4.1 KiB
Monetisation
The decision
File Manager is a one-time paid app. No ads, no subscription, no in-app purchases, no
free tier and no trial. The price lives on the Play listing, not in the build — so there is
no Billing client, no com.android.vending.BILLING permission, and no purchase code in the
APK.
That is not a detail: it is what keeps the "no network permission, nothing leaves your device" claim true in the shipped artefact rather than merely in the source.
Price
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Base price | €4.49 |
| Launch price | €2.29 (≈49% off) for the first 14 days |
| Model | One-time purchase, all features, no unlocks |
Both are set in the Play Console under Products › App pricing. Nothing about them is in this repository, and nothing about them needs to be: changing the number is a Console edit, not a release.
Why €4.49
- Anchors. The only comparable pure-paid file manager on Play is MiXplorer Silver at €6.99. Everything else is free with ads or free with a €3–5 one-time unlock (Solid Explorer, FX+, X-plore, Cx). €4.49 sits below the premium paid rival and above the free tier's unlock price, which is where "no ads, no account, no network" earns its keep.
- Scope. A file manager is a daily-use tool across every app on the device, not a single-purpose utility. A one-shot photo-deduplication tool is reasonably priced at €2.99; a file manager does more, more often.
- Headroom. It is much easier to discount a €4.49 base than to raise a €2.49 one. The base price anchors future sales; the sale cannot anchor the base.
Why a launch price
A temporary lower price gives early adopters a reason to commit and — more importantly — produces the first reviews, which a paid app needs far more than a free one does. Once the window closes, the price returns to €4.49. The same discount can be repeated for any later milestone; the base price never has to move.
Keep it honest: the launch price is a genuine time-boxed reduction, not a permanent "discount" — a base price that never applies is just a two-tier price with extra steps.
⚠️ This decision is irreversible in one direction
Play's own wording: "You can change your app from paid to free. Once your app has been offered for free, the app can't be changed to paid." So:
- The price must be set before the first upload.
- Paid → free remains possible later if the strategy changes.
- Free → paid never does.
Why not the alternatives
| Option | Rejected because |
|---|---|
| Free with ads | The product's whole pitch is "no clutter". Ads in a file manager are also a privacy problem — every ad SDK wants INTERNET and an advertising ID. |
| Free with a one-time unlock (IAP) | Would add the Billing client and the BILLING permission, require purchase-state plumbing and a restore path, and make the app's own "works offline forever" promise contingent on a Play check. |
| Subscription | Nothing here is a recurring service. Users are paying for a tool they already own a copy of. |
| Free | M9 exists to fund the work. See the irreversibility note: once free, never paid. |
What is in the build — verified, not assumed
# None of these may return anything:
grep -rniE 'billing|vending' app/src gradle/ app/build.gradle.kts
$ANDROID_HOME/build-tools/36.0.0/aapt2 dump permissions \
app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk | grep -i billing
Checked 2026-10-14 against the release APK: no billing reference in the source, no Billing
dependency in the version catalog, no com.android.vending.BILLING permission, and no
INTERNET. See PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST step 7.
Console steps
- Create a payments profile (identity, tax, bank details) for the developer account.
- In the Play Console, on the app's App pricing page, set the base price to €4.49 (Play fills in local equivalents; review the suggested prices rather than accepting them blindly).
- Set the launch price of €2.29, and diarise changing it back after 14 days.
- Do all of the above before the first upload.