Why paid apps are not popular?

I've paid for a couple apps since my first Android device in 2015.

The first app I installed was paid, and cost about $12. It was a very well-produced prayer app that included official texts with spoken and chanted audio. This is a comprehensive work that spans an entire year and must have taken multiple years to produce. It was well worth the price of entry, especially because they were still working out official licensing for the texts and I didn't want them to fail at that mission!

The other app I purchased was FitNotes. When I started working out a few years ago, I really needed a good app to track my workouts. FitNotes can also track vital statistics such as bodyweight and blood pressure. It works entirely offline, but it features a nice cloud backup that integrates with Drive. It was nearly feature-complete in its free version, but I decided to support the author with a purchase, which unlocked even better features.

Other than those two apps, I purchased another similar-but-different prayer app which I don't use anymore. I really don't install a lot of apps, because I don't have space, and I don't like the attack surface. So I don't have, e.g. a separate podcast app, a music player, a mail client; I just use the basic Google Android apps for those functions.

Of course, apps are just another sort of software, and almost everyone purchases software at some point, right? I purchased a Windows 10 Pro license for my notebook to upgrade it from Home. I can't remember the last time I ever paid for a Windows app, though. I get away with freeloading on almost everything. Ubuntu, even more so.

People think apps are free of charge, because they think they didn’t pay extra for the apps that came with their phone or their laptop.

IG / FB / Gmail / etc apps are free of charge.

Also their bank’s / energy supplier’s / phone company’s / etc apps are free of charge.

If all of those apps are free of charge, any app that charges must be a rip off.

I don’t agree with it, but that’s part of the psychology.

When you are asked to pay for something you instinctively consider its value. When it's free you don't, even when in some indirect way you do pay.

Because it's trash. I don't want to own your software. Lots of paid software sucks in various rather interesting ways.

People don't like paying for stuff and would prefer to jump through multiple hoops in order to get an inferior product that doesn't cost anything.

What does paid app mean?

I pay for all my games on Steam and consoles. Those are paid apps right?

Because they cost money.

Fine with paying for apps. Refuse to pay for subscription.

It depends on a lot of stuff. Sometimes they are.