Every Apple Subscription Ranked

Apple News+

If you can't wait to wake up every morning and read news from around the world, then Apple News+ is the service for you.

This subscription service lets you access hundreds of thousands of articles each month, along with over 300 of the world's best magazines, all of which you can enjoy on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. 

Not only that, but you can also listen to some of the most popular articles of the week — even in your car — and share it with your family, which makes the $9.99 per month asking price a steal if you all chip in. 

While Apple News+ is great, it does have a huge drawback: it isn't available everywhere in the world. Currently, only Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have access to it, which means you won't get local news in your country even if you choose to subscribe. 

Not only that, but there's lots of free content in Apple News that's available without a subscription, and not everyone really needs to pay for the premium news articles and magazines, which is why this is at the bottom of the list.

iCloud+

As you can probably tell by the name, iCloud+ is Apple's cloud service. For years, it was just called iCloud across both the free and paid tiers, but more recently, Apple has added a set of premium features to encourage free users to subscribe. 

For starters, you can get anywhere from 50GB to 2TB of cloud storage, depending on the plan you choose. However, now there are also a lot of security features available too, like iCloud Private Relay, which hides your IP address and browsing activity, and Hide My Email, which will create a random email address that you can use to receive email without having to give away your own personal one. 

With all that said, you still get 5GB of cloud storage for the free version, so if you don't need more storage and don't want all the advanced security features, you can still sync your iPhone and other devices with iCloud without paying a penny.

Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade is a subscription service with over 200 games for you to play for just $4.99 per month.

What makes Apple Arcade great is that you'll find a lot of exclusive games you can't play on Android. You can also find older, classic App Store games with better graphics at no extra cost — and no ads, in-app purchases, or other hidden costs to contend with.

If you love mobile games, you're sure to enjoy your Apple Arcade subscription. On the other hand, if you're a more casual gamer, you likely won't make the most out of this subscription.

Plus, you can find some of the best games on other gaming consoles. In the long run, it might be cheaper to buy the game and actually own it than pay for a subscription every time you want to play it.

Apple Fitness+

The 2020 pandemic was great timing for Apple to start its own fitness subscription service, and Apple Fitness+ has become one of the best subscription services for Apple fans who want to work out at home.

With your Fitness+ subscription, you get access to hundreds of different workouts, ranging from dance lessons to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and much more. Like most other Apple services, you can also share it with up to five other family members for the same $10 price tag. 

While Apple Fitness+ is a great service, it might be limiting for some people. For starters, you'll need to have an Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad to use the service at all — it's not available on the Mac. That differs from most other paid fitness services, which typically work across all platforms.

Further, while you technically don't need an Apple Watch to start an Apple Fitness+ workout, Apple's wearable is needed to access most of the service's best features, such as the Burn Bar and activity rings

Ultimately, there are many other more affordable alternatives you can try instead.

Apple Music

Apple Music is one of Apple's best subscription services, and it's definitely one of the best music streaming services you can subscribe to. You'll get access to over 100 million songs that you can listen to in ultra-high quality. 

Sure, Apple Music is on the expensive side, especially if you compare it with free ad-supported tiers offered by other music platforms like Spotify. However, Apple Music packs in a lot of cool features like your monthly Replay, spatial audio, and hi-res lossless music — all features that Spotify lacks. 

Another unique feature of Apple Music is an app specifically designed for lovers of classical music. Apple recently introduced Apple Music Classical, a separate app that provides access to the service's massive classical music library in a way that classical music fans will appreciate. The best part? You can access its full catalog with the same Apple Music subscription.

Plus, unlike most of Apple's other subscription services, you can also access Apple Music on Android phones and Windows PCs, which is great if you're not that into the Apple ecosystem.

Of course, if you don't care about any of these features, and are only looking for the best deal, then other music streaming services may be better for you. Apple's pricing is competitive with most of its rivals, but it's hard to compete with free services, and Apple will likely never offer an ad-supported tier to get there.

Apple TV+

When it comes to both value and exclusivity, there's no better subscription service than Apple's Apple TV+. 

What makes Apple TV+ stand out is that it offers hundreds of shows and movies for you to watch. While that's no different from just about every other streaming service,  Apple TV+ is unique in that it's only about exclusive content.

You'll find movies and shows on Apple TV+ that you can't stream from anywhere else, like The Tragedy of Macbeth and Ted Lasso, and Apple spares no expense to attract the best talent to produce award-winning shows.

Overall, if you love movies and TV shows or are looking to cut the cord, Apple TV+ is a great choice.

Apple One

What better subscription service than one that gives you all of Apple's subscription services for one monthly price?

Apple created Apple One as a bundle for all its offerings. Granted, Apple One isn't necessarily budget-friendly, but it's far less expensive than paying for each of Apple's subscription services separately. 

The basic Apple One Individual plan costs $16.95 per month, and gives you access to iCloud+ with 50GB of cloud storage, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade. Even though this is an "individual" plan, that only applies to Apple Music; all of the services can be shared with up to five other members of your family.

However, if you go for the Apple One Family plan for $22.95 per month, you'll get access to the same services as the individual plan, plus the ability to share Apple Music with your family and a more family-friendly 200GB bucket of cloud storage. 

Last but not least, if you want access to all of Apple's services, you can go for the $32.95 Apple One Premier plan. You'll get access to the same services as the other two plans, plus Apple Fitness+, Apple News+ (where available), and a whopping 2TB of cloud storage. Of course, you can also share this with up to five other family members. Just keep in mind that Apple News+ is only available in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, so Apple One Premier plans in other countries don't include it, and have slightly lower prices to reflect that.

If you're already a subscriber to many of Apple's subscription services, then Apple One is a no-brainer and is the best bang for your buck.