iPhone utility app deals: Weather Now PRO, File Explorer, and more go free
This week's best iPhone deals aren't games — they're the boring, useful kind: a weather app that normally costs real money, a wireless file browser, a PDF signer, an ISS tracker, and a sleep alarm, all free or marked down right now. Deal roundups get flooded with games because games are what developers push hardest into limited-time sales; the tools people actually keep on their home screen for months get discounted far less often, so when a handful line up in the same week it's worth a dedicated list. We checked live App Store pricing on every pick below (as of September 2026) before writing it up, so nothing here has quietly reverted to full price the way stale "deal" posts sometimes do.
Weather Now PRO – Rain Radar (usually $21.95, now free)
Get accurate weather forecasts, real-time Doppler radar maps, and customizable widgets for your devices. Monitor UV Index, Air Quality, and geomagnetic storms to plan your day with confidence.
Weather Now PRO is a full radar-and-forecast app — live rain radar, severe weather alerts, and hourly/10-day forecasts — that normally sells for $21.95 outright. Right now it's free to download. Worth knowing before you grab it: this app has swung between free and anywhere from $19.99 to $32.49 several times in the past month alone, based on its own price history. That's not a one-time clearance sale, it's a pricing pattern — so treat 'free today' as exactly that, not a permanent state, and don't be surprised if it's paid again next week.
One more thing to flag honestly: the base app is free, but it also offers a weekly 'Pro Weather Server' subscription for extra radar data layers. The core forecast and radar functionality works without subscribing — treat the subscription as optional, not a requirement to use the app. If you already pay for a weather app and are only half-satisfied with it, this is a low-risk way to compare radar quality side by side before you cancel anything.
ISS Real-Time Tracker 3D (down to $0.99)
Visualize the International Space Station, Tiangong, and Hubble in real-time 3D. Get precise flyover predictions up to 30 days in advance with a star rating system. Stream live HD video from the ISS and learn about the current crew.
This one does exactly what the name says: a live 3D globe showing the International Space Station's current position, ground track, and next visible passes over your location. It's a niche app, but a well-made one, and at $0.99 it's back near its lowest price point of the past year — it was as high as $4.99 just last month, and its price has bounced between $0.99 and $2.99 several times since spring. If you've got a kid (or an adult) who likes watching the ISS fly overhead, this is a cheap, low-risk pickup rather than a "must buy now" panic deal — a dollar either way isn't going to sting if the price moves again next month.
File Explorer & Player [Pro] (usually $19.99, now free)
Transform your iPhone or iPad into a wireless drive for your Mac, enabling you to stream videos, view photos, and access documents remotely. Transfer files, store content on your iOS device, and even mount it as a drive on your computer.
File Explorer & Player turns your iPhone into a wireless drive for your Mac — browse, stream video, and view documents straight off your computer over your home network, no cables or cloud upload required. It's from Remote Sunrise LTD, a developer with 13 apps on the Store and a solid 4.5-star average across more than 25,000 combined ratings, and this specific app sits at 4.6 stars from 832 reviews. That's a meaningfully larger review base than most of the other deals in this batch, which makes it the safest bet here if you only grab one utility app: utilities has plenty of alternatives if wireless file access isn't your workflow, but this is a legitimately well-reviewed one going free. It's a solid pick for anyone who edits video or keeps a media library on a Mac and gets tired of AirDropping files back and forth before a trip.
Sign PDF: Editor & Certificate (usually $19.99, now free)
Easily and securely sign PDF documents directly from your mobile device. Add notes and comments to PDFs and share them quickly. Ideal for on-the-go document signing.
Sign PDF covers the everyday paperwork tasks people usually reach for a Mac (or a printer) to do: sign contracts by finger or Apple Pencil, fill out PDF forms, and scan paper documents into searchable PDFs. It's rated 4.9 stars, though only from 18 reviews so far, so treat that score as promising rather than proven — small review counts can swing on a handful of enthusiastic early users. If you occasionally need to sign or annotate a PDF on your phone and don't want a subscription-based scanner app, this is worth the download while it's free — it lives in the same utilities space as File Explorer above, and having both installed covers most "I need to deal with a document right now" situations without opening a laptop.
Smart Alarm Clock – FixSleep (usually $24.49, now free)
This app helps you wake up on time with challenging alarms and a smart sleep cycle calculator. It also offers relaxing sounds and bedtime reminders to improve sleep quality and establish better sleep habits.
FixSleep pairs an alarm clock with sleep-cycle tracking and "impossible to ignore" wake-up challenges — the kind of app aimed at people who reflexively silence a normal alarm and go back to sleep. The free download unlocks the core alarm and sleep tracking; a $29.99/year Premium subscription (recently discounted to $24.99/year) sits behind the more advanced sleep analytics. Rated 4.7 stars from a modest 31 reviews. If you've tried the popular sleep-apps in this category and bounced off the subscription pricing, FixSleep's free tier is worth a look before you commit to a subscription elsewhere — use it for a week or two on the free tier and see whether the wake-up challenges actually get you out of bed before paying for anything.
How the five compare
| App | Price now | Usual price | Category | Subscription upsell? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather Now PRO – Rain Radar | Free | $21.95 (swings $20–$32) | Weather | Yes — optional weekly radar add-on |
| ISS Real-Time Tracker 3D | $0.99 | up to $4.99 | Reference | No |
| File Explorer & Player [Pro] | Free | $19.99 | Utilities | No IAPs found |
| Sign PDF: Editor & Certificate | Free | $19.99 | Utilities | No IAPs found |
| Smart Alarm Clock – FixSleep | Free | $24.49 | Health & Fitness | Yes — $29.99/yr Premium tier |
None of these need a subscription to be useful on day one — the two that offer one (Weather Now PRO, FixSleep) work fine without it. Only pay if you actually use the extra tier.
For more picks that skip the game deals entirely, see our roundup of non-game iPhone app deals from a few weeks back — different apps, same idea: useful tools instead of another puzzle game.
FAQ
Will these prices last? No promises — App Store prices can change at any time, and Weather Now PRO in particular has already flipped between free and paid multiple times in the past month. Grab what you want today rather than waiting for a "better" moment that might not come.
Are any of these "free" apps secretly paywalled? File Explorer & Player and Sign PDF showed no in-app purchases in our check — what you download is what you get. Weather Now PRO and FixSleep both have optional paid tiers layered on top of a genuinely usable free app; neither requires payment to do the core job it advertises.
Where do these prices come from? We pull live pricing straight from the App Store before publishing, not from a search snippet or a press release, so what you see above should match what you see on your phone. Prices with small review counts (like Sign PDF's 18 reviews) are still real App Store listings — we just flag the smaller sample size so you can weigh it yourself.
As always: if you land on one of these later and it's back to full price, that's the App Store's pricing engine doing its thing, not a bait-and-switch on our end — check the current price on the app's own page before you buy.