The long-anticipated bundle of Apple services is here: Apple One. And while paying a reasonable amount for a few services sounds like a great deal on paper, especially if you’re already a subscriber, it’s always good to remember the following advice. If you’re buying a bundle, you might be paying for more than what you actually need.
With that said, we ask the question: Is Apple One worth it?
Apple One is worth it for Apple junkies, but...
If you’re the kind of person who absolutely uses every Apple service under the sun, then sure, get an Apple One bundle. Easy solution there. The trickiness comes when you, like me, don’t wake up every day and say a small prayer to the statue of Tim Cook in our bedrooms.
In other words, if you’re a piecemeal Apple user, Apple One gets a bit trickier to price out.
When is Apple One’s Individual plan a good deal?
Consider Apple One’s Individual plan ($15/mo). If you were buying a la carte, here’s how much you’d pay for each service you’re getting:
Apple Music: $10/mo
Apple TV+: $5/mo
Apple Arcade: $5/mo
50GB of iCloud storage: $1/mo
In total, you’d be saving $6/mo if you went with Apple’s bundle instead of buying all those services individually. Here’s where the math gets harder: What if you prefer Spotify to Apple Music? If so, Apple’s Individual bundle actually costs you more than what you’d pay for Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and that iCloud storage individually. Save that $4/mo any way you can.
The bundle saves you all of one dollar per month if you don’t really game on your iPhone or watch See, but you lose money if don’t plan to use both services. If that was the case, though, why would you be considering a bundle in the first place?
The bottom line: Don’t get an Apple One Individual plan if you don’t use Apple Music. Otherwise, you’ll save a little cash even if you use Apple TV+ or Apple Arcade sparingly. If you rarely use both, however, perhaps a bundle is not for you.
When is Apple One’s Family plan a good deal?
You’ll have to pay up $20/mo for an Apple One Family membership, but you can share it with up to five other people—all family members, of course, unless you want to set up a quirky arrangement with your friends (and trust they won’t bill your primary credit card for anything they do).
Let’s look at the services again (family pricing):
Apple Music: $15/mo (family plan)
Apple TV+: $5/mo
Apple Arcade: $5/mo
200GB of iCloud storage: $3/mo
Here, you’re saving a bit each month versus purchasing these various services individually, especially if you need a family plan for Apple Music. However, if nobody in the family plans to use said music service, you’re wasting money.
The bottom line: Only get an Apple One Family subscription if at least one person in your family uses each of the offered services regularly. And if nobody in your house listens to Apple Music (or only one person does), you definitely don’t need a Family bundle for Apple One. Save the cash or go à la carte and use the savings to boost up your iCloud storage.
When is Apple One’s Premier plan a good deal?
Here’s the big one: a $30/mo subscription that gets you every major service Apple offers. This is the platinum package for hardcore Apple fans, so let’s see what you get and how much you could skip for the plan to still make financial sense.
The available services include:
Apple Music: $15/mo (family plan)
Apple TV+: $5/mo
Apple Arcade: $5/mo
2 TB of iCloud storage: $10/mo
Apple News+: $10/mo
Apple Fitness+ (eventually): $10/mo (or $80/yr)
Well, Father Tim is being quite generous this time around, so long as you’re willing to meet him halfway and pony up a not-so-insignificant amount of money for a Golden Ticket to Apple’s factory. Were you to purchase each of these subscriptions individually, you’d be paying a whopping $55/mo. So, you’ll save $25/mo, or $300/year, by going for Apple One’s Premier plan. This means you also get a bit more flexibility in what you use and don’t use at any given time.
The bottom line: Go à la carte, and you’ll basically break even if you don’t use two major Apple services (among Music, News, Fitness, or that whopping amount of iCloud storage) or two minor services (Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade) and a major (from the aforementioned list). So, you’ll have to do a wee bit more cutting to save any cash over Apple’s plan.
This will be easier to do when Apple Fitness isn’t in the mix, but once that joins the Premier plan (assuming you want to get healthy using it), you’re actually getting a pretty comprehensive mix of services for a reasonable cost. And, of course, all these services can be shared with up to five people in your family, too.
In my case, I only really use a lot of iCloud storage, probably Apple Fitness+, and Apple TV+, so a bundle wouldn’t make sense. However, if I used one more service, then I might as well go big for the fancy Apple One plan given how much else I’d get to play with for free (even if I don’t use Apple’s other services a lot).
Basically, as long as you’re getting more than $30 of value out of your subscription for services you regularly use, Premiere is a great deal. It’s less impactful the more services you ignore, especially if they’re Apple’s flagships.