I just noticed that now that super early testing is under way and the app is in the hands of 60+ users, it may be worthwhile leaving your early reviews in the App Store. Currently Freetrade has 3.5 stars which doesn’t reflect the sentiment of early tester feedback in my opinion.
A very fascinating diversity of scores. Constituting only to ‘well done guys, keep up with the progress’ and ‘app still not out, it’s frustrating’, as opposed to the reflection on the app’s genuine performance.
Just wondering if pre-release reviews might set unrealistic expectations for people in the App Store. Then lead to more annoyed reviews by people seeing only the queue?
Good observation. I thought this too but then I also wonder how often those in the queue who’ve already downloaded the app even check the Freetrade app in the AppStore?
I only came across the review score by chance as I was looking at some finance apps and it popped up in the “May also like…” suggestions:
From memory Monzo (back when it was Mondo) had this same problem when the app was also basically just a waiting list.
I guess it’s a toss-up between creating excitement and reducing friction when it is time to give access, and annoying people and putting them off the brand.
It’s doesn’t seem to have caused Monzo any problems in the long-run, so I wouldn’t get too worried.
The needle moved (5.7% 
):
I’ve done my part and rated five stars! Have you? 
It’s frustrating that a lot of people are reviewing the app before they are even able to use it. I really hope the low score (in my mind an average under 4 out of 5 makes me stop and think) doesn’t put people off.
Exactly. A 4 star review anywhere, be it on Amazon or in an AppStore is my hesitation threshold too. I think now it’s come to the community’s attention, the score should improve over time as we have the power to change it.
Totally. Reviews can be extremely useful in on all sorts of sites, but they can be misleading and you need to take some time to actually read them. However, it is important that the headline score is as high as possible. If I stumbled across the app of a startup investing company I’d never heard of that I was going to be enstrusting with my money, I wouldn’t touch it if it had a low review score. No matter what your product is and how incredible it might be, you will always get some people who will give it low scores.
Then you get incredibly frustrating people on Amazon who give reviews like ‘This is absolutely fantastic and it’s changed my life, but it arrived a day late. 2 stars.’
I’m not sure it’s time for users to review yet - I like what I see so far, but could not give it a 5 star review yet - for that it needs ISA support and a few rough edges smoothed off. At that point, and also when the queue is shorter and frustration for new users is lower, I think I’ll be really happy to leave a 5 star review and I’m holding off till then.
That’s more like it… all credit to the community. Since the first post, doubled number of ratings and got past 
I had just seen that I had not reviewed the Freetrade App in the store. I feel so ashamed and I hope that the great powers forgive me for my sins. 
FreeTrade app is in the top 153 in finance app for IOS. Let’s make it to Top 20 next year. Monzo is 6th.
Slowly climbing up the App Store ranking 101, previously I checked 153!
ad when searching Freetrade? Never appeared before.
