APP is cheaper, but even PixInsight at 230 Euro's is cheap. I mean, sure it's quite a bit of money, but even the cheapest of serious telescopes costs that much and in the end, the processing part is where the magic really happens.
Yeah, I really don't understand why folks are ready to spend lots of $$$ on hardware but for some reason software must be dirt cheap. It costs a LOT of develop good software.