Since most apps nowadays charge a subscription, and truly free apps are becoming more scarce, I thought it would be useful to share a small handful of my favorites. Some of them do have IAPs that unlock more features, but the core functionality is always free. If they do have an IAP, I've stated this in the description so you know before even clicking the link. IAP price is in bold for quick reference.

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Utilities

Pager – build custom alerts for Reddit. Pager lets you set up rule-based alerts, and will send you a push notification whenever a new post is detected that fulfills your specified criteria. It's incredibly diverse and has a breadth of configurable options, while still sporting an easy and intuitive interface. It's limited to 10 "monitors" per user, but it is 100% free with no in-app purchases.

Grocery – a smart shopping list. Grocery is a shopping-focused front-end for the Apple Reminders app. It allows you to set a different store for each Reminders list (for example, you can create a store called Target and link it to your "Target" list in Reminders). From there, it offers a number of interesting features. My favorite is the arrival notifications: you can set a geofence at the entrance of each store, so that whenever you enter said store, you get a notification on your iPhone or Apple Watch that brings you right to that shopping list (the Apple Watch app is also fantastic, btw). It also offers smart sorting: after several shopping trips, it learns what order you check off each item, and will start to sort them for you (particularly useful when using the app on the Apple Watch's small screen). It has a ton of options and flexibility, and as a result it does take a bit of exploring to configure everything to your liking (certain features may or may not be your thing), but once you have it figured it out, it's very pleasant to use. There is also a recipe feature that I am yet to explore. The free version of this app shows 1 non-intrusive advertisement at the top of your shopping list (it kind of blends in with the list and is easy to ignore). Grocery Premium is available as a one-time in-app purchase for $24.99 (or a moderately priced subscription) and allows for a heap of additional features (inventory tracking, price tracking, custom themes and app icons, customizable toolbar, receipt tracking, household sharing).

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Music

Poolsuite FM – a retro-macintosh themed "super-summer" music player. Poolsuite FM lets you choose from a set of "radio station"-style playlists, all featuring different summer vibes. The whole experience is very nostalgia-focused and vibey. Can work as background or study music, or as poolside entertainment. Creating a free account lets you add a heart to your favorite songs so you can later access them in a specified favorites station. I think The Verge put it best: "a retro digital oasis for your summer". Also offers a companion macOS app. 100% free with no in-app purchases.

MusicHarbor – new music release radar. MusicHarbor can import artists you like from your Apple Music or Spotify accounts (or a local music library), and will show you a feed of all the new music that gets released by those artists. It's a great way of discovering new music releases, and offers home screen widgets, as well as the ability to add new releases into a MusicHarbor playlist on your streaming service of choice. The core functionality of the app is free, and in-app purchases are available to unlock additional features (filtering releases by type, appearance and formatting options, additional app icons, and record label following). You can unlock features individually, or you can pay $5.99 once to unlock all current and future features forever. You can also tip via IAP if you want to.

SongShift – transfer your playlists or libraries across different streaming services. SongShift provides a way to "shift" playlists from one streaming service to another, and supports a long list of services including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer and Napster. Some transfers won't be perfect, as occasionally SongShift will miss a song or two, but it alerts you when this happens and gives you the chance to manually correct the errors if you wish. You can create an unlimited number of "shifts" for free, and the app supports widgets, shortcuts, and automatic setup. The free version is limited to 2 streaming services at a time, and has advertisements. SongShift Pro is available as an in-app purchase, providing additional features such as unlimited streaming services, playlist merging, a faster matching algorithm for Spotify & Apple Music, batch setup, continuous monitoring of playlist updates, and no ads. The price of SongShift Pro is steeper than other apps on this list, presumably since it integrates with so many different web services, all of which are subject to changing their APIs at a moment's notice. But the devs have been pretty good about support and updates in my experience. The subscription cost is $19.99 per year, or you can buy the lifetime option which is currently priced at $39.99. Even the free version is still powerful, though.

Caveat: Spotify prevents any third-party service, including SongShift, from transferring Spotify-made playlists automatically. To get around this limitation, you will have to create a new playlist within Spotify, and copy the contents of the Spotify-created playlist over to that new playlist. Then you can transfer the new playlist using SongShift. Unfortunately, this means no continuous monitoring, even for Pro users. This only applies to Spotify's own playlists; playlists made by you, or by a third-party, are fair game.

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Fitness

Out-Run – a simple, privacy-focused outdoor running app. If you bring your iPhone with you while you run, this is a simple, no-frills run tracker that sends data to Apple Health, but keeps all other data stored locally on your device only (no accounts or sketchiness). 100% free, with no in-app purchases.

Boostcamp – free strength training programs. Boostcamp was designed to be a digitization of popular spreadsheet & PDF workout programs from Reddit, as well as new ones exclusive to the app. The app screenshots give a pretty good example of how the programs will look on your phone. Almost all of the workout plans are free to use (supposedly some of them cost money but I've yet to encounter any). You can use IAPs in the free programs to tip the couches, if you wish.

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Meditation

Unwind – simple and intuitive meditation app. Unwind is a simple breathing guide that presents you with 3 different types of breathing exercises: "start fresh" for the mornings, "relax & unwind", and "sleep better" for before bed. You can configure your typical bedtime in the settings, and it will suggest a different routine for you depending on the time of day. Data can sync to Apple Health if you would like. An in-app purchase of $5.99 unlocks additional app icons, additional background ambience options, and an unlimited in-app log of your session history (free version lets you see the past 7 days only, thought you can always see a limited overview of your previous sessions in the Apple Health app).

Oak – fantastic guided meditations. Oak features several different free guided meditations under different categories (meditate, breathe, and sleep). It also offers a free "10 Days of Mantra Meditation" course. The app is 100% free; although the app says it offers IAPs, the only IAP currently is a $0 one for the "10 Days of Mantra Meditation" course (as far as I know, this has always been free; I am unsure whether or not they will eventually charge for it).

Medito – comprehensive guided meditation app. Medito is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people heal through meditation. The app contains the largest amount of different guided meditations out of this list, including meditations for stress and anxiety management, work life management, and sleep. It's an incredible resource and a very pleasant app to use. Medito is 100% free with no in-app purchases.

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If you know of any good free or moderately-priced apps that don't require a subscription, feel free to drop your suggestions below. Have a great day.