Free: the whole library
Deepstash's App Store listing puts more than 200,000 ideas from books, articles, podcasts and videos on the free side, under the heading Start Free.
Reviewed evaluation
Is Deepstash free, and is the free tier enough?
Deepstash is free to install, and the free tier carries the whole idea library. Pro sells convenience, so the free version is a fair test of the habit before you pay anything.
Want an ordered course instead of a feed?
Cadence turns a goal into a short daily course with lessons, written practice and feedback. Start free on iPhone or request Android access.
Deepstash is free to install on iPhone and Android, and the free tier is more complete than most. Its App Store listing puts the whole idea library on the free side and sells convenience as Pro.
That makes the useful question narrower than it first looks. You are not deciding whether you can read Deepstash without paying, because you can. You are deciding whether the four things Pro adds are worth money to you once the habit is real.
The short answer
The free tier holds the library, and Pro sells convenience
Deepstash is free to use and the whole idea library sits in the free tier. Pro adds convenience, not content, so the free version is an honest test of whether the habit lasts.
Worth it if
- You read in short gaps and do not need the ideas read aloud.
- You are still testing whether an idea feed earns a place in your day.
- You rarely look back further than the last few days of what you read.
- You read on a connection, so offline downloads would go unused.
Not worth it if
- You want the ideas as audio on a commute or a walk.
- You travel without signal and need saved cards available offline.
- You want to search everything you have ever read, not the recent part.
- Ads between cards break the calm you opened the app for.
What you actually get
Free tier, paid tier, and the wall between them.
The product, the paid upgrade, and who gets value from it.
Free: your own ideas
The same listing includes creating and sharing your own ideas in the free tier, so saving and organising are not gated.
Pro: the four convenience features
No ads, audio playback for all ideas, offline downloads of your library, and unlimited history of what you have read, organised by day.
What no tier includes
A complete source, an ordered curriculum, a recognised certificate, or any check that a saved card became knowledge you can use.
How the pricing works: Deepstash is free to install and use, with an optional Pro subscription. Prices checked on 18 September 2026: its US App Store listing shows Pro Monthly entries at US$12.99 and US$19.99, and Pro Yearly entries at US$29.99, US$49.99, US$69.99, US$89.99 and US$99.99. Apple lists every purchase a build has offered, so these are listed options and not a guaranteed offer for your account. Confirm the amount charged now and the renewal total at your own checkout.
See official Deepstash pricingIf it is not for you
What to use instead.
Each of these beats Deepstash for a specific job. Cadence is ours, and it only appears where it genuinely fits.
Swipe the table to see every column.
| Instead use | When it is the better choice |
|---|---|
| Kinnu | You want free general-knowledge pathways with questions that check recall, not a feed of standalone cards. |
| Anki | You want a free tool that schedules review of cards you write yourself, and you accept that it does not teach. |
| The original source | One idea matters enough that you need the author's full reasoning, evidence and examples. |
| Cadence | A saved idea points at a goal and you want an ordered daily course that helps you act on it. This is our app. |
What free actually means here
The gate is convenience, not content.
Most free tiers hold back the thing you came for and charge to unlock it. Deepstash does close to the opposite. Its listing puts the full idea library in the free tier and puts four comfort features behind Pro: no ads, audio, offline downloads and unlimited history.
That matters for how you test it. With a gated catalogue you cannot tell whether the product suits you until you pay. Here you can, because the free version is the product. If a month of free reading changes nothing about how you think or what you do, a paid version of the same feed is unlikely to change it either.
Where the wall is
The four things that will make you consider paying.
Ads sit between cards, and the calm layout is much of the appeal, so interruption costs more here than in a noisier app. Audio is the common upgrade trigger, because idea cards suit a commute well and cannot be read while walking or driving.
Offline downloads matter if you travel without signal. Unlimited history matters only if you actually search back, and most people do not. Watch which of the four you reach for during a free month; if none of them, the free tier is your answer.
A check worth doing
Published prices for this app disagree with each other.
Pages that rank for this question quote a single monthly amount, and the ones we read on 18 September 2026 did not match what Apple lists. We saw one competitor's page state US$7.99 a month while the US App Store listed Pro Monthly entries at US$12.99 and US$19.99.
We have no view on why they differ, and a listing is not a quote for your account either. Apple shows every purchase a build has offered, including regional and promotional entries. The honest version is that no single published price can be quoted for Deepstash Pro today, so read the renewal total at your own checkout before you agree to it.
Put it into practice
Start it today, ten minutes at a time.
Cadence turns a goal into a short daily course with lessons, written practice and feedback. Start free on iPhone or request Android access.
Questions
Common questions.
Is Deepstash free forever?
Deepstash is free to install and use with no time limit stated on its App Store listing. The listing puts its full idea library in the free tier under the heading Start Free, and sells Pro for convenience features on top.
What is the catch with the free version of Deepstash?
Four things sit behind Pro: ads appear between cards, ideas cannot be played as audio, your library cannot be downloaded for offline use, and your reading history is limited. The library itself is not the catch.
How much does Deepstash Pro cost?
Prices checked on 18 September 2026: the US App Store lists Pro Monthly entries at US$12.99 and US$19.99 and Pro Yearly entries at US$29.99, US$49.99, US$69.99, US$89.99 and US$99.99. These are listed purchase options, not a guaranteed offer, so read your own checkout.
Is there a free alternative to Deepstash?
Kinnu offers free general-knowledge pathways with recall questions, and Anki is free on desktop, web and Android for cards you write yourself. Cadence, which we make, gives unlimited daily lessons and audio free, with limits on new custom courses.
See it in concrete terms
Open a real Cadence course.
If a saved idea points at something you want to be better at, these Cadence courses show what an ordered version looks like. You can read each syllabus before starting free.
Feedback
Giving feedback that lands
→
Make feedback specific, useful, and easier for a teammate to act on without burying the point.
Speaking
Speaking articulately
→
Organize your point under pressure so updates, questions, and explanations sound clear without sounding rehearsed.
Prioritization
Prioritization under uncertainty
→
Choose the next move when the data is incomplete, stakeholders disagree, and everything sounds important.
Method
How we reviewed this app.
We answered one question, whether the Deepstash free tier is enough on its own, by reading the free and Pro feature split that Deepstash publishes on its current US App Store listing and on its own site. We separated what the free tier includes from what Pro adds, and we treated listed in-app purchases as listed options.
What we checked directly: On 18 September 2026 we read Deepstash's current US App Store listing, including its Free and Pro feature comparison and its full list of in-app purchases, together with the free-to-start claim on its own homepage.
Limits of this review: We did not buy Deepstash Pro, we did not test its offline or signed-in behaviour, and we did not verify its published catalogue or community counts independently. Claims about Deepstash stay attributed to the official pages linked above.
Sources
References.
Learning Cadence is not affiliated with the other products named here. Product names belong to their owners.
Try Cadence today
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Cadence turns a goal into a short daily course with lessons, written practice and feedback. Start free on iPhone or request Android access.