Do walking apps really pay you?
Yes, and the rate is usually published. It is the second number, what the earnings are worth, that five of the big walking apps leave out.
Read the article →How do free reward apps make money?
If an app is free and pays you, something else is paying. How rewarded ads work, and the exact arithmetic of what one ad is worth in our own apps.
Read the article →Are reward apps safe?
What permissions reward apps ask for, what data actually leaves your phone, and the red flags to check first, with our own four apps as the worked example.
Read the article →What happens to your rewards if the app shuts down?
Shopkick closed overnight in March 2026 and unredeemed kicks became worthless. What a fair shutdown looks like, and how to hold a balance so you never lose one.
Read the article →Do reward apps drain your battery?
It turns on one design decision you can check before installing. Reading your phone's own step count costs almost nothing; tracking your location does not.
Read the article →Do you pay taxes on app rewards?
Most cash back is a rebate rather than income. The part that is income is taxable whether or not a form arrives, and the form threshold changed for 2026.
Read the article →Reviews of other people's apps
We also review the big reward apps we compete with, with the conflict of interest stated up front and every number sourced from the app's own published material — see the reviews.
How our rewards work
For the specifics of earning and redeeming coins in our own apps, see how rewards work.
If you build apps rather than use them
Everything above is written for someone deciding whether to install something. There is a separate section for the other kind of reader, where we measure our own Flutter apps and publish the numbers — see engineering.