Reading · Gregory Hammond

February 8, 2026

Most of us pay monthly (or yearly) for many things, in May 2020 I wrote an article on this very site about a surplus of subscriptions, what if you could only have one digital subscription? Here’s what I would choose, and what replacements to digital subscriptions you and I could use instead.

I do want to note a couple of things first, I consider a digital subscription to be one you pay for online. Magazines may not be considered a digital subscription for you because you get a physical magazine, however with so many being offered digitally and cheaper than a paper copy, I’m including an alternative here. Some people may consider anything that you either pay monthly or yearly for to be a subscription, and while I mostly agree, I don’t consider something like paying an accounting firm to complete year-end taxes to be a digital subscription.

Second thing I want to note is that, companies can’t give everything to customers for free. As they need money in some way to pay their staff and other things they need to pay for. Granted, there are ways around this by making money in other ways, for example, Google’s primary way to make money is by selling ads. Not every company would be able to survive like this, so while I do provide subscription-free ways, I encourage you to pay companies that you feel provide you a good service in return.

What I would choose as my one

Honestly, I don’t know what I would choose if I could have only digital subscription. I do wish there was something similar to Apple One that gave access to unlimited e-books, magazines, music and paid them fairly (or at least better than a good deal of music music streaming services), while not being exclusive, or at least significantly better, on one type of devices. This is because Apple One is only available, or at least most beneficial on Apple devices.

If you know of a company that does this, please let me know.

Replacements to my current subscriptions

Music

I listen to a lot of music, and as of the time of writing, paying a monthly fee for access to it. There are replacements if I don’t want a subscription, from YouTube, to Soundcloud, Bandcamp, radio, and more.

YouTube

Let me start with YouTube. Yes, it’s most known for videos, but I’ve noticed tons of artists and their labels putting up music or even the music videos. Take for example, Dizzy, which is a Canadian band. As of the time of writing, they’ve got around 16,000 subscribers to their channel, which includes a mix of trailers, music videos, and just the music. Granted, the subscribers and views might not be the same compared to a music streaming service like Spotify, but it allows them to reach the different audience. Just make sure to turn off any ad blocking you have, in order to support those who choose to upload to YouTube.

Soundcloud

If you’re looking for more covers, where people can go to upload and not worry about a visual for the entire length, or those who don’t want to get permission to upload the song, then I find Soundcloud to be that site. A recent example I came across was a band called Tors made a short cover of a song they uploaded to social media. When their fans demanded the full length, they uploaded it to Soundcloud. Soundcloud does allow bands to get paid, however I believe it’s less known.

Bandcamp

If you don’t want to only have music online or have a small budget, then Bandcamp is a site worth looking into. Granted, it doesn’t have the extensive catalogue that those other two sites do, but it does allow you to download the album and the artist can set the price. Take the band called Men I Trust (yes, that’s the actual name of the band), and you’ll see an album that have released which says to buy it at name your price. Now, what does that mean? In this case it means you can enter 0 and still get entire album, as if you paid $20 for it.

You can then download the album in whatever format works best for you. The same goes to if you have a small budget, if there’s an album that has a set price, then you can pay and download it.

Radio

If you don’t care about the exact music you’re listening to, then try a radio station. Most radio stations stream online in addition to over radio waves. If you don’t know of local stations, search online for your favourite genre and your closest major city. I would encourage you to find an independent station to listen to, however I understand that sometimes the independent stations play the same sort of music that the corporate owned ones do, or there aren’t any independent ones nearby.

If you want something more exotic, or can’t find a local station with the genre you like, find a radio station somewhere in the world that does. Unsure how to start? Radio Garden allows you to find a station either through spinning the globe, searching, or their curated browse section.

There’s also the option to search for the selected genre and another city or town to see what other stations exist. I understand this may require a bit of research, hopefully it results in at least one or multiple stations you can enjoy.

Email

I pay for both my personal and professional email, to some that seems weird, with so many free alternatives. Such as Gmail, and any other well known provider, to either pay what you can or ones that may have a lower cost. If you’re looking for any of the subsequent, then consider checking out the list that Riseup.net has.

Website

If you want a website for “free”, I’ve found only one way to do so, it’s by having your website be on a subdomain (something like example.anothercompany.com). One example being symbolslist.carrd.co. This is because all the other ways are no longer free (you may see sites that offer a free website but they either no longer work, or require you to pay for something else).

Blog

While some may consider a blog to be part of a website, there are some who choose to keep their blog separate, or may have to in order to avoid subscriptions.

Now, how can you get a blog without a subscription? There’s the usual ones you’ve probably heard of, wordpress.com, Tumblr, and Blogger. However, there are a few others which I think are worth considering. Both Bear Blog and Write.as are worked on by one person and have chosen to have no trackers, no ads, and a simple site, which is in stark contrast to what those run by companies are.

Backups

You most likely already know why backups are so important (without one you lose everything when your computer or phone suddenly stops working). While there’s the option of buying an external hard drive and backing up everything to that, what when you can’t access that (maybe your house is on fire, the drive stopped working). Everyone needs a backup that isn’t located close to them.

