The debate about whether businesses should pay for apps or use freebie apps continues. For the most part, businesses are happy to pay for an app for their employees as long as it delivers value. However, let’s look at this in a little more detail.

Free Apps

Free apps are great to trial a product and create a business case, however, they generally have In-App ads, you know those pesky pop-ups that intrude on your experience.

Not a bad intrusion from the App developer’s perspective because every time you click on the ad, the app developer gets paid for the click. But the expectation for free apps are generally lower and users tend to lose interest after a short period of time.

Of course, a user’s interest depends on the value that the app provides. In terms of personal travel safety apps, free apps in this space provide limited functionality and don’t always have the accessibility and support for when the app fails or becomes extremely buggy. This could potentially be a huge risk to organisations and those employees expecting the app to work and provide assistance in the event an incident occurs.

Paid Apps

The beauty of paid apps is a great user experience in comparison to freebie downloads. Users expect more and they usually get more. They want a great user experience with fewer bugs, and definitely without In-App ads. The reliability of paid apps, especially within the travel safety realm, is essential. Essential for the organisation to have accurate and live data, but also for the travelling employee who may be entering a risky environment. Either way, both parties are expecting a level of reassurance that the app is going to work, no matter the conditions.

App support tends to be extremely responsive and open for development discussions. Features are always being developed, providing an ongoing enhanced user experience.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for reliability and accessibility, paid apps are going to win hands down. From an organisation’s perspective, the safety aspect for employees must be taken into serious consideration. If you are looking for an app that is reliable and gives visibility over your travelling workforce, no matter the location, contact our team here at SafetyIQ. We love to talk travel safety and employee safety.