Is the Apple One subscription bundle worth it in Fall 2023?

AppleInsider

Apple has raised prices for its Apple One service subscription bundles, charging up to $5 more per month than before. Here's how to decide if it's worth it in late 2023.

Apple TV+'s new Godzilla series is set to debut in November

Apple One bundles up to six Apple subscriptions for a single lower monthly price, offering three tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier. Individual is priced at $19.95, $3 more than before. Family also rises $3 to $25.95. And Premier jumps $5, now priced at $37.95.

Apple has also raised the price of some individual subscription services. Apple Arcademonthly fee rose $2 to $6.99, while Apple TV+ went up $3 to $9.99. Apple News+ rose $3 more to $12.99.

Each service includes unfettered access to Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. They also include additional iCloud+ storage, ranging from 50 GB to 2 TB.

It's worth considering that Apple provides free trial versions of each service, and also gives customers who purchase its hardware products special deals.

You can get six months of free Apple Music, for example, by buying a new set of AirPods or Beats or a HomePod speaker. New iPhone, iPad, and Mac buyers can sign up for three free months of Apple News+ or Apple TV+.

It's also possible to score deals on Apple One from some mobile carriers. So check around before you take the plunge, you might be able to find a better deal.

But eventually, everyone's free trial runs out, and it's time to decide whether to keep paying for the services you want individually. Unless you're a student and eligible for a different rate, that's where the bundles come in.

What's included in the Apple One Individual Plan

Apple One Individual bundles Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade together with 50GB of iCloud+ storage together for $19.95. On their own, the services would cost you $28.96 per month, $9 more.

The question for many customers remains whether the services that are bundled are worth it. Consider that even with the price increase, if you plan to use all the services included in the Individual Plan, it's a clear winner.

Even subscribing to Apple Music and Apple TV+ on their own would cost you almost $1 more than the Individual plan, without the benefit of 50 GB of additional iCloud+ storage and Apple Arcade.

Apple TV+ has improved in leaps and bounds since its 2019 debut, adding original content each month in the form of new series and original movies, including many that have broken through to mainstream popularity like Ted Lasso. Apple's also provided access to major sporting events, including games from Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.

Apple's new series about soccer legend Lionel Messi debuted in October.

Apple releases new Apple Arcade titles periodically, now featuring access to more than 200 games. None of the games sport any sort of ads or in-app purchases.

Apple has expanded the scope of Apple Arcade since it was first launched. While the company continues to add new, original games to the service, it's also added a couple of categories, "Timeless Classics" and "App Store Greats."

The two categories feature games playable on both iPhone and iPad, updated from their original form in some cases with content specific to Apple Arcade, and to remove advertising and in-app purchase requests.

It's this absence of IAP and advertising that makes Apple Arcade so particularly appealing to parents. You can be assured that if you give your kid an iPhone or an iPad with access to Apple Arcade, you're not going to be facing down the barrel of a runaway IAP purchase. And as a game player, it's nice not to be hit over the head with ads in between every level of an otherwise-encumbered game.

What's included in the Apple One Family Plan

The Family Plan for Apple One includes the same basic services as Individual, bundling together iCloud+, Apple TV+, Apple Music and Apple Arcade together for $25.95.

While the specific services offered in the Family Plan are the same as the Individual Plan, up to five family members can share them. What's more, the Family Plan increases iCloud+ storage to 200 GB.

Factoring in the cost of a 200 GB iCloud+ storage plan ($2.99) and a family Apple Music account ($16.99), the cost to subscribe to each service separately would be $36.96, or $11.01 more than you'll pay in the bundle.

What's included in the Apple One Premier Plan

The Apple One Premier Plan adds two services not included in the other bundles: Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+. It also ups the amount of iCloud+ storage to 2TB.

As with the Family plan, up to five people can share a Premier Plan.

Purchased la carte, each of the services would set you back $66.94 per month, so there's certainly value to be had here to getting them bundled. It partly depends on how much value you find in the added content from Fitness+ and News+.

