Cardstock · B2C · sports card scanner app
Make the app free to download and charge $5 a month instead of $4.99 once
Biggest revenue jump ever; growth took off from the 2021 switch
Workedpricingpaywall
What they did
Cardstock launched as a $4.99 one-time paid download (lifetime access). Kyle doubted anyone would pay $5 recurring, but people who tried to recruit him kept telling him to switch to a free trial. In 2021 he made the app free with subscriptions: $5/month, $50/year and $99 lifetime (lifetime offered first). He now says there is no reason to charge upfront; if you insist on paying up front, go free with a hard paywall instead.
What happened
Revenue 'exploded'; the biggest jump on the lifetime revenue chart lines up with the 2021 subscription switch, with a small hit at first. Downloads did not jump much at the same time.
- Stage
- Growth (early growth)
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Kyle Fowler - How I make $42k/mo passively with simple no-code apps (copy me)“If you If you want to If you insist on it, you might as well just do free, 'cause the switch to switch to free for us was by far like the biggest revenue jump ever for us. It was insane.”
“And then, people were like, "Just make it $5 a month, people will buy it." And I was like, "People are paying $5 for lifetime access forever right now." And people were like, "Nope, they'll buy it." And then so, I did it and switched to that, and it exploded from there.”
“Uh 5 a month, 50 a year, and 99 lifetime.”
Related topics
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More from Cardstock
All 16 Cardstock tactics- Rebuild your working app for a nearby hobby, built in a day with AI$17K MRR and 3,400 subscribers in a year; more new customers a month than the original
- Build the app you wanted for your own hobby when the App Store has noneGrew into ~$75K MRR over six years
- Give creators TikTok slideshow templates to post and pay them by viewsFounder calls it their biggest success; no numbers given
- Bring in friends for a three-way revenue split and teach them to codeTeam of three grew to five; revenue from a few hundred a month to ~$1.5M a year
- Post on Reddit when the app is finishedFirst downloads came almost immediately; no numbers
More from this episode
- Cardstock: Post your app idea in the hobby's subreddit before building it10-15 people said they'd use it; later drove launch downloads
- Cardstock: Announce the launch in the same subreddit, linking your earlier idea post12 paid downloads (~$60) on launch day
- Cardstock: Spend two weeks on keyword research, then put the best terms in your title#1 for 'baseball card scanner' for 2-3 years; ~$9-10K MRR with no marketing
- Cardstock: Post brand-style TikToks (memes, silent pack openings) on the app's accountFirst videos got ~23 likes; viral ones brought no downloads without the app on screen
- Cardstock: Film a valuable card, scan it with the app in hand, then reveal its priceFirst one hit 184K views; became the repeatable format behind the TikTok growth
- Cardstock: Hire a friend to figure out TikTok with you before paying an agencyFriend became the de facto CMO; knew enough to spot a good UGC agency later
- Cardstock: Show the paywall at first open, with a small hidden XMost subscriptions came from this first paywall, before people used the app
- Cardstock: Switch to a hard paywallRevenue reached ~$30K/month (alongside a Christmas TikTok spike)
- Scanemon: Put the app's name on the scanner screen so every video shows itFounder thinks it lifts conversion; no data yet
- Scanemon: Post card-collecting tips slideshows from an account with an AI-made girl avatarSeveral posts over 100K views; the format then scaled through paid creators
- Cardstock: Pay creators about $1 per 1,000 views to post your slideshow template~7,600 posts in a month for $2,600, about $1 CPM; biggest recent growth driver