Why is Everycards paid?
“Why isn’t it free? I never buy apps unless I can try them out first.”
Indeed, the freemium business model is very common among app developers. However it has significant disadvantages.
Motivation to learn
If there’s a wide range of free offers on the market, then a person will try everything that looks like a decent product.
However, trying a free sample in a supermarket, clearing a line in Tetris®, and creating an interesting quiz all require different levels of mental effort to understand.
It takes time to figure out how something works. And the larger the range of offers, the less time you have for each of them.
That’s why people usually download several free apps from the App Store and try each of them for 5–10 minutes. If you can’t figure something out quickly, onto the next candidate!
But it’s impossible to fully assess the capabilities of such a flexible and multi-purpose app like Everycards in just five minutes. It’s recommended to spend at least 45 minutes to truly understand an app like this.
Chinese proverb
Therefore, a free version of Everycards has a smaller chance to stay on the user’s screen for a long time compared to something like Tetris®.
But… if you spend even a small amount of money on something, you’re motivated to spend more time mastering it, which leads to effective learning!
Lack of experience for quality assessment
In the previous paragraph, we discussed the issue of lacking time. However another factor is a lack of experience. It’s impossible to assess the quality of a product when you don't understand what is happening.
If you’ve studied with flashcards and quizzes in the past, you probably have a good idea of what they are and how they work. It’s even better if you’ve made flashcards before yourself.
Many new users have never tried either using them or creating them. For those users, Everycards offers interactive explanations and tips on how to use the app, including learning principles and control gestures, as well as sample card albums.
However, it takes around 30–45 minutes to understand and fully explore the features of Everycards. Unfortunately, many users do not have that amount of time if they’re in a rush to choose between the many free apps.
Onboarding on Everycards
The presence of advertising
Do you like seeing ads like “TRY BATTLE WARFARE EXTREME TODAY!” that pop up right when you’re trying to focus on memorising information?
Developers don’t like ads either. However they are essential for offering a free app and maintaining a profit for them.
Unfortunately, at your cost. What good is a free educational app if it constantly interrupts your focus with ads every few minutes?
Privacy
Advertising poses another problem. Ad networks make money by selling your data. They can access information like your location, what, when and how you studied and other personal data.
Not everyone is comfortable with that. For example, if you’re in the military or are a super agent, you probably don’t want your sensitive data to be stored on a server.
Nobody knows what you are learning on Everycards
There is a famous case of secrets being discovered related to nuclear weapons using flashcards stored on the server.
This is why we have chosen an architecture and business model for Everycards that eliminates any possibility of a data breach.
Conclusions
Everyone likes free apps. I, myself have the free version of Tetris® and often ask to try apples at the local market before I buy them.
But, although a small one, Everycards has a cost.
Because everything comes with a price. You pay for free apps with your wasted time, study distractions, and a lack of real privacy.
The choice is yours.
Here are some insights on software development: The Tyranny of the Marginal User, and Tiktok’s enshittification.
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