App prices change constantly. A game that costs $6.99 today might drop to $0.99 tomorrow, and a productivity app you have been eyeing could go on sale for half price without you ever noticing. Nobody wants to open the App Store every single day just to catch these deals. The smarter way is to set up automatic alerts that watch the prices for you and ping you the moment a discount appears.
Why automatic alerts beat manual checking
Paid apps go on sale far more often than you might think. MacRumors regularly rounds up the best App Store deals of the week, and 9to5Mac covers notable price drops too — but deal roundups only help if you happen to read them in time. An automated watch list never misses: you get a push notification or an email the moment a specific app’s price falls.
Set up price-drop alerts, step by step
- Install the free IFTTT app. Grab it from the App Store on your iPhone, or open the IFTTT website on a computer. Create a free account if you don’t have one.
- Find the App Store applets. In the IFTTT app, search the applets gallery for “App Store” and connect the Apple App Store service when prompted. The service is still active today — its applets are used by thousands of people each.
- Activate the alerts you need. For a specific app you want to track, turn on Get IFTTT notification when an App Store app price drops for push alerts on your phone, and Get an Email Alert When an App Store App Price Drops if you prefer email. You can also enable Get IFTTT notification for new Apple App Store updates to hear about new versions of apps you follow.
- Point the applet at the right app. When the applet asks which app to watch, paste the app’s App Store link — not just its name. Open the App Store, find the app, tap the Share button and choose Copy Link, then paste that link (it looks like an apps.apple.com address) into the applet field. The link always identifies the app reliably; a plain name can match several similar titles.
- Keep notifications switched on. Make sure the IFTTT app stays installed and is allowed to send notifications (iPhone Settings > Notifications > IFTTT, as Apple Support explains) so the push alerts actually reach you. Email-based applets keep working even without the app installed.
- Clean up after you buy. Once you have grabbed the app at its sale price, turn that applet off. Otherwise the alerts keep firing every time the price moves.
If it still doesn’t work
Price checks are not instant — an applet can take a few hours between checks, so give it some time after activation. Double-check that you pasted the full App Store URL rather than a search link, and that the app’s region matches your Apple ID’s storefront, since prices differ between countries. If push alerts never arrive, verify notifications are allowed for IFTTT in the iPhone Settings. The applet’s activity log in the IFTTT app also shows whether the trigger has ever run.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the IFTTT app installed on my iPhone?
Only for push notifications. The applets that send email alerts work entirely in the background — you can set them up once on the website and never open the app again.
Are these applets really free?
The Apple App Store applets described here are free to enable. IFTTT also sells a Pro plan, but the price-drop and update alerts do not require it.
Conclusion
Setting up price-drop alerts takes about five minutes and pays off every time an app on your wish list goes on sale. Between IFTTT’s free applets and the deal roundups on MacRumors and 9to5Mac, you should never pay full price for an app again — unless you want to. Before you start stocking up, take a minute to clean house too: deleting the built-in iPhone apps you never use frees storage for the ones you actually want. And if you browse deals on the web a lot, our guide on changing Safari’s design on iPhone can make the hunt more comfortable.
