Dana Mercer started Actually Free Apps after one too many "best free app" lists turned out to mean "free for seven days, card required." She owns the line every piece has to hold: an app earns the green badge only if a normal person can use it for its core job, indefinitely, without ever handing over a payment method. She decides the badge on the strictest honest reading, insists every app gets the same transparency box at the same depth — favorites included — and kills any draft that softens a verdict to be nice. The rule she repeats most: we check by signing up and hitting the wall, not by reading the pricing page.