Our manifesto
Making a good app is hard. Getting the first people to use it is harder. And many people would love a good paid app, but won't pay for one before they've tried it.
Premium App Drops brings the two together every Friday, with the codes Apple and Google made for exactly this.
The first part is for people who want free apps. The second is for developers, and explains why a drop stays inside the store rules.
If you want free apps
What happens in a drop
A developer creates official codes in their own store account: Apple offer codes or Google Play promo codes. We give each code to one person who picked that app. You redeem it in the App Store or Google Play and get the paid version for free. The price in the store stays the same for everyone else.
Codes go first come, first served (people from the waitlist get a short head start). When a drop's codes are gone, they're gone. Come back for the next drop.
What you can count on
- Only the stores' own codes, from the developer who made the app.
- Nobody asks you for a rating or a review, before or after you claim.
- You only install what you picked.
- Your email address stays with us. Developers never get it.
Why it's free
Developers give the codes because they want more people to use their apps. Dropping an app is free, and so is claiming a code. Antonio Cappiello built Premium App Drops and PricePush, a pricing tool for app developers, for his own apps first. Some developers who drop here try PricePush, and some of our emails carry a sponsor spot, always marked. That pays for the site.
If you make apps
Not an app directory
Premium App Drops is not an app directory, and we're not trying to replace one. You won't find every app here.
An app is here because its developer is giving codes away. It stays while they keep doing that: an app with no drop in the last 3 months leaves our pages. Past drops stay in the archive, with their date.
We look for apps that are alive: updated in the last 6 months, by developers who keep improving them. New codes are the best sign of that.
What Apple and Google allow
Both stores built these codes so developers can give their app away. Apple says its offer codes "can be shared through online or offline channels", and Google says to distribute promo codes "via any method". A drop is one of those channels, and the rules below keep it inside theirs.
What the stores forbid is paying people to install, rate or review an app. Google calls an install incentivized when someone gets money, goods or something similar in exchange for it. In a drop, nobody gets anything in exchange for installing. The code is the app itself. There are no points, no cash and no prizes, and there is nothing to do in return.
We only use these official codes. Apple doesn't let apps unlock paid features with their own license keys or codes (rule 3.1.1), and on Google Play, paid content inside an app goes through Google Play's billing. The stores' own codes are the legit way to give it away.
Your developer account comes first
Your developer account is the most valuable thing you have as an app maker. If Apple or Google close it for breaking their rules, your apps leave the store, and you usually can't start again: Google closes any new account you try to open.
So a good reputation is worth more than any number of bought installs or reviews. Services that sell fake reviews and installs look for developers who are desperate for users. Don't use them, ever. We built Premium App Drops to help with the same problem, the legit way.
What we will never do
- Pay or reward anyone for installing, rating or reviewing an app.
- Ask or nudge anyone for a store review, or let a developer make a review part of a drop.
- Sell installs, rankings or top spots in the stores.
- Post codes on a public page where bots can take them.
- Give people's email addresses to developers.
Ratings and rankings only help people choose an app if nobody bought them. Installs bought with rewards also tell you nothing about who wants your app. A drop goes only to people who picked it.
What you get
Real people using your premium features, on iPhone and Android, at your normal store price. A report with how many codes were claimed, on which store and in which countries. Dropping your app is free.
If the rules change
We follow Apple's and Google's published rules, linked below. When they change, we change. If you think something here crosses a line, tell us at hello@premiumappdrops.com.