How Do Apps Make Money in 2025? 12 Best Strategies to Follow

Apps are not only tools – they can bring millions or billions of dollars. But many aspiring developers ask the same question, how do mobile apps generate revenues in the future year of 2025? If you are a newbie looking for app development or how to make an app, then understanding its monetization methods is critical.

In this blog, let us offer you 12 app monetization strategies you can apply to your application. We will also address issues like how much money can be generated through advertisements, how apps generate income through affiliate marketing, and most importantly, how app developers make money. Let’s get started!

Freemium Model

The freemium model remains to be the premier model in the year 2025. A freemium strategy means the application is free of charge for download and use but for additional or enhanced product or service offerings, the user will have to pay.

Why Does the Freemium Model Work?

People love free applications. They do not feel they are putting their time or money into it. In this model, you give the user a basic set of functionalities of the app while at the same time giving them a glimpse of what the full value of the app is. Once engaged, a user is willing to subscribe to the service or pay for other services which may include, ad-free service or premium content.

Examples of Freemium Success:

• Spotify: Provides unlimited music streaming service where the ads are embedded, but gets paid for the absence of ads, offline and better quality with Spotify Premium.
• Duolingo: Offers free language learning lessons that come with a paid version that has even more benefits such as no limited number of lives, the ability to download the lessons, and no ads.

How to Succeed with Freemium:

• Make sure that the free version has enough features that will entice users to download it for free first.
• Premium services always have to look inviting—be it additional features, articles, or settings for a fee.
• Use subtle prompts to encourage upgrades, such as limited-time discounts or free trials.

In-App Purchases (IAPs)

In-app purchases remain one of the most effective ways to monetize your app if you are wondering how to create an app. Through IAPs, consumers can purchase subscriptions, products, or solutions in the apps without leaving them.

Types of In-App Purchases:

1. Consumables: The common buy items, which may be coins, extra live, or any other in-game items a user may need to buy many of.
2. Non-consumables: One-off payment including cases like unlocking a new feature, removing an advertisement, or buying an e-book.
3. Subscriptions: Subscriptions involve accessing high-value-added content or services alongside a continually reoccurring payment.

Where In-App Purchases Work Best:

• Gaming Apps: Users buy additional guns, avatars, or virtual currency to be used in the game.
• Utility Apps: Vendor may bill for additional filters or the sophisticated tools available in photographic image processing.
• Educational Apps: Premium lessons or certifications are among the things that learners can purchase from the platform.

Pro Tip: Develop promotional strategies that will help the company add value to its offers to help consumers spend some money. You should design your application in such a way that these kinds of purchases add value to the user experience.

Subscription Services

Apps use subscriptions to continuously generate revenue from users and it is one of the best ways for apps to make money. This means that apps provide access to additional features or content updates in exchange for payment of a particular amount.

Why Subscriptions Are Popular:

In 2025, users choose subscriptions because that means receiving updates and new features frequently, getting more personalization, and constant versatility. The example of such applications includes Netflix and Calm.

Examples of Subscription-Based Apps:

• Netflix: Charges monthly or yearly fees for unlimited access to movies and TV shows.
• Headspace: Offers guided meditations and sleep programs for a recurring subscription fee.

How to Monetize Subscriptions Effectively:

• It is also fair that the company provides various packages for their clients to consider according to their pocket. For example, a starter, standard, and package plan or the lite, professional, and corporate plan.
• Your software should be defined with a trial period to minimize the amount of complexity the first-time utilizers may experience.
• Constantly update them with some new offers, changing layouts, or updating content in the case of subscription publications.

Advertising Revenue

Advertising is one of the easiest ways to make money from an app, especially for apps that can be downloaded for free and have hoards of users. Banners show promotions to the users and make money from the click-throughs, impressions, or interactions by the users.

Types of Ads You Can Use:

1. Banner Ads: Displayed at the top or bottom of the screen.
2. Interstitial Ads: The full-screen ads that pop in during natural breaks like between levels in a game.
3. Rewarded Ads: A user will consciously choose to view an advertisement in exchange for something of value like tokens, bonuses in the game, or other additions.
4. Native Ads: Non–intrusive that blend into the original app; this makes them blend in with the normal operation of the app.

How Much Can an App Make from Advertising?

Depending on the ad formats supported, the size of the user base, and the level of that base’s interaction, how apps make money can vary significantly. For instance, YouTube and TikTok earn millions from ads because the two platforms have a large market base. It also means that even if smaller apps may make less revenue, they can still be profitable doing so with selected niche markets.

Pro Tip: The right balance regarding frequency – do not inundate users with adverts, but capitalize on adverts that improve users’ experience.

Sponsorship Deals

Sponsorships are perfect for applications that are targeted to a specific group of people. Advertisers buy your application to use your application to get across their brands by promoting them. These deals are one of the crucial aspects of how you make an app.

