Genius Scan · B2C · document scanning app
Drop the $0.99-a-month plan and sell only the $3 one
Still ~100 purchases a day, now all on the pricier plan
Workedpricingpaywallexperimentation
What they did
Had two subscription tiers since 2020: Genius Scan+ (~$0.99/month) and Genius Scan Ultra (~$3/month), with yearly equivalents. In 2024 removed Plus from sale (existing Plus users kept it) and kept only Ultra. Around the same time the paywall was changed to push the yearly plan. Ultra yearly is now ~$39 (was ~$20-25 in 2020). Price increases are next on the experiment list.
What happened
Demand was not elastic: ~100 purchases/day before (split Plus/Ultra) and ~100/day after, all Ultra.
- Stage
- growth
This shipped together with other changes, so the result can't be credited to this alone.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Bootstrapping a Subscription App to 5M MAU and 2X+ Revenue Growth — Bruno Virlet, Genius Scan“And what we did is that we removed the Plus tier. So still we, I mean, we, everyone keep using it, right? And we kept the Ultra tier. And that, what we noticed is that demand curve is not elastic at all.”
“we had 100 purchases per day split between Plus and Ultra. We still had 100 purchases per day, but it was Ultra.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Genius Scan: Launch free for a few days, then switch to a $0.99 paid appDownloads fell from thousands a day to 1-2; switched back to free
- Genius Scan: Keep the app free with ads; sell a one-time upgrade that removes themStarted making real money from ads; founder gives no figures
- Genius Scan: Start charging monthly for cloud backup while keeping the one-time upgradeNo customer backlash; users understood storage costs recur
- Genius Scan: Let people who paid once keep their features when you switch to subscriptions
- Genius Scan: Show only the yearly plan on the paywall; tuck monthly one step deeperNearly everyone switched to yearly; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Keep the button for your top paid feature on screen, not in a menuHiding it cut paywall views ~10-20% for months; putting it back restored them
- Genius Scan: Test the words and icon on the in-app banner that opens your paywallOne wording converted 2x the old one; a deliberate A/B test confirmed it
- Genius Scan: Remove outside ads from the free app, even though they paid wellFounder believes happy free users drive recommendations; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Skip the paywall at signup; show it only when someone taps a paid featureFree users convert over time and recommend the app; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Answer every support email yourselves and build what people ask for repeatedlyFounders say it gives the best pulse on problems; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Beat the phone's built-in scanner with better scans and auto-export to DropboxGrowth never stalled when Apple added native scanning
- Genius Scan: Tune App Store name and ratings but skip paying for search adsTop five for 'scanning'; can't pass rivals who buy Apple ads
- The Grizzly Labs: Hire only when founders are overloaded, and pick people who work independently10 people, little management needed and low turnover
- RevenueCat: Ask users how they heard about you, with a free-text boxRevealed ChatGPT and Claude were sending people; read daily
- RevenueCat: Check 5-10 key numbers every morning, with 30- and 90-day averages30-day above 90-day means healthy; no outcome reported