Apple Fitness+ works on the iPhone and iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch. It provides you with workout routines ranging from beginner to advanced, lasting from 5 to 45 minutes. Apple Fitness+ includes 12 different workout types ranging from High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to dance, meditation to yoga.

Apple News+ offers curated access to hundreds of different magazines and newspapers, including publications like Time, The Wall Street Journal, People and many others. It also provides you with audio content and local and regional news.

Apple News+ doesn't provide you with the exact same content you'll find behind each publication's paywall -- as we said, it's curated -- but there's plenty to keep you busy. Including now the addition of crossword puzzles, a new addition for 2023.

Is the value there for Apple One?

It seems you can hardly go a week without news that someone, somewhere, is jacking up the rates for the services you already pay for and providing you with questionable value in return. So let's be honest: subscription fatigue is real and more perfidious than ever.

In this respect, Apple is no different. The company clearly feels that the content it's providing its customers is worth more than it did six months or a year ago.

You can also be certain that this isn't the last time you'll hear about Apple One's prices increasing.

Doing the arithmetic is a simple proposition for most of us, however. And it's good to remember that you're never "locked in" with Apple One, as there are no early termination fees or contract gotchas.

Pay for it when it makes sense for you to do so, and if you don't think you're getting appropriate value, you can always stop.

Read on AppleInsider

22july2013

Apple One's price has just gone up by a little over 15%. But note that in since Apple One came out in 2020, the dollar's value has dropped by exactly 15%. So in reality, the value of the service hasn't gone up, even though the price has gone up. Inflation tends to run at a rate of 50% every 20 years, but it has been 15% for the last three years. Apple is simply charging the same value now as it was charging three years ago. I don't like it, but the fault is with inflation. And the fault for all inflation is the voters.

likethesky

You don’t mention when the increased prices take effect nor if current subscribers are grandfathered in, or in fact when current subscribers prices rise, if they do. Any chance to update the article with those facts?

I currently pay $9.99/month for Apple News, $6.99/month for Apple TV+, and $9.99/month for 2TB iCloud storage. I’ve never thought it was worth paying $5.98 more for Apple Fitness or Apple Music, neither of which I use (my current $26.97 would go up to $32.95), however my subscriptions currently say I’ll be billed $6.99/month again on Nov 1 for Apple TV+ for instance, so if I’d get grandfathered in on Premium, for at least a year, I’d probably now upgrade to Premium for $32.95 ~= $9.99 + $9.99 + $12.99 = $32.97… !

elijahg

I cancelled Apple One a while ago, and was very recently considering re-subscribing at £33/month - mainly because I sub to Music (£11), 2TB storage (£9) and News+ (£9) totalling £29. Now it's £37 there is no chance. It's absolutely not worth £444 per year - and I'll probably cancel News+ and trim my storage needs to <200GB. For some reason messages uses 60GB despite when synced locally only using 25GB, so something weird there.

I wish you could choose what was in the bundle. I couldn't be less interested in AppleTV+, and Apple Arcade has gradually regressed to being 90% games aimed at 12 year olds or App Store games with the ads switched off. In the individual bundle I would swap AppleTV+ with News+ and arcade for 200GB of storage.  AppleTV+ is in all tiers undoubtedly to push subscriber numbers up.

Also, why is Apple spamming News+ with ads when customers are paying? Cook really knows how to keep those customers satisfied.

Stabitha_Christie

Completely off topic but it brightens my day when I see an article by Peter pop up. I knew him in another life when I worked at a video game company. A genuinely good person. 

22july2013

Stabitha_Christie said:

Completely off topic but it brightens my day when I see an article by Peter pop up. I knew him in another life when I worked at a video game company. A genuinely good person. 

You sound like a genuinely good person yourself for making the effort to say that. And your user name suggests that you are witty, too.

jamnap

Apple’s pricing is acceptable but not their options.  I have no interest whatsoever in Apple Arcade, but you can find an option without it.  I just want a bundle of Music, TV+ and iCloud+.  Until Apple offers this I will role play Shark Tank and say “I’m out,”

Fidonet127

Worth it for us. We use all the services. 

