I Cancelled $47/Month in App Subscriptions — Here's Which Free Replacements Actually Held Up
I added up my recurring app subscriptions on a whim last year and hit $47 a month — Lightroom, LastPass, a grammar checker, a note-taking app. I cancelled all four over the following month and forced myself onto free alternatives to see which ones genuinely replaced what I was paying for versus which felt like a downgrade I'd regret. A year later, most of it stuck.
Password Manager: iCloud Keychain Replaced LastPass Completely
This was the easiest swap of the four. iCloud Keychain auto-generates strong passwords, fills them across my Apple devices, and syncs without me thinking about it — genuinely no functionality gap for how I actually used LastPass day to day. The one place it falls short is cross-platform: if you regularly use a Windows PC or Android device alongside your iPhone, Keychain's syncing is noticeably weaker outside Apple's ecosystem, which is worth knowing before you cancel a cross-platform password manager expecting an identical experience.
Photo Editing: Snapseed Covers Most of What I Actually Used Lightroom For
Snapseed handles selective adjustments, curves, and filters at a level that covers probably 90% of what I was actually doing in Lightroom Mobile — the core editing tools are genuinely comparable. What it doesn't do is Lightroom's cloud-synced catalog system across devices, which mattered less to me than I expected once I got used to exporting and organizing manually. If you're managing a large, actively-synced photo library across a phone and desktop, that's the one real gap.
Grammar Checking: Free Tier Catches Most, Not Everything
I dropped Grammarly Premium and now use its free tier plus LanguageTool for anything more formal. The free version catches the vast majority of what I actually needed — basic grammar, spelling, obvious phrasing issues. What it misses is the more nuanced tone and clarity suggestions Premium offered, which I noticed most when drafting anything client-facing. For casual writing, I don't miss Premium at all.
Note-Taking: Apple Notes Won, Slightly Surprising Myself
I expected to miss my paid note app's organization features, and mostly don't. Apple Notes' document scanning and rich formatting cover what I actually used regularly, and its search has gotten fast enough that I stopped needing the tagging system I used to rely on. Google Keep is still worth having alongside it specifically for quick, throwaway notes — I use Notes for anything I'll revisit, Keep for anything I'll forget on purpose in a day.
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Free to join, stacks nicely on top of whatever subscriptions you've already cut.
👉 See How It WorksA Correction Worth Making: DaVinci Resolve Isn't an iPhone App
This shows up in a lot of "free alternatives" content, so worth being precise: DaVinci Resolve's free mobile version is iPad-only, not available on iPhone at all, and even on iPad it needs real hardware — an M1 or M2 iPad Pro handles it well, while an older base iPad will run it but noticeably slower. If you're specifically looking for an iPhone-based free video editor, CapCut is the one that actually fits that description — genuinely capable, with keyframes, chroma key, and speed ramping, all running fine on a phone.
VPN: A Free Tier Is Fine for Basic Use, Not a Full Replacement
Proton VPN's free tier is unlimited on data and genuinely trustworthy on the privacy side, which I've written about in more depth elsewhere — but it restricts you to a handful of server countries and isn't a full swap for a paid VPN if you need broader server choice or streaming access. Fine as your only VPN for basic public-Wi-Fi protection; not a complete replacement if you were paying for a premium plan's full feature set.
Quick FAQ
Are free apps really as good as what I was paying for?
For core, everyday functionality, often yes — that was genuinely the case for three of the four things I cancelled. Where paid apps still win is in edge cases: heavy cross-platform syncing, advanced tone/clarity checking, cloud-synced photo catalogs. Know your own actual usage before assuming a free swap covers everything.
How do free apps make money if I'm not paying?
Ads, a freemium upsell tier, or being part of a larger company's ecosystem (Apple's native apps, for instance, are subsidized by hardware sales, not app revenue directly).
Is it safe to switch to free alternatives?
Generally yes if you're downloading from the official App Store — Apple's review process filters out most obviously malicious apps. Still worth checking reviews and developer history before trusting a new app with anything sensitive.
Conclusion
A year later, $47 a month stays in my account instead of going to subscriptions, and I only genuinely miss one feature (Lightroom's cross-device catalog sync) out of everything I cancelled. Not every paid app has a perfect free twin, but for most everyday use, the gap is smaller than the subscription price implies.
More real-use app breakdowns like this are up on Tech & Rewards.