Paywalls and pricing
Subscription plan tactics
Which plan lengths apps offered (weekly, monthly, annual, lifetime) and how the mix affected revenue. 56 tactics from 38 founder interviews.
Many apps led with an annual plan, often preselected, to collect cash upfront and pay back ad spend quickly, with a weekly or monthly option alongside. Raising prices worked more often than founders expected. Cutting plans to steer buyers usually backfired, while weekly plans suited short-use apps and lifetime plans suited simple utilities. Several paid-download apps grew sharply after switching to subscriptions.
- Sunflower said making the yearly plan the default brought a lot more annual revenue, and Sway AI kept an annual default after a weekly plan grew much slower; BoldVoice said annual cash showed each channel's return right after the trial.SunflowerSway AIBoldVoice
- Price increases often lifted results: GlamUp tripled its weekly price and conversion rose, Coconote went from $99 to $129 a year and gained users and revenue, and Skylight doubled its yearly plan to $79 with minimal loss.GlamUpCoconoteSkylight
- Removing plans tended to hurt: one app dropped its $1.99 monthly plan and sales fell because $10 a year no longer looked cheap, Calm brought monthly back within weeks, and Reading.com's no-trial monthly cut realized LTV 17%.A subscription appCalmReading.com
- Two apps grew sharply after switching from a one-time paid download to subscriptions: the Fitbit sync app went from about $200 to $2,000 a day, and Cardstock called it its biggest revenue jump.Fitbit to Apple Health SyncCardstock
- Lifetime plans worked for utility apps: one team found $29.99 beat $49.99 on day-one revenue at fixed ad spend, and Cat on Chair said most sales come from its $29.99 lifetime plan.An AI Bible study appCat on Chair
- Weekly plans were said to suit short-use apps like dating, and Pushcroll found weekly beat monthly only slightly; a guest said pushing lifetime plans right before a sale lowered the price acquirers paid.Practitioner pattern · Josh Peleg (Heads M&A at BlueThrone, an app acquirer he pitches as a buyer for founders during the episode)PushcrollPractitioner pattern · Josh Peleg (Buys apps for BlueThrone; pitches BlueThrone to founders looking to exit)
Summary written 2026-09-26 from the tactics below. Figures are as founders stated them.
What worked, with the best evidence
What didn't work, or only partly
- Reading.com: Drop the free trial on the monthly plan to push people to annualMore annual picks, but realized LTV fell 17%; not rolled out
- Dipsea: Test sending paywall taps to a web checkout pageRealized LTV down 6% at first; fewer web subscribers turned off auto-renew
- Drop the $1.99 monthly plan because 90% buy the $10 yearly oneSales went down; the monthly price was the anchor that made $10/year look cheap
- Charge $40 a year when most rivals charge $20-25~40% year-one retention; host now thinks a lower price would have done better
- Use weekly plans for apps people need for a short time, like datingWorks well in dating and follower-tracking apps; fine for cash flow, weaker for an exit
- Push the lifetime plan on the paywall right before selling the appKnocks down negotiations; the buyer can't monetize those users again
- Calm: Show only a yearly plan on the paywallMonthly plan was back within 2-3 weeks; observed from outside
Companies in this topic
Benchmarks
- What subscription apps charge · 154 figures
More tactics (37)
- Lose It!: Retest higher prices you once rejected; double the yearly price if it breaks evenTest broke even for the first time; rollout matched tests and gives room for paid ads
- Skylight: Raise the yearly plan from $39 to $79, not the $99 tests favoredMinimal loss of subscribers or retention; ARR curve 'transformative'; no exact numbers
- Cardstock: Make the app free to download and charge $5 a month instead of $4.99 onceBiggest revenue jump ever; growth took off from the 2021 switch
- NGL: Charge power users $1-$7 a week, priced by country wealth; keep the rest freeMulti-eight-figure yearly revenue from a small share of users
- Sway AI: Preselect the yearly plan on the paywall to collect cash upfrontWeekly plan also tried; grew a lot slower
- Sunflower: Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywallAdding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'
- Coconote: Raise the annual price from $99 to $129More users and more revenue at the same time
- Pushcroll: Test a weekly plan against a monthly oneWeekly won, but only slightly more ARPU
- Career Hound: Charge from day one: $7 a week, $20 a month or $50 a year779 active subs, $12K MRR, ~$50 LTV; 31% churn
- Visible: Sell the band at cost (~$80) and charge $20 a month for the appLowers the barrier to buy; host thought $80 looked too cheap to be good
- BoldVoice: Show the ~$150 annual plan first so ad spend pays back when trials endCash lands 7 days after install, so each channel's ROI is known at once; no numbers
- WiseSam: Ask ad visitors many questions, reflect answers back, then offer a $1 first weekFounders say the long quiz works very well; no numbers yet
- Cat on Chair: Give the app away free; sell pro features for $29.99 lifetime or $19.99 a yearMost sales come from the $29.99 lifetime plan
- Show two plans, hide the rest behind 'View all plans', preselect annualGuest's standard setup; no numbers given
- Report each user's expected value at month 13, not what they paid on day oneGuest's main advanced lever; no numbers given
- Bickster: Sell lifetime access instead of subscriptions unless the app has real running costsWorks well across their apps; subscriptions drew complaints on one
- Simply Piano: Lean on monthly plans once people keep renewing month after monthHigher LTV on monthly than annual in Simply Piano; no numbers
- Halo AI: Charge $8.99 a week after a free trial, with extra offers when people leaveWeekly has worked best so far; yearly tested and dropped for now
- Skylight: Make every first purchase cover what you paid to get the customerEvery order in company history paid back on day zero; grew without VC money
- Opal: Charge $120 a year and pitch it as paying for itself in work timeGuest says it unlocked very high LTV; no figures beyond price
- LinkedIn: Offer a two-person plan at 20% off, plus a big annual-plan discountBoth offers retain better; no retention figures given
- GlamUp: When people close the paywall, show the same plans at 50% off
- When users close the paywall, show cheaper plans, then a 33%-off yearly dealNo result given; guest's go-to for apps that already test a lot
- App Masters: Price utility apps at $5 a week, $20 a year, or $30 once
- Welltory: Offer just a $99.99 yearly plan with no free trial, but let users close it
- Pingo AI: Offer the free trial only on the yearly plan and hide the monthly one
- Pep AI: Show 'try it free' slides before a paywall with $40/year and $10/month plans
- 3AK: Charge teens $10 a month or $30 a year, below typical training plansTested several yearly prices; no results shared
- ToneAdapt: Offer a $10 weekly plan next to a $60 yearly plan
- Sprout: Skip the annual plan for a job-search app; sell weekly and monthly via Stripe
- Judge a new lifetime plan against what a subscriber pays over timeTests otherwise wrongly crown lifetime, e.g. 250 vs 100 instead of 250 vs 300 euros
- Yousician: Use monthly-plan renewals to set a warning threshold for yearly-plan test winners
- Put a hard paywall with one lifetime price on an app ranking in search
- Simply: Try weekly plans for a skill that takes months to learnTested in some apps; none offered now
- Glam Up: Lock every app behind a paywall with weekly or monthly plansUsed on apps peaking at $150K and $250K MRR; no test reported
- Clear 30: Test $30, $40 and $50 yearly pricesSettled on $30/year; no test numbers shared
- Shot Pattern: Add features users already want, then double the price to $75 a yearPrice now ~$75/year; no separate conversion impact reported
New tactics every Monday
The week's founder interviews, boiled down to what they did and what happened.