22july2013

jamnap said:

Apple’s pricing is acceptable but not their options.  I have no interest whatsoever in Apple Arcade, but you can find an option without it.  I just want a bundle of Music, TV+ and iCloud+.  Until Apple offers this I will role play Shark Tank and say “I’m out,”

I'm confused by your statement. Apple One's lowest tier costs $20/month, which is 35% less than the individual services that you say you want, and you won't get it? Clearly you aren't subscribed to those three services that you say you want because you would realize immediately that Apple One is much lower priced. Let me repeat that more clearly: Apple One's lowest tier offers EXACTLY what you say you want, but because it also offers Arcade+, you refuse to get it, even though Apple One is priced lower than the other services that you say you want. I agree with your last statement, "You're out [to lunch.]"

9secondkox2

Dang. Was hoping this was a Godzilla article. 

dewme

I suppose there are worse things to spend a buck and a quarter a day on. 

But yeah, it starts to get scary when you add up the total amount you spend on all of your subscriptions. 

davidmalcolm

It’s a shame that they’re raising the price. My wages certainly haven’t gone up 15% since the start of Apple One. 

TV+ is good but I can easily pirate that. Music is good, but I could also get that elsewhere. There are a few good Apple Arcade games. News+ is terrible, it’s full of ads and half the time it removes the end of the good articles. It’s such a mess to navigate, I find far more useful and interesting content subscribing to a few RSS feeds in Feedly. 

And Fitness+ is… a bunch of stuff I’m subscribed to because I needed more iCloud storage for everyone in the family. On the one hand I think some of the videos are good. But on the other hand the fact that its scope is so dang narrow is really disappointing. 

If you look at Fitness+ from the perspective of somebody who is not already working out from home and may be having trouble getting started, all it is is the most boring version of YouTube. There should be stuff in there like you list what fitness equipment you have (free weights, stationary bike, rower, elliptical, etc.) you tell it what your goal is, and the. You could have it help create workout plans for you.

there’s just so much that Fitness+ should be doing to justify its price tag, and it’s like the team behind it has no idea how to improve it. (Or maybe it’s seen as something that is already a cash cow that just needs the same old investment in.)

At this point I’m looking at dropping us down to the Family Tier to ditch the dead weight services and just adding on the cost for an extra 200 gigs. 

I just have to clean out the iCloud space of our biggest family user… then clear out some of mine… and then probably give an ultimatum to a friend who I think isn’t really paying attention to what is and isn’t taking up their iCloud storage. 

radarthekat

22july2013 said:

Apple One's price has just gone up by a little over 15%. But note that in since Apple One came out in 2020, the dollar's value has dropped by exactly 15%. So in reality, the value of the service hasn't gone up, even though the price has gone up. Inflation tends to run at a rate of 50% every 20 years, but it has been 15% for the last three years. Apple is simply charging the same value now as it was charging three years ago. I don't like it, but the fault is with inflation. And the fault for all inflation is the voters.

Sorry but, did you vote against the pandemic in China?  

comcastsucks

I personally voted for Covid and the supply chain backlogs. I mean, who wouldn't!

jeromec

The article incorrectly states that Apple One Individual (to which I am a subscriber), includes Apple News+: "Apple One Individual bundles Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade together with 50GB of iCloud+ storage together for $19.95"
This is wrong.
Apple One Individual does not Apple News+. But it includes Apple Music.

pulseimages

22july2013 said:

Apple One's price has just gone up by a little over 15%. But note that in since Apple One came out in 2020, the dollar's value has dropped by exactly 15%. So in reality, the value of the service hasn't gone up, even though the price has gone up. Inflation tends to run at a rate of 50% every 20 years, but it has been 15% for the last three years. Apple is simply charging the same value now as it was charging three years ago. I don't like it, but the fault is with inflation. And the fault for all inflation is the voters.

Thank you, misinformed Trumpster. 

darbus69

davidmalcolm said:

It’s a shame that they’re raising the price. My wages certainly haven’t gone up 15% since the start of Apple One. 

