Yes it is free! Here is a cheat for easy money:
1.Go into sims freeplay app and make all sims plant
2. Go to home menu and click home button twice
3. Hold finger down on sims freeplay icon and click red line
3. Go to settings and turn wifi OFF
4. Go to settings,date and time
5. Change date by days and years and time by hours and mins (the more the better)
6.Go into sims freeplay app and when it says unable to connect DO NOT press retry
7. Repeat steps 2&3
8. Go into settings and turn wifi ON
9. Go into sims freeplay app again and you should have about 5,000 simoleons
10. Harvest plants
11. Have fun spending money!
Hope this helped! ;)
might not work but it did for me