Apple One's Premier subscription tier just got two new perks, but I still don't think it's worth nearly $40 a month

• Apple has added two new services to its Apple One services subscription bundle
• Its new Invites app has been added, with News+ Food following in April this year
• Despite this bundle saving money on multiple service subscriptions, we're not entirely convinced it's worth it

For the past five years, Apple One has been helpful when it comes to saving you money on Apple’s growing list of services from Apple News+ to Apple Music, bundling them under one subscription umbrella for a lower monthly fee for three different tiers; Individual, Family, and Premier. In a recent update, Apple has added two new perks to its Premier plan, possibly to entice more customers, but is its near $40 monthly fee justifiable?

In the past few weeks, Apple has added its new Apple Invites app to the Apple One Premier bundle and will add Apple News+ Food to the mix in the upcoming iOS and iPadOS updates. Apple One Premier already packs Apple News, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness, and Apple Arcade with the added bonus of 2TB of iCloud storage, standing at $37.95/ £36.95 a month, while its Individual ($19.95/ £18.95) and Family ($25.95/ £24.95) tiers cost less, but don’t offer Apple News or Apple Fitness.

Not only is Invites an Apple One newcomer but it’s one of the latest additions to Apple’s long line of services, providing a space for users to get more organized with event planning. Aside from sending out invites, which is implied in the service's name, you can curate and add descriptions to your events, and even create a guestlist to keep track of your RSVPs.

The second new benefit in the Premier plan is Apple News+ Food, which is due to roll out to Apple One in the upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates in April. As its name implies, this new service will pack all things food and recipes, but what’s more exciting is that the new service will offer content about restaurants, and guides on healthy eating and kitchen essentials all from leading publications including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and more. For those who thrive in the kitchen, this could be a useful app.

How much money are you actually saving?

Bundle services like Apple One have one main aim: to save you money. But outside of that, it’s clear that subscriptions like this one are designed to get you signed up to as many of Apple’s services as possible. There’s also the high chance that you wouldn’t take advantage of all of the services on offer (I know I wouldn’t), which makes bundles like this rather off-putting if you know you won’t use them to the full extent. With that said, here’s a price break-down of individual apps compared to the Apple One Premier tier.

This means that you'd be saving $29/ £27.99 a month if you subscribed to all six of Apple One Premier's services at once, but even so, is there any point in paying for something you know you'll never use, even if you aren't really paying for it?

Is it enough to entice non-subscribers? I’m not entirely convinced

Though Apple One reads as a helpful and money-saving resource bundle on paper, I'm not if all of its services would genuinely be taken advantage of by a single subscriber - especially when many of us rely on alternatives such as Spotify, Strava, and even the BBC Breaking News app to guide us through the day. At least these are the services I use.

As convincing as Apple Premier One sounds, my stubborn-mindedness wouldn't pay for something I know I would never use. I'm talking Apple Arcade, and even Apple News+ for current affairs, which I can easily replace with updates from social media and the web. Even if it will save me money, I'd rather just not pay for it altogether.

The only services I could really see myself using are Apple Fitness+ and the upcoming News+ Food add-on, but even then, that's what I use Strava and TikTok food recipes for.

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