The other day, I was surprised to find that I was already spending about 1,000 rubles a month on all kinds of subscriptions. There they are 100 rubles, here they are 200 rubles, and now the total amount is approaching the psychological threshold. So also, messages about write-offs from the card come on different days, so to keep track of spending on subscriptions, you have to sit down and remember everything, peeping into the bank's mobile application.
On the one hand, the amount is not the largest, but on the other – such accounting should be carried out in order to cut off either what was not useful, or what you can live without and not grieve. As a result, I left myself only 6 subscriptions, which I will talk about today in this article.
YouTube Premium – 199 rubles / month
What's included:
- Watching YouTube without ads
- Run in the background without interrupting playback
- Save videos for offline viewing
- Music service YouTube Music
- Paid YouTube Originals content
What a blessing it is to watch YouTube without pre-rolls, you only understand when you forget to top up the card linked to your Google account. At this point, the subscription is temporarily disabled, and you start watching two advertisements before each video. Usually, this pair of pre-rolls is enough to replenish your card without hesitation and give you money for YouTube Premium.
Even with a subscription, you can 'listen' to videos in the background on your smartphone, which is also often useful in the case of spoken content. But I practically do not use video saving for offline viewing, although it may be useful for someone on long flights.
As for YouTube Music and YouTube Originals, I still haven't mastered them. Although it may be worth it, it's not in vain that I pay for them.
Yandex.Plus – 169 rubles / month
What's included:
- Yandex Music
- Discount on Yandex Taxi and Drive
- Piece of content Kinopoisk HD
- Free shipping from Beru
- Various other less significant 'goodies' in Yandex services
The main reason for subscribing to Yandex.Plus for me was Yandex.Music. In the absence of Spotify (officially and at a reasonable price), this service, in my opinion, gives the highest quality recommendations. Having once loaded all playlists from Apple Music into Ya.Muzyka (there is such an opportunity, however, not everything was added), I got good selections of tracks for my taste, and now I listen to them with pleasure.
The second feature of the subscription, which I actively use, is a discount in Yandex.Taxi and Yandex.Drive services. In the first case, I ride the Comfort just a little more expensive than the Economy, and in my region it really matters (instead of the old Logans, new Logans come, and sometimes even Solaris). In the second, I rent carsharing cars when I am in the capitals, with a small discount of 5-12%. A trifle, in general, but still nice.
In addition, occasionally we watch something on Kinopoisk with my wife in the evenings. Recently, for example, we watched several episodes of 'Servants of the People'. Funny TV series.
iCloud Drive – 59 rubles / month
What's included:
- 50 GB for storage of backups, photos and files in the cloud
Before the release of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, file storage from Apple served me only for storing backups of Apple devices, as well as photos and videos from smartphones over the past few years. At the same time, I was always worried that I could not even use iCloud Drive as a full-fledged cloud storage even with paid access.
But with the release of new versions of the OS, everything has changed, and now you can go to iCloud Drive through a browser or 'share' any file and folder using a link. The latter was especially lacking.
Now, after the release of the final versions of the systems, I am thinking of expanding iCloud Drive to 200 GB and transferring everything that I have distributed over other cloud storages there. I'll have to do it somehow.
VPN99 – 75 rubles / month
What's included:
- VPN connection through servers in 12 countries
In Russian realities, it is more and more difficult to do without VPN. But since it is needed only a couple of times a week, I settled on a budget 99-cent service. If you subscribe on the official website, then $ 0.99 will be debited, however, I have issued it as an in-app purchase in the iOS – application, so 75 rubles will be debited. For some reason, it seemed to me more convenient, although more expensive.
Apart from its reasonable price, VPN99 has a couple of other advantages. Firstly, the service provides all the data for manual configuration using standard macOS and iOS tools, that is, you do not need to keep separate applications on your computer and smartphone. Secondly, Russia is on the list of countries available for 'camouflage', which is relevant if you want, for example, to watch football from the websites of Russian channels while abroad. A total of 12 countries are available – not many, but enough.
As for the connection speed, it is almost always in the range from 5 to 10 Mbps, which is quite comfortable for most scenarios. By the way, recently even torrent traffic has been allowed through, and this is useful when you need to download something via a mobile network.
Parcel – 199 rub / year
Parcel is an old, but not losing its relevance application (available on iOS and macOS) for tracking all kinds of packages. It supports the Russian Post, and all kinds of PECs with CDEKs, and a lot of everything else.
Previously, premium access, which includes push notifications of status changes and unlimited parcels, was purchased as a one-time purchase, but now it is only available by subscription. However, 199 rubles a year is not that much money for a really good service application.
Apple Arcade – 199 rubles / month
Apple Arcade, which we talked about in detail last week, has become for me, if not the service of the year, then the service of the second half of the year for sure.
Before, I did not play mobile games at all, as I was not ready to spend hours looking for titles that were interesting to me, and then spend money on in-app purchases in them. Arcade solved both of these problems, so I spend 10-15 minutes a day playing Hot Lava and Speed Demons. If you haven't read our first look at Apple Arcade, then the link is above.
P.S. Tell us in the comments what kind of subscriptions you use, how much money do you spend on them per month and how often do you audit such services?