I’m trying to reduce my subscriptions, but I’m still paying for these apps.

GeminiHeadspace, Todoist and YouTube Music These are just some of the apps I used to pay for and have now abandoned. I’m trying to reduce my monthly subscription bill and although it’s easier said than done, I managed to narrow the list down to just three.

The three apps I still pay for I use daily, and for now, I don’t see myself getting rid of them. They are worth it because they help me get things done and even offer complete privacy, at least two of them.

claudio is my AI chatbot of choice, and for good reason. I use it practically every day, so the monthly subscription is worth it. It helps me come up with title ideas for posts I’m working on, helps me on my fitness journey, and comes in handy when I’m trying to cook a new dish.

What I like is that it’s much more direct and realistic than something like Gemini, which I subscribed to in the past. I’m more likely to reject bad ideas and challenge my way of thinking. Regardless of the topic you discuss with Claude, the experience is always superior to that of Gemini, ChatGPTor any other chatbot you have tried.

Then there are additional features, like Projects that allow me to give specific instructions to the AI ​​along with any other data I need it to remember. The best thing about this is that I can store all the chats about a specific topic in a project of my choice, something that is not available in Gemini Gems, for example.

Claude is also great at coding and can create an app based on voice prompts in a matter of minutes. I tried several and was really impressed with what it produced.

While it is better than the competition overall, it still has its flaws. There are no image and video generation capabilities, for example, which is one of the reasons I still use Gemini occasionally. The usage limits are also very easy to achieve, as I was able to do it with just a few prompts not long ago. I’ve never hit a limit when using Gemini, so that’s definitely an area Claude should improve.

In terms of price, Claude costs $20 per month, making it by far the most expensive subscription I pay for.

I switched between many note-taking apps, with Obsidian being my latest obsession. I used Keep for a long time before moving to Evernote and eventually Notion. The latter is what I used for years, but at one point it was too much for me.

Obsidian, like Notion, has a steep learning curve if you want to master all of its features. However, it’s very easy to use as a simple note-taking app if needed, and if that’s the case, it’s easy to get started.

What I like about Obsidian is its offline approach, designed to keep my files private. Everything is stored on my device, making sure no big tech company has access to my private thoughts. However, the problem here is that I can’t access my files from other devices, which is where the subscription comes into play.

Obsidian Sync costs $5 per month and allows me to access my files from all of my devices. What’s special about it is that it uses end-to-end encryption, which means Obsidian employees can’t see my files even if they wanted to. That’s a stark contrast compared to most other services, including those offered by Google, where the company can see everything on its servers if it wants. Sure, companies have privacy policies, so it’s not like employees are reading my notes on their lunch break, but end-to-end encryption still gives me peace of mind knowing that my data is mine and mine alone.

I use Obsidian both for writing long texts and for taking short notes, and it works very well in both cases. For me it is worth the subscription, although it is possible to sync via Google Drive for free, but you would lose the end-to-end encryption.

I’m cheating a bit, as this is a set of apps rather than just one, but they come bundled into a single subscription called Proton Unlimited. The one I use the most is proton propulsionwhich replaced both Google Drive and Photos for me. I have a lot of images to store and prefer cloud storage to local storage, although I’m toying with the idea of ​​getting one NAS. What I like about Proton Drive (and other Proton apps) is its focus on privacy. No one can see my photos and files except me, which is one of the reasons I stayed away from Google in the first place.

In addition to Proton Drive, I also use proton mail as a replacement for Gmail. While not all member of our team is a fan, I’m impressed with the overall app. It’s easier to see all the newsletters I’m subscribed to and cancel them than in Gmail. The ability to send self-destructing emails is useful at times, and end-to-end encryption offers complete privacy, although you have to change some settings to make it work when sending emails outside of Proton’s email service.

Then there’s Proton Authenticator, which I use to access my various online accounts. Proton VPN This is often useful, especially when travelling, and proton passage to save my passwords.

The last one is particularly impressive, especially since I previously used Bitwarden. Don’t get me wrong, Bitwarden is a great app, but Proton Pass is better for me. There’s no friction at all as it just works, whereas I had issues with Bitwarden not saving (or autofilling) passwords for certain websites.

All in all, I am happy with the Proton Unlimited despite its high price. I pay $13 a month, although I could lower the price a bit if I paid upfront for a whole year.

The only problem I have is that Proton Drive is a bit slow, especially compared to Google Drive and Photos. It’s not a big deal, although the speed difference does get annoying after using the app for an extended period of time.

These are the three apps I pay for right now, and the total monthly cost comes to $38. It still feels expensive all things considered, but there’s enough value in these three apps to keep you paying.

What about you? What apps do you pay for? Let me know in the comments.