The Play Store is packed with millions of apps, which means there are alternatives to pretty much all of them. This is especially nice when it comes to paid apps—up-front or subscription. Sometimes, a free option is just as good.
Before diving in, I just want to say I have nothing against paying for apps. I’ve happily paid for many apps over the years, and I almost always wish I had done it sooner. Subscriptions are a tougher sell, but I understand their purpose. That being said, you can’t beat free.
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Paid: Life360 / Free: Google Find Hub
Skip the subscription and use Android’s built-in tool
Life360 is free to download, and it has a heavily limited free plan, too. However, most people are paying a subscription—it’s in the top 15 highest-grossing Android apps. For many years, Android didn’t have an answer to Apple’s Find My network, which made apps like Life360 necessary. That’s not the case anymore.
Back in 2024, Google revamped its “Find My Device” network and opened it up to more than just phones. Then, last year, the service was renamed to “Find Hub,” and location tracking for people was added to the fold. Now, you can track phones, luggage, bags, and your friends and family right from the Find Hub for free.
Paid: Tasker / Free: Automate
Tasker is great, but so is Automate
Tasker is one of the most iconic Android apps of all time, and it’s also number three on the paid apps chart. It’s an incredibly powerful and capable app, well worth the $4.49 for many, but it’s not the easiest to use. If you’d rather try automation for free, the aptly named Automate app is a nice choice.
Automate is built on similar principles to Tasker, but the user interface is drastically different. You build automations by literally linking actions together in “flows.” The capabilities are nearly as endless as Tasker, but for some, it’s an easier system to understand.
Paid: Duolingo / Free: Busuu
Another subscription to avoid
Like Life360, Duolingo is free to download and can be used for free as well. However, the free version is limited by how many mistakes you make. Clearly, many people opt to pay for a subscription because it’s one of the top 20 highest-grossing Android apps.
Now, there are several Duolingo alternatives, but Busuu is one of the most full-featured free options. You’re not limited by mistakes or daily learning. Busuu keeps you on your toes by changing up the teaching methods so you can’t “cheat” with context clues. It also has a community feature that lets native speakers make sure the exercises are accurate.
Paid: Torque Pro / Free: Car Scanner ELM OBD2
Keep tabs on your car for free
Just under Tasker on the top paid apps chart is an app called Torque Pro for $4.95. It’s one of several apps that can communicate with devices plugged into the OBD-II port in your car. Unless you’re a diehard gearhead, it’s probably not necessary to pay for an OBD scanner app.
Car Scanner is a free app with many of the same features as Torque Pro, and it doesn’t pretend to be much different (the first line of the app description is identical). You can see real-time information from the OBD-II scanner, diagnose the fault codes, monitor vehicle performance, and much more.
Paid isn’t always better
The “paid vs free” debate often comes down to your personal purposes. For example, I am someone who does a lot of cooking, so paying $5 to unlock the full Paprika app was well worth it. However, for someone who isn’t in the kitchen all the time, a free recipe app is just as useful. The key is to know when paying for an app will actually be valuable.
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The “Android Market” from 2008 became the Google Play Store in 2012 and now offers over 1.8 million apps for download. A lot has changed in the world of Android since then, but some things (and apps) have stayed the same. Did you know many of your favorite and long-forgotten apps are still available? More importantly, some are still worth downloading.