TV+ is good but I can easily pirate that. Music is good, but I could also get that elsewhere. There are a few good Apple Arcade games. News+ is terrible, it’s full of ads and half the time it removes the end of the good articles. It’s such a mess to navigate, I find far more useful and interesting content subscribing to a few RSS feeds in Feedly. 

And Fitness+ is… a bunch of stuff I’m subscribed to because I needed more iCloud storage for everyone in the family. On the one hand I think some of the videos are good. But on the other hand the fact that its scope is so dang narrow is really disappointing. 

If you look at Fitness+ from the perspective of somebody who is not already working out from home and may be having trouble getting started, all it is is the most boring version of YouTube. There should be stuff in there like you list what fitness equipment you have (free weights, stationary bike, rower, elliptical, etc.) you tell it what your goal is, and the. You could have it help create workout plans for you.

there’s just so much that Fitness+ should be doing to justify its price tag, and it’s like the team behind it has no idea how to improve it. (Or maybe it’s seen as something that is already a cash cow that just needs the same old investment in.)

At this point I’m looking at dropping us down to the Family Tier to ditch the dead weight services and just adding on the cost for an extra 200 gigs. 

I just have to clean out the iCloud space of our biggest family user… then clear out some of mine… and then probably give an ultimatum to a friend who I think isn’t really paying attention to what is and isn’t taking up their iCloud storage. 

Pirating is part of the problem for all subscription services. If everyone paid their fair share (maybe😉) companies (might😏) keep prices lower (uh huh😜) Seriously, IMHO it’s a good value for a complete digital life platform (fanboy🥰) If it ain’t Apple it ain’t for me…

ITGUYINSD

22july2013 said:

jamnap said:

Apple’s pricing is acceptable but not their options.  I have no interest whatsoever in Apple Arcade, but you can find an option without it.  I just want a bundle of Music, TV+ and iCloud+.  Until Apple offers this I will role play Shark Tank and say “I’m out,”

I'm confused by your statement. Apple One's lowest tier costs $20/month, which is 35% less than the individual services that you say you want, and you won't get it? Clearly you aren't subscribed to those three services that you say you want because you would realize immediately that Apple One is much lower priced. Let me repeat that more clearly: Apple One's lowest tier offers EXACTLY what you say you want, but because it also offers Arcade+, you refuse to get it, even though Apple One is priced lower than the other services that you say you want. I agree with your last statement, "You're out [to lunch.]"

I agree with jamnap.  I've got the same desire for AppleTV+, Apple Music and iCloud 2TB (family).  Individually, those cost $9.99+$10.99+$9.99=$30.97.  
You're saying that Apple One Individual with upgrade to 2TB iCloud+ is less than $30.97?  I can't tell because Apple doesn't seem to show how much iCloud upgrades are with Apple One unless you are signed up, but for me with all my Apple devices, 50GB iCloud is just ridiculous (and useless).

NoGodsNoMasters

I just can't help but think  that the rapid increases in prices are the result of Apple's obsession with becoming a sports broadcasting leader.  The same thing happened with cable tv.  Cable went up and up because of the high cost of ESPN.  The companies refused to allow a la carte channel selection to reduce the consumer's cost.
I was an Apple One subscriber with a Family Plan.  As of last night, I've turned off iCloud+ and switched to DropBox and IceDrive.  Also, I purchased a Premium subscription to Spotify for music.  I already had Hulu, Max, and BritBox for shows.  
I just don't feel like Apple's services are worth these prices.

ApplePoor

it seems like nearly daily I am being asked to bend over and grab my socks. Every thing seems to be enjoying increasing income except for the consumers. Seniors on fixed incomes lack the flexibility to absorb these increases - something has to give. So quality of life starts to decline when necessities crowd the excess disposable income to zero.

anantksundaram

I will probably reconsider my subscription. Except for Apple Music, iCloud, and AppleTV, the rest are (for me and my family) plain junk. I wish there was a plan combined only these three. 

I am getting tired of these subscription services (Disney, Netflix, Amazon) and their regular, drip-drip-drip price increases. I’ve had enough. 

Might have go back to reading a book…