How we rate apps
Every label on an app page is a measured fact with a fixed threshold. Nothing is a judgement of the app, and no label is edited by hand. The thresholds are listed here so you can check any label against the signals table on the page.
Which apps are covered
Apps in the US App Store that sell an auto-renewing subscription and have at least 100 ratings, plus apps that people searched for by name in the past and that have since been removed from the store. The set is recomputed daily.
Labels
| Label | Given when |
|---|---|
| Billing complaints in reviews | At least 8% of the reviews written in the last 12 months mention charges, subscriptions, refunds, trials or cancelling, and there are at least 5 such reviews. |
| Few complaints | At least 50 reviews in the last 12 months, fewer than 2% of them mention billing, and fewer than 25% of the last 90 days' reviews are one or two stars. |
| Developer has removed apps | The developer has published at least 3 apps and half or more of them are no longer in the store. |
| Not updated in 12+ months | The last version was released 365 or more days ago. |
| New app | Released fewer than 90 days ago. |
| Free trial converts to a paid plan | At least one subscription plan offers a free trial. The evidence line shows the price it converts to. |
| Removed from the App Store | The app is no longer listed. The page keeps the last data we collected. |
How "mentions billing" is counted
A review counts if its title or text contains any of: subscri, charg, scam, refund, cancel, bill, trial. This is deliberately broad: it catches "great, cancelled my other app" as well as "charged without consent", which is why the label needs a high share and a minimum count before it applies.
Quoted reviews
We show up to three recent one-star and three recent five-star reviews, truncated to 300 characters, with the reviewer's first name only. They are chosen by date, not by us.
Corrections
Thresholds are the same for every app and may be tightened as the data set grows; changes are dated on this page. If a number on a page is wrong, write to [email protected] with the link. Pages are corrected, not removed.
Version 1, September 2026. Thresholds are provisional until the first full calibration run.