Is Apple One a bargain? It?s complicated

Offering a single Apple Music plan ($9.99 per month), a 50GB iCloud storage bucket ($0.99 per month), and access to Apple Arcade ($4.99 per month) and Apple TV Plus ($4.99 per month) for $14.99, it seems like it saves you money. (As a side note, Apple does grant everyone in your family plan access to Apple Arcade and Apple TV Plus, even if you subscribe to it through the “Individual plan,” which may impact your calculus.) It’s a similar story with the Family plan: a regular family plan for Apple Music costs $14.99 per month, and a 200GB iCloud bucket (which can already be shared across a whole family) is $2.99. Apple Music (personal) — $9.99 per monthApple Music (family plan) — $14.99 per monthApple Arcade (family plan only) – $4.99 per monthApple TV Plus (family plan only) — $4.99 per monthiCloud storage 50GB (personal) — $0.99 per monthiCloud storage 200GB (can be shared with family) — $2.99 per monthiCloud storage 2TB (can be shared with family) — $9.99 per monthApple News Plus (family plan only) — $9.99 per monthApple Fitness Plus (family plan only) — $9.99 per monthBut in most cases, Apple One only makes sense if you’re already subscribing to Apple’s most in-demand services: iCloud storage, which is essential for backing up most iPhones given Apple’s increasingly absurd (and stingy) 5GB allowance for new devices, and Apple Music.