing apps from trusted sources.

Also, keep an eye for “Trusted’ or similar stamps next the app’s name on the app platforms you are using.

Some platforms even display a small “Trusted” stamp next to the app name. Look for those to ensure the app you are downloading isn’t a malicious app.

There is also a simple, free tool that lets you test any app to see if it is safe or not.

It is called Zscaler Application Profiler.

Here’s how to use it:

• Visit http://zap.zscaler.com
• Enter the name of the app you are interested in installing.
• Ht “Search App” and wait for the results.

It’s that easy!

Keeping these things in mind is a simple way to safely download all kinds of apps and enjoy them.

The bottom line

As you can see, there are many ways you can download and enjoy paid apps for free without breaking the law, jail breaking your phone or some other unethical way.

Here is the thing…

If you can afford it, pay for the app!

But please don’t use illegal means to get premium apps for free.

Not only do you put yourself at the risk of having your device affected by malware and viruses, you also rob the developers of their rightfully earned money.

App developers work hard on creating these apps.

The put a lot of time and effort into it. Some work tirelessly for weeks and months to create the best app they can create. So please support them by not illegally downloading their paid apps for free.

Plus with so many legal ways of obtaining paid apps for free – which as we explained above not only help you save money, but also help the developers of those apps to get the word out and create more sales down the road – there is no reason to do it any other way.