Why we charge for our app, and our promise to users.
We started making Halide eight years ago. We? Yes — we: two dads who love cameras, design and engineering.
Creating apps is our passion, and our only source of income. We charge for Halide because it is our sole source of income for us and our families.
We’ve worked on Halide intensely those eight years, creating new updates, features, fixes and much more — so that you can have a powerful, easy to use camera with tons of great tutorials, resources and more!
I thought Halide was free?
If you feel like our App Store page falsely claimed our app was free, we get it - and we’re sorry you were confused about it.
The real issue here is that we cannot put a big banner on our App Store page that says ’this app costs money’. The App Store just lets us either charge you before you can download the app, or after in our app.
We want to make everyone happy: we have more than just a subscription (which some people don’t like) — we have a one-time purchase option, too.
Unfortunately, to offer those options, we have to make the app available to download so you can choose your price.
We do explain in the first line we can — in the top of the App Store description — that Halide is a paid app. And, that App Store does not let us set the app as being ‘paid’ when you can download it without an up-front payment. We hope you understand!
Can I try it, at least?
Yes! With Halide, we do offer a 1 week free trial. You don’t have to pay us at all, and you can cancel it anytime. This does require you to start the trial by selecting our subscription offer, as that is how App Store supports trials.
However, this also means you don’t have to talk to us or deal with any of our systems if you want to cancel. You can manage your trial (and later, subscription if you love Halide!) at any time in the App Store settings to cancel or modify it at any time. And you will not be charged before the week is up.
We’ll even make it easier for you: here’s how!
But I hate subscriptions!
We get it. That’s why we have and always will offer a one-time purchase option.
If you want, you can start the trial, and immediately cancel it. Then, if you feel like it’s worth it (or have more questions), you can make a decision before you buy.
Why the subscription, then? Are you greedy?
No! While we can’t offer apps for free like many big companies that make money doing things like selling your data or harvesting your photos for AI training (stuff we do not do — we’re 100% private by design), we want to offer it in the best possible way while being able to keep working on the app.
iPhones and iPads and Apple Watches get updated annually. We work hard to add new features, but also to support all the latest and greatest software and hardware. That’s constant work - which is what you support with your purchase! Thanks to subscriptions, we can also offer trials and promotions we couldn’t otherwise.
Our promise to you
Our pledge to you, our user, is that we work long hours every day and all year to bring you the best apps for photography that we can.
We support all the latest hardware as soon as we can, and work nights and weekends to bring you the best we can. We also use what you pay us to be available to you on social media or our support email, so you can always reach out to us personally.
If you have more feedback or questions, you can always email us - we read and answer all of our emails.
Thanks for reading, and we hope you give Halide a try.