Granted, there’s always the option to buy another drive and ship it to someone, but backups are meant to be recent, and how long would it take to get that drive back when you need it. Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive are all well known companies that allow you to store stuff on their servers, however, the disadvantage is that it’s a subscription once you run out of their free space. What about Nextcloud, ownCloud or something similar you might ask? The problem with those is you either need to store that at your home or they tend to have less space on their free options.

What’s the ultimate solution? I think using a combination of free plans, and really taking a look at what you need to backup and what doesn’t matter as much.

Password Manager

Currently, I pay a subscription for a password manager. There are a number of free alternatives, depending on who you trust. As of the time of writing, one that many people and myself trust is Bitwarden, which has a free plan.

Personally, I used to use LastPass but have stopped suggesting it since they have had a number of security incidents.

Accounting

If you run a business then you need to keep track of what you earn and spend. You could also use it to keep track of what you personally or as a family spend. The most free alternative I believe, is to create a spreadsheet (LibreOffice has a free spreadsheet program) and manually keep track yourself. Yes, that requires time and keeping receipts (or looking through your online banking), but I believe there’s a trade-off between time and money.

Subscriptions you could replace

I thought it would be good to include some subscriptions that some of you reading might currently pay for, and want to know a free alternative to.

EBook or audiobooks

If you subscribe to get e-books or audiobooks (like thru Kindle Unlimited or Audible) then consider checking out what your local library offers. For example, my local library offers Libby, hoopla, and a number of other platforms.

Magazines

With magazines included in an Apple one subscription, you might think the way to get around subscription is to purchase the magazine yourself. And while that is great for one-offs, if you want to continuously read the magazine then a subscription is needed.

However, you may want to check your local library, as I’ve found mine offers a couple of different options for reading magazines.

Movies or TV Shows

I know one that may be hard for a lot of people to give up is their subscription movie or TV, however alternatives do exist, granted some of them may have ads or require you to spend money once.

Starting with ones that have ads, if you’re in Canada then CBC gem has a ad-supported account that provides access to their wide catalogue of stuff. Many other countries also have public broadcasters that may offer an online streaming site with a way to watch for free.

If you wondering how to find something specific on a “free with ads” service, then I’ve used JustWatch for a long period of time. They list where you can watch that movie or TV show, they do include both subscription, free, and buy places, but we’re only looking for free in this post. Granted, make sure you select what country you’re in to get the right services, and it can’t find everything (or something is listed, and it doesn’t know of any places in your country to watch it).

The local library has been mentioned multiple times in this post, and I encourage you to see if your library has something for movie or TV streaming. My local library offers both Kanopy and Hoopla, or even borrowing physical discs.

Now for the one that requires spending money once, or at least only once no matter how many times you watch it, buying physical discs for the movie or TV that you want to watch. I know some people would say that it’s old-fashion and don’t have a way to use them. Looking online, I’ve see drives to read discs ranging in price from ten to 60 dollars. Now, you can probably find one cheaper if you know where to look, or at your secondhand goods store, and it depends on if you’re getting one for your television or your computer. A disadvantage is that you won’t be able to watch the latest, as there is a length of time between when a new movie or season of a TV show finished, and when it goes to DVD and Blu-ray. However, once you bought the discs then you don’t need to pay for them again, that’s right, no monthly subscription and no worry about that going off the service.

To do list

One way to keep track of what you need to do is by using a to-do list. Everyone has their own way and tools they use, some of those tools require a subscription once you go beyond their free plan. However, there are some ways to keep it subscription free, which may require changing the way you have your list.

If you don’t want to rely on some company then consider creating a spreadsheet, while Meredith Dietz at Lifehacker mentions using Google Sheets, when in reality you can use any spreadsheet making company or software you like (such as LibreOffice mentioned earlier).

Setting up a new spreadsheet or software does take time. What also takes times is finding the right to-do list company for you, as many have some limit. Some list them on the pricing page, while others require you to almost search their help centre or use a search engine to find their limit. Sometimes there’s a limit because they are a vc-backed company which wants to make money from you, while others don’t list any reason.

Pay once for something?

If you don’t like subscriptions, yet still want to support the people or companies who create something, then consider looking for a one-time payment option. Sometimes that one payment will get you access for life, and other companies offer updates and support for only a set period of time. Yes, a certain length of time does kind of make it like a subscription since you’re more likely going to be paying when the time is up.

For those that provide a one-time payment forever, it’s worth keeping in mind that there may come a time when you may be required to move to one of their subscription plans. This most likely will be because the company no longer wants to offer one-time payments, or needs the money that comes with a subscription.

Now, what companies actually offer this? If I put a list of companies here then I would have to continuously check and update this list, instead I’m going to include links to lists compiled by other people. Such sites include PayOnceApps, Buy Once Software, once.tools, 1payment.tools, Pay Once Alternatives, and AppSumo.

Closing

Lots of things require a subscription, and there are many alternatives that are available for completely free, pay what you can, or a one-time option. These may require time to find the right ones for your needs.