Are Apple One plans a good deal? We crunched the numbers to find out.
Apple officially announced its Apple One subscription bundles on Tuesday at its September event.
They package Apple Music, Arcade, and more together for one monthly price. The big question: Are they worth the money? We broke down every Apple One plan to find out.
Apple One: Individual Plan
Users get Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage. Here's the thing: Apple TV+ doesn't have a hit show like Stranger Things on Netflix or The Mandalorian on Disney+. So you'll still likely be paying for an outside streaming service.
Here's how much the Apple services cost individually:
Apple Music: $9.99/month
Apple TV+: $4.99/month
Apple Arcade: $4.99/month
50GB of iCloud storage: $0.99/month
Total outside of bundle: $20.96/month
Apple One price: $14.95/month
What competing services cost: Spotify ($9.99/month), Netflix ($8.99/month), Google Stadia ($9.99/month), and Google Drive ($1.99/month). Total: $30.96/month.
Apple One: Family Plan
At the family level, users get the same apps as the individual plan, but with 200GB of iCloud storage and the ability to have six people on one account. Family sharing is the ultimate way to mooch off your parents, so we do appreciate this option.
Individual costs:
Apple Music: $14.99/month
Apple TV+: $4.99/month
Apple Arcade: $4.99/month
200GB of iCloud storage: $2.99/month
Total outside of bundle: $27.96/month
Apple One price: $19.95/month
What competing services cost: Spotify ($14.99/month), Netflix ($12.99/month), Google Stadia ($9.99/month), and Google Drive ($2.99/month). Total: $40.96. Note: There is no Stadia family plan, so each user would require an additional account.
Apple One: Premier Plan
At the Apple One Premier level, users get the same sharing capabilities as the family plan, 2TB of iCloud storage, and the addition of News+ and the newly announced Fitness+. The most bang for your buck, this is the only level that includes Apple's new fitness service.
Individual costs:
Apple Music: $14.99/month
Apple TV+: $4.99/month
Apple Arcade: $4.99/month
2TB of iCloud storage: $9.99/month
Apple News+: $9.99/month
Apple Fitness+: $9.99/month
Total outside the bundle: $54.94/month
Apple One price: $29.95/month
What competing services cost: Spotify ($14.99/month), Netflix ($15.99/month), Google Stadia ($9.99/month), Google Drive ($9.99/month), Peloton ($12.99/month), and Scroll ($4.99/month). Total: $68.94. There is no family plan for Stadia, the Peloton digital membership, or Scroll.
So yes, as most bundles do, Apple One saves you money if you were planning on subscribing to those services anyway. But there’s not much room for customization. If you’re someone who wants Fitness+, but would never in a million years need 2TB of storage, you’re stuck paying for the Premier Plan.
Oh, about Fitness+. It requires an Apple Watch Series 3 or higher. So if your biggest draw to the Premier Plan is Fitness+ but you don't have an Apple Watch, you're going to have to spend some additional cash.
There are also free trials to consider. When you buy any new Apple device, Apple is offering one year free of Apple TV+. That means if you end up purchasing an Apple Watch for Fitness+ use, you also get free Apple TV+. In addition, the services included in Apple One have free trials, ranging from one to three months.
If you’re a student, it might be more worth it to take advantage of Apple’s student plans. For $4.99, students can get Apple Music and Apple TV+. While Fitness+ seems cool, it looks like it's smarter to just hit up your university’s free gym.
All in all, if you’re an Apple junkie and are genuinely excited for all of these services, Apple One can be a good deal. But if you’re looking to pick and choose, you might get stuck paying for something you don't want. And if you’re buying a new Apple device, definitely make sure to milk those free trials for all they're worth.
Jennimai is a tech reporter at Mashable covering digital culture, social media, and how we interact with our everyday tech. She also hosts Mashable’s Snapchat Discover channel and TikTok, so she naturally spends way too much time scrolling the FYP and thinking about iPhones.
