App Store App subscription price quick check comparison online form automatically updates
by Poster
May 18, 2025
30
# background
In the past, due to restrictions on payment methods, many applications/services required local payment methods. As a result, many of them have migrated to the App Store in-app purchase (IAP) method, mainly in the United States, Turkey, India and other regions. Use Google Sheets to build an online price dynamic table. On the one hand, it is convenient to track (because pricing changes frequently, exchange rates change all the time, and subscription packages will be adjusted from time to time), it is convenient to view (filter, sort, etc.), collaborative and can be automatically updated, and it is also convenient to share with those in need.
# Data Content
Data included in the current version: App/App name, region, subscription name, price (local currency), price (RMB)
-IAP package changes of applications/services (data is automatically captured from App Store web pages in each region, and there may be a 1-hour delay in refreshing)
-Price equivalent to RMB (exchange rate updates automatically, there may be a 20-minute delay)
# # Included App Store regions
Mainland China, USA, Turkey, India, Nigeria, Japan, Malaysia
# # Apps/services already included
1Password8, ChatGPT, Claude, Google One, Infuse, OneDrive (Microsoft 365), YouTube (Premium)
Remarks:
1. At present, it only includes some software/services for self-use and advantageous prices, and others are slowly increasing-welcome to ask for demand (preferably including App Store links, instructions, etc.)
2. The currently included areas are the comparison area with the most complete App shelves (such as the United States), common low-price areas (such as Turkish area, Nepal area, India area) and features and payment convenience areas (such as Japan)-welcome to ask for requests (preferably with descriptions and associated apps, etc.)
2. The names of these IAP packages on the App Store will be duplicated and mixed. Although filtering has been added, some apps may be confusing. Because the name of the package is maintained entirely by the App developer, it may be difficult to determine the specifications and cycle (monthly/annual payment) based on the name alone.
# usage
Suitable for users: those who find low prices and toss (account registration, recharge, migration, etc.) by themselves, or carpooling (owner/passenger) as auxiliary reference.
Google Sheets link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6HGCfYW6CBAQmf6UC0EVBD6l79EyLWcIvNbkTsXEAo/edit? usp = sharing & hl = en _ US
No login or any account is required. It's best to open it with a desktop browser or the Sheets app. If you are not logged in to your Google account, the default display interface language may follow your IP location, so the "hl = en _ US" (US and English) parameter is added to the URL. If you need other interface languages, you can change it to "& hl = zh _ CN" (Simplified Chinese) or "& hl = zh _ TW" (Traditional Chinese).
You need to reset filters, sort, etc. and go back to the original page, just refresh your browser.
# # Use case 1: Find the lowest price area for a specific App/service
That is, "I need to subscribe to a certain App to see where the price is lowest"
1. Open filter: menu Data-> Create filter view (Data-> Create filter view)
2. The "App/Service" title bar filters or sorts by name
3. "Plan Name" can filter packages again
4. Check the current prices of each area of these packages in "Price in CNY"-among the currently displayed prices, the lower the greener, and the higher the redder
5. Additionally, you can sort with the corresponding RMB price-Note: Sorting may make the price value color highlight invalid
6. In addition, you can also look at the trend of the comparative exchange rate in the past 30 days for reference-it may be useful for currencies such as the lira
An example: App/Service selects 1Password8 and Plan Name selects monthly subscription (selected after filtering with several keywords "Month"/"Month"/"By Month"). It can be seen that Turkey and Nigeria have the lowest regional prices. Of course, due to the name of the package, some areas cannot further filter out monthly/annual payment.
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! [image] (https://i.imgur.com/oowxaHU.png)
# # Use Case 2: Compare regional cost performance without specifying App/service
That is, "Let me see how cost-effective the low-priced apps in that area are, and I am ready to register/migrate my account."
1. Open filtering: menu Data-> Create filter view ( Data-> Create filtered view)
2. Specify several regions in "Region" for comparison
3. "Plan Name" can filter the package again-in the currently displayed price, the lower the greener, and the higher the redder
4. Sort according to "Plan Name", compare-Note: Sorting may make the price value color highlight invalid
An example: Compare the prices of various apps/services in Turkey, Nigeria and India. Also due to the name of the package, it may not be possible to correspond across regions.
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! [image] (https://i.imgur.com/fzxvvWB.jpeg)
(There may be other uses, additional use cases to be added)
# Reuse and enhance
The table can be downloaded into Excel and other formats, but the data scraping will make errors. Suggestions are welcome if you want to add functionality (views, statistics, etc.).
The formulas in the table are transparent and visible. If you want to build a table yourself, you can also refer to it.
# Internal implementation
-Apple does not provide a public API that can query in-App purchases and prices. Here, data is crawled from web pages through IMPORTXML and XPath. According to Google's [documentation] (https://support.google.com/docs/answer/58515 # zippy =% 2Cchoose-how-often-formulas-calculate), the refresh time should be 1 hour
-App Store region code is in accordance with ISO 3166, regional currency code is in accordance with ISO 4217, query by regional official English name, data from https://datahub.io/core/country-codes
# UpdateLog
5/18 Added ChatGPT and Claude.
Replies
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Anonymous8184 May 19, 2025@ Poster Right now 👍 🏻, can you add the Argentine region
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Anonymous11836 May 19, 2025Gained knowledge again
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Anonymous10379 May 19, 2025The way of grabbing web pages, there are many follow-up applications, and it is very troublesome to maintain
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Poster May 19, 2025@ Anonymous8433 OneDrive's packages have the same name and different prices, which is a bit messy. But I didn't see the IAP price of 2.299, 99. This is a direct purchase from Microsoft? @ Anonymous10160 added iCloud +. I don't see a data source in a stable format on Apple One, so I don't know how to get it @ Anonymous11799 added iCloud +, you can sort and compare it. For large capacity, it seems to be the lowest in Nepal, especially above 2TB @ Anonymous10379 It's okay at present. If the webpage data location is stable, there is no need to maintain it. However, sometimes the data refresh timeout/garbled characters will occur, and some methods are needed to deal with the problem that may be a CDN cache error...
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Poster May 19, 2025@ Anonymous8184 # 21 added Argentina 🇦 🇷-But it seems that because of the relationship with US dollars, the prices of many in-app purchases are not so low, maybe it will be better when using pesos
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Anonymous13203 May 20, 2025@ Anonymous486 # 20 now tg low price area https://www.v2ex.com/t/1131583 # reply1 is lower than the app store price, app purchase is not cost-effective
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Anonymous4451 May 20, 2025I would like to ask, if a Netflix account uses the earth area to purchase subscriptions, if you don't have an account, do you need to log in to Netflix with the earth area climbing node to create it? When I created it, he asked to add a payment method, but I didn't have it. Can I use the earth area subscription if it is an account in other regions? Thank you
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Anonymous11837 May 20, 2025Like it!
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Anonymous12548 May 22, 2025Thank you for sharing, I am looking for a relevant price comparison table, can you add a Google workspaces subscription price comparison if you have time
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Anonymous8433 May 22, 2025@ Poster I looked at it, the price of OneDrive in the mac app store and the iOS app store is not the same, which is really served. The price of the mac app store is as follows Microsoft 365 Personal ₺ 2. 299, 99 Microsoft 365 Family ₺ 2. 999, 99 Microsoft 365 Personal ₺ 449, 99