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Charge more for app subscriptions

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Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#61

Post by Aperocky »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #9

This analysis is very US/Euro-centric. Bumping the price from US$20 to US$100 might indeed allow you to focus more on your most dedicated customers . It also bumps the price way above anything that billions of people around the world can pay for such a thing. At Ardour, we have 3 subscription price levels: Regular: US$10/month Low Cost: US$4/month Developing World: US$1/month We leave it to users to decide which cate…

This would be super interesting analysis, but what percentage of IPs from US/EU claimed to from 'developing world'?

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#62

Post by TrueGeek »

esperent wrote: post #48
Kaze404 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredible. Thank you for not forgetting about half the planet's population like most services do. I'd like to point out that https://sloppy.io (not sponsored) recently helped me out with regional pricing. On top of being a great service, I can tell the people running it actually care.

What does sloppy.io do? The site won't load for me.

Docker hosting

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#63

Post by a13n »

dguo wrote: post #11

Whenever I read "charge more," I think of the implicit assumption that service owners want to maximize total profit. While I can understand that desire, there's no law of nature that says we have to act in a profit-maximizing manner. A SaaS service could have a different goal: running a sustainable business that benefits as many people as possible. So they could choose to charge a deliberately low amount such that mo…

If you charge more, you can make more money, to grow your team, to build a bigger/better product, to serve more people.

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#64

Post by zepto »

Kaze404 wrote: post #47
zepto wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but it’s also possible that if you charge too little, people subscribe but don’t benefit, because they don’t use the service much. Subscribing doesn’t necessarily imply benefitting, but the higher the price, the more correlated these are likely to be.

If people don't use your product if they don't have the pressure of sunken cost, then maybe they're not really benefitting either way.

The whole point of subscriptions is that they aren’t sunken cost.

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#65

Post by dvcrn »

esperent wrote: post #49
cercatrova wrote: post #5

I watched a very interesting video about selling to consumers as opposed to businesses [0]. The key takeaway is that consumers' target price to pay is actually $0. Therefore, any price above that, even a 3 to 4 dollar a month difference, is seen as extremely annoying to them, because again, they actually only want to pay nothing. This is why you should, if not charging business, at least charge prices that are suffic…

Over the last couple of years, my income has gone up a lot, from "barely scraping by, >50% of my income spent on rent" to "comfortable, can make any small purchases I like without worrying". This has led to a huge change in my attitude to buying things like app, books, games, movies. If it's a small company/author who cares about their product/book etc. and charges a reasonable amount, I want to pay for what I'm usin…

I am with you on that. I buy apps if they provide value to me. If it has a one-time purchase option next to a subscription, even if it is $30 - $50, I pick the one-time purchase.

If it's a journaling app, a calendar app, a habit tracker or a drawing app and it wants me to pay monthly, it's a hard 'no' for me as well unless it has a cloud component that I feel justifies the price. There is mostly nothing in it that justifies paying monthly, it's just an offline app.

"But developers need a salary too" - yes, then price your app accordingly and charge for upgrades. Subscriptions make me feel if I stop paying I lose the app and can't access my data any longer. That, and subscriptions pile up.

If I subscribe to one app it's not a big deal, but if I subscribe to 10-20 apps and they all cost monthly, it adds financial stress on me and stuff I 'have to keep in my head'.

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#66

Post by dvcrn »

Valkhyr wrote: post #42

The way to fix app "subscriptions" is not to charge more (or less) but to fix the customer-hostile structure of app "subscriptions". The big issue with app "subscriptions" is that they don't actually work like subscriptions. Before the digital age, "subscription" used to mean (and for physical products it still means) that you get regular delivery of something as long as you pay. If you stop paying, you no longer get…

The notes app https://agenda.com does this too. Very happy with this model

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#67

Post by riquito »

jimkleiber wrote: post #30
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #9

This analysis is very US/Euro-centric. Bumping the price from US$20 to US$100 might indeed allow you to focus more on your most dedicated customers . It also bumps the price way above anything that billions of people around the world can pay for such a thing. At Ardour, we have 3 subscription price levels: Regular: US$10/month Low Cost: US$4/month Developing World: US$1/month We leave it to users to decide which cate…

I really appreciate this approach. I thought about charging a low rate of $1/month, but with Stripe processing fees of $0.30 + 2.9% and Memberful fees of 4.9%, I was going to be charged something like $0.38, leaving me $0.62 per $1.00 transaction. Have you found a way around this or just accepted the essentially 38% tax on those $1 monthly transactions?

On mobile, do you also have to give to the app store 30% of $1 for each subscription?

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#68

Post by jimkleiber »

riquito wrote: post #67
jimkleiber wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really appreciate this approach. I thought about charging a low rate of $1/month, but with Stripe processing fees of $0.30 + 2.9% and Memberful fees of 4.9%, I was going to be charged something like $0.38, leaving me $0.62 per $1.00 transaction. Have you found a way around this or just accepted the essentially 38% tax on those $1 monthly transactions?

On mobile, do you also have to give to the app store 30% of $1 for each subscription?

Oh goodness, I have no idea. I was doing it through a web page, but I could imagine if I turned it into an app, the app stores might charge for it. They may even charge for it for accessing the website, but I doubt it.

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#69

Post by judge2020 »

jimkleiber wrote: post #68
riquito wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On mobile, do you also have to give to the app store 30% of $1 for each subscription?

Oh goodness, I have no idea. I was doing it through a web page, but I could imagine if I turned it into an app, the app stores might charge for it. They may even charge for it for accessing the website, but I doubt it.

Based on the saga from Epic and Floatplane[0], if your product is digital or mostly digital, Apple will enforce IAP purchasing which is a 30% cut to Apple. If it's something mostly physical, like packages or food delivery, you are allowed to implement your own CC processing screen.

You also can't link to your website via any means if you can subscribe via the website. Even support articles can't link to the main website.

0: https://youtu.be/WzQw3kEbEio

Re: Charge more for app subscriptions

#70

Post by an_opabinia »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #9

This analysis is very US/Euro-centric. Bumping the price from US$20 to US$100 might indeed allow you to focus more on your most dedicated customers . It also bumps the price way above anything that billions of people around the world can pay for such a thing. At Ardour, we have 3 subscription price levels: Regular: US$10/month Low Cost: US$4/month Developing World: US$1/month We leave it to users to decide which cate…

> Maybe you don't care about people in Senegal or Bangladesh or the Phillipines.

This brings to mind a more interesting question: nevermind you, but can Senegalese, Bangladeshi and Phillipino developers make money at $1/mo?

If the answer is yes, where are all the local apps taking over the world with their low prices?

If the answer is no, are you depriving those locales of local producers?

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