How we pick buy-once apps

Trust Score, monetization classification, scouting rules — the full method behind every pick.

Trust Score

Trust Score is a 0–10 weighted blend of three dimensions: 0.5 × recent rating + 0.3 × price stability + 0.2 × active development. The score normalizes onto a 0–10 scale; tier thresholds turn the raw score into MATURE / DEVELOPING / SCOUTING labels.

Why we blend recent and all-time ratings

A 4.9-star app from 2018 might have collapsed last month — and a steady 4.7 today is more trustworthy than a glittering 4.95 from years ago. That's why our recent_rating dimension uses a 70/30 blend: 70% from the last 30 days of reviews, 30% from the app's all-time average. The same logic, restated for the rest of the page: Recent ratings: blend 70% of the last 30 days with 30% all-time.

The 30% all-time anchor prevents small samples (a single bad week with 6 reviews) from swinging the score wildly. The 70% recent weight is what makes Trust Score a lagging indicator that catches degradation, not just a vanity number — a 5-year-old 4.9★ tells you about 2021's app, not today's.

If an app has fewer than 5 reviews in the last 30 days, we fall back to the all-time average and tag the score “limited recent data” so you can see we're working with thinner evidence.

Tier thresholds

MATURE ≥ 9.0 · DEVELOPING 7.5–9.0 · SCOUTING < 7.5 (excluded from public rankings — apps below 7.5 stay in the scouting pool until their score recovers, but they don't appear on Replace pages or Hub chapters).

How we classify monetization

Every app is tagged with exactly one of six monetization classes, derived from App Store metadata (price, in-app purchases, subscription tags). The live counts below come from the active buy-once pool.

What we exclude

Apps that are subscription only — every IAP renews, no lifetime tier — are excluded from buy-once rankings. They appear only in the table above for transparency. We also exclude apps with fewer than 100 ratings, and apps that launched less than 30 days ago, because the Trust Score signal is too noisy to be meaningful at that scale.

What changes can move a tier

Trust tiers update weekly, after our cron pulls fresh ratings, prices, and release metadata from the App Store. A sustained drop in recent ratings can move an app from MATURE to DEVELOPING in a single cycle; a single upward price change applies a 30% penalty against the price-stability dimension. Active development is measured over 180 days, so a brief gap in releases doesn't penalize the score on its own.

We recalibrate the formula after every ETL run. If a single dimension loses signal (e.g. 90% of the pool sits at 10/10 on price stability), we adjust weights or thresholds in a numbered methodology revision rather than silently moving the goalposts. Browse the buy-once hub →