Why are TV remote apps on iOS mostly subscription-based now?

As someone who ships small iOS apps, the honest answer is that App Store economics quietly make the subscription the rational choice even when it's the wrong fit for the product. A one-time purchase has to fund indefinite OS updates, device changes, and review re-submissions out of a payment you collected once, years ago — so for anything you have to keep maintaining, the math stops working fast. A TV remote is the perfect example of the mismatch you describe: genuinely low-friction, low-ongoing-cost utility wrapped in a revenue model designed for software you babysit forever. What I keep wishing existed is a respected one-time "utility" tier — but discovery punishes it, because a free app with a paywall ranks and gets installs and a $4 utility doesn't. So devs aren't being greedy so much as following the only gradient the store rewards. The ones I respect just keep the paywall honest: a one-time option actually present, no fake urgency, cancel obvious.

Yeah I totally agree with the monetization pressure on utility apps. Discovery is hard, and users rarely pay upfront anymore.

For UTV Remote, I actually went with a “free-first” approach — no account, full core features free, and only ads as support. No subscription paywall for basic usage.

Here’s the app if you want to check it out:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/utv-remote/id6781496220

Curious how others are thinking about sustaining utility apps long-term.

This trend is frustrating but it's become the path of least resistance for app developers. The App Store's discovery problem means most users don't hunt for premium one-time-purchase apps anymore - they expect free with paywalls. The subscription model also creates psychological distance: $5/week feels less painful than $50 one-time, even though it exceeds that cost in months.

What's interesting is the monetization mismatch. TV remote control is genuinely low-friction once you find it, so developers can't sustain on ads alone. They resort to subscriptions for utility because the App Store economics punish premium pricing.

I suspect the next shift will be toward open-source community remotes. Did you consider building this as a free app to capture market share first, or was the subscription model always the plan?