Example

A fitness app could partner with a sportswear brand to offer discounts on clothing and gear to its users.

How to Attract Sponsorships:

• Set up a large audience of active utilisers within a definite segment.
• Target those brands that can mix well with the app’s philosophies and its targeted users.

Pay-to-Download Model

It is a different monetization method where users are required to make payments in order to download your app. The big advantage of this method is to use it for apps that can provide customers with exceptional, valuable, and specific content or service.

Example

• Monument Valley: A classified type of game in which users solve puzzles and pay a one-time download fee to access the game.
• iA Writer: A productivity app that has been known for its clean user interface, with as few options as possible.

Tips for Success:

• They should make available free trial or demo versions to avoid making the potential clients.
• Create robust marketing plugs that will highlight the usefulness of the app.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing helps apps to earn commissions for selling the goods and services offered by third parties. That is why, this strategy holds well for apps that are specific for a certain kind of user or group of users.

Types of Affiliate Marketing in Apps:

1. Content-Based: Use affiliate links as navigation buttons within apps that host blogs or videos. For instance, the recipe app will make suggestions about kitchen accessories.
2. Product Recommendations: Apps suggest particular products or services, including sportswear, tourism, and insurance products.
3. In-App Stores: Make a section in your application for affiliate products to help you build a shop.
4. Event-Based Marketing: Promote event-related services like hotels, transportation, or ticket sales.

Ad Pricing Models for Affiliate Marketing:

1. CPA (Cost Per Action): Paid per conversion where the consumers perform a particular action that is, buying a product or subscribing to a service.
2. PPC (Pay Per Click): Earnings are made anytime a visitor clicks the affiliate link.
3. CPV (Cost Per View): Make money by charging users per impression of the ad that they place in their apps.
4. CPM (Cost Per Mille): Get paid for every 1,000 impressions of an ad.
5. CPI (Cost Per Install): Get paid anytime a user downloads an app and it is through your referral links.

Pro Tip: Focus on advertising things that the users of your app would be interested in to increase the conversion rates.

E-Commerce Integration

Here you can offer an opportunity to purchase goods and services as well as make sales of tangible and intangible goods inside the application.

Example

• Instagram Shopping: Featured products can be bought directly from a post through a post link to a specific product.
• Shopify Apps: Offering a cost-less integration with businesses that will allow users to complete physical goods purchases within the application.

Data Monetization

The selling of anonymized user data is an effective source of revenue and a key example of how apps make money, especially for apps that host large user data. Certainly, this data can provide significant benefits in terms of insight into user behavior, preferences, and emerging trends. It is such information that other businesses, such as advertisers, market researchers, and even academic institutions, may seek to refine their strategies and develop new products.

Important: Stay aware of all the rules such as GDPR or CCPA and be as clear as possible when it comes to data collecting.

Crowdfunding and Donations

Patreon, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and similar websites act as sources of income for app developers with the help of crowdfunding. It is particularly useful for the small, specific interest, or community apps or projects.

There should be special privileges allocated for developers whereby they encourage the people to donate by offering exclusive content to the project, first access content of the developing project, or interesting rewards for the givers. 

Blockchain and NFTs

To add, blockchain technology, and NFTs are offering new ways of app monetization and novel concepts of ownership. Through such technologies, one may develop new exclusive assets that are able to be traded and bring in more profitability and customer interactions.

Applications

• NFTs for digital assets: Creators can create exclusives to sell on the blockchain such as art, music, or any other products.
• Gaming enhancements: NFT has the potential to embed characters, weapons, or skins within the game which a user can buy, sell, or trade.
• Exclusive content: With mobile apps, some features or contents may only be unlocked by blockchain tokens or currencies.

Example

A gaming app can let players buy or gain special NFT-themed characters or weapons. These assets can be exchanged in other markets; there will be an economy within the app, and people make transactions by paying certain fees.

Partnership Ecosystems

Business links with other applications or brands are an opportunity for the joint provision of products or services. This increases revenue and user bases. Some of these relations may be in the form of co-selling undertakings, making partnership an essential among different methods to make money.  For example, joint marketing associating or cross-promotion and serving combined services.

Example

• airlines to be able to provide customers with a cheap offer or a unique bonus.
• Fitness and wellness: A fitness app collaborates with health supplement manufacturers to offer products and offers within the application.
• Education and productivity: To support the learning process, a platform looks for discounts or free trials.

Final Thoughts

In 2025, the most important thing about apps is understanding how apps make money and one of the ways is knowing your audience. If you are curious about how you can make an app or if you’re looking to advance to the next level and how you can scale your existing app, it is almost always the best idea to use one or more methods of monetization.

Now you know how apps make money, and it is high time you learned the ways to make your app sales while providing value.