Well unfortunately I have loads of ads, nearly $40 or £29 every year seems quite a lot. Oh well.
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Hi, a one off payment is totally fine but paying every year seems excessive.
The app can not exist without revenue, hence the ads or membership. I’m sorry that the ads are ruining it for you but revenue for servers/upgrades are necessary. There are only 2 ways to generate revenue to sustain a app such as this.
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Absolutely no issues with paying but when some have paid so little for a one of payment and newbies have to pay ten times as much every year, that seems unfair. Anyway, I really appreciate all the replies and will have a think. Thanks.
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Here is a link to the original announcement on the changes to Premium subscription FYI. It provides some more context. Hope that helps.
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I only see the ads when I switch between the forum and the timer… or maybe I’m just so used to them, my brain stopped registering them. The way I see it, this app, but more importantly, the community is helping me stay sober. Ads help to keep it running, watching them is definitely less wasted time than on hangovers.
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This is my experience also, maybe @TANK23 you have a glitch or malware? I DISLIKE ADS immensley LOL but I dont find they are excessive for me on the app. What about trying to uninstall the app, run a security/malware scan on your phone and then reinstalling it? Just a thought! 
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I paid for premium and it’s worth it!
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Thanks Sassy.
Yup…the ads were insane and I did pay a one time $1 fee like link shows to remove.
The more I used the app the more I feel in love with it and went with the $5/ month as I feel it’s totally worth it and way cheaper than my addictions…plus whatever I can do to help keep this community alive.
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All of the ads that run on mine are for jackpot apps. I never got into gambling, but I would think that would be bad for anyone with a gambling addiction to see that every time they login to a sober app.
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I dealt with the ads for awhile but then I went ahead and paid the yearly fee a while back. $30 or whatever it was isn’t anywhere near what I paid for alcohol, weed and cigarettes. I value the app and the people inside and if my $30 will help keep the app going it is well worth it 
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This question has come up in the past but I can’t find the exact post discussing it. From my memory, Robin (App creator) has no control over the ad choices. @Robin can you clarify this for us please? Or other mods who might remember this question? @Mno @SassyRocks @anon74766472 @Dan531 @Lisa07 @Misokatsu? I believe the ad complaints were related to the last American presidential election or politics in general.
I pay the $5 a month as well. I am grateful I have it to spare.
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This app is really ruining the ads for me…
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I found it. If Robin had details, he can report it to Google.
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No, I don’t recall info about the ads. I did a search and perhaps some assistance can be found in one of these threads…I am sure there are others as well…
I use a browser not the app, and I get zero ads
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Hey everyone,
I’m the developer/creator, so feel free to ask any questions about ads here.
A few things I’ve seen:
When ads are shown
Ads are shown in between app pages. So going from the tracker to the community, you might see an ad. However, you won’t see any ads once you’re in the community. So you can spend literally all day in the community and see no ads (besides maybe one ad when you enter it initially).
How Premium works
It’s a monthly or yearly subscription. Yearly is 50% less overall. It doesn’t just remove ads, it also provides a bunch of other useful features. You get a widget that you can add on your home screen so you can track your sobriety without having to open the app, you get access to cloud sync so you can back up, restore and transfer your data between devices, community perks which is a title and icon that you can choose from, and more backgrounds.
You can get Premium by tapping on the app’s main menu in the top-left, then Premium. The Patreon thing is old and not as good value as Premium, as you don’t get any of the benefits that Premium gives you.
Type of ads
I have some control over the type of ads. I can enable or disable certain categories. I’ve disabled some like medication, substances and gambling. They shouldn’t show in the app, unless the advertiser has incorrectly categorized them. Ads are generally also based on what Google thinks you’re interested in. So if you’re getting a certain type of ad the whole time, that’s probably because Google thinks you like that.
Why we have ads/premium:
I listed more detail here when the change to Premium was made Premium is changing
In summary:
Sober Time needs revenue to run. The servers, community, and cloud storage all cost a monthly fee to maintain. So I could either make it a paid app with an upfront cost, or a free app with other monetization. I chose to go with free, because I believe it can reach more people this way.
This way, people can choose to watch ads instead of spending any of their money, but they can still access Sober Time’s tools and community.
Happy to answer other questions.
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It’s not. When the premium changes were introduced, old timers had the option to switch to the new payment plan or remain patreon supporters if they already were.
If it’s not worth it for you, that’s that. Meetings are free.
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Disclaimer: I’m not taking sides on whether you should or shouldn’t pay for the Premium.
Let’s play with numbers for a bit.
On Oct 5th '23
30 USD is
- 28,60 euros or
- 24,75 English pounds.
If we divide these by 365 days, we get around:
0,08 USD/day
0,09 euros/day
0,07 pounds/day
What can you get with that amount? Not much nowadays. For a reference, the cheapest item in the store I work in is a tiny match box of 10 euro cents
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