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A pricing level that costs $0 with no time limit on the marketplace listing. A free tier is distinct from a free trial (which expires after a fixed window) and from freemium gating (which restricts core functionality until a paid upgrade).
Also known as: free plan, freemium plan, no-cost tier, forever free plan, $0 plan
AppRanks's free-tier classification looks for an explicit $0 plan in the marketplace's pricing data; ambiguous cases ("Contact for pricing", "Pricing on request") are reported as unknown rather than treated as free. Free tiers are a strong adoption signal — apps with genuine free tiers typically have 3-5x the install velocity of paid-only apps in the same category. They're also a strong audit-score factor: AppRanks's audit rubric awards points for transparent free-tier availability because it correlates with merchant trust and reduces install friction. Always confirm the free-tier specifics on the source marketplace before installing — limits and upgrade triggers vary widely.
A genuine free tier reduces install friction to near-zero — typical install velocity is 3-5x the velocity of paid-only competitors in the same category. For developers, the trade-off is conversion rate from free to paid: a free tier without a clear upgrade trigger (capacity gate, premium feature, integration) can become a permanent free-rider population that never converts. For merchants, free tier means no commitment risk during evaluation; the question becomes whether the free tier alone covers the use case long-term or if upgrade is inevitable within 6 months.