Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

The Hidden Cost of Underpricing Your Subscription – Patrick Rills, Lose It!

Short Sub Club episode (State of Subscription Apps series) with Patrick Rills, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Lose It!. After holding $39.99/year since 2012 and testing $5-$120 for years without beating it, a late-2024 retest of a higher price broke even for the first time; Lose It! doubled to ~$80 for new users in 2026 to fund paid acquisition as CACs rise, keep a strong free tier, grandfather existing subscribers, and use the higher base for deeper lifecycle discounts. Early rollout matches experiment results.

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5 tactics

Lose It! · B2C · weight loss app

Retest higher prices you once rejected; double the yearly price if it breaks even

Test broke even for the first time; rollout matched tests and gives room for paid ads

“However, in late 2024, we started price testing again as, you know, phones are getting more expensive, our competitors are getting a lot more expensive.”

Workedpricingexperimentation

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

Lose It! · B2C · weight loss app

Build in-app sales timed to each user's journey, with deeper discounts off a higher price

Higher base allows 25-75% discounts to more users; no conversion numbers

“So how much of a discount a user gets at a certain point in their journey is completely built into the experience.”

Workedpricingpaywall

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

Lose It! · B2C · weight loss app

Raise the price only for new users; keep current subscribers on their old price

Avoided an untestable churn risk; no numbers on the effect

“I didn't feel like that was a good experience for our users. To us, it was impossible to A/B test.”

Unknownpricingretention

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

Lose It! · B2C · weight loss app

Keep the free version good enough to reach the goal without paying

Retention very stable after doubling the price, per guest

“Yeah, I'd say our our retention is very stable. And I think that's because, even though we are getting less new premium users because of the higher price, our free product is amazing.”

Workedretentionpricing

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

Lose It! · B2C · weight loss app

Add ads to the free app, one-off purchases, and affiliate partner deals

“Uh we've since implemented, you know, ad-based monetization in the free product. Uh we're looking to monetize in all sorts of ways. We've added in-app purchases, one-off in-app purchases in the app.”

Unknownupsell-expansionpartnerships

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-03

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
Lose It!	price Base annual premium price, unchanged from 2012 until the 2026 increase	USD 39.99/year	“The original price for the premium product, the base price, was always $39.99 per year.”
Lose It!	price New base annual price after doubling (new users only)	USD 80/year approximate	“Uh at a $40 price point, it's, you know, much harder than at an $80 price point to get the ROAS that you need.”
Lose It!	price Range of annual prices tested over the years; none consistently beat $40 until late 2024	USD 5–120/year	“We've tested everything from, over the years, from $5 a year to $120 a year.”
Lose It!	revenue Net result of the late-2024 higher-price test: fewer conversions offset by higher price; replicated on iOS and Android and across new, existing and reactivated cohorts	broke even (net) vs $40 control approximate	“So I'd say like the the net, the net broke even. That was quite a surprise for us because that had never happened before.”
Lose It!	count App Store five-star reviews behind the organic search moat	hundreds of thousands approximate	“we had built up quite a moat with hundreds of thousands of five-star reviews, showing up in the top of the searches.”
Headspace	price Host's grandfathered special-deal price, kept because resubscribing would cost more	USD 3/month approximate	“I got in some special deal with uh Headspace where it was, I think I was paying like $3 a month or something”
Headspace	price List price at the time (also $60/year)	USD 12/month approximate	“at that time, the price had gone up to $12 a month or $60 a year”
Headspace	price Annual list price at the time	USD 60/year approximate	“at that time, the price had gone up to $12 a month or $60 a year”