The same developer has eight other macOS apps available on the Mac App Store with the same approach. Still, the app is rated four stars on the App Store – although it has multiple negative reviews written by real users. There’s not even a trial period or limited functionality to let the user explore the app before paying for a license.

Anyone can download it for free on the App Store, but the app has no functionality unless you pay for a license offered through an in-app-purchase. One of the apps reported by Johnson is GCalendar for Google Calendar, which is currently the 40th most downloaded free app from the Mac App Store in the United States. However, some developers have been abusing this system to trick users into paying upfront for macOS apps that are allegedly free.Īs reported by developer Jeff Johnson on Twitter, there are multiple apps among the most downloaded apps in the Mac App Store that are just “bait” to get money from customers, even though they are offered as free apps. Apps whose business model is based on subscriptions and in-app-purchases are becoming increasingly popular, and even Apple supports this practice on the App Store.

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