Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 136 posts

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#31

Post by graeme »

znpy wrote: post #3

Two things: 1. you could keep you customers happy by changing nothing. 2. if you have a money-back policy on your annual plan (eg: pay in january, cancel in june, get ~50% back on what you paid) that effectively means that you're giving a discount for an only apparently sure earning. I'd give a look into that.

Number 2 is actually pretty common. Maybe not as an advertised policy but if you write to cancel reps will often give a pro rates refund.

This may happen more in businesses which figure you may be back someday.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#32

Post by dheera »

I think your discount is pretty fair for a 1 year commitment. Wouldn't change anything. If you do decide to increase prices at any point, consider grandfathering your current customers into the old pricing to not piss them off, as long as they are still netting profit for you. They're probably your best customers for adopting and committing so early and will probably be some of the best word-of-mouth spreaders and sources of free advertising for you.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#33

Post by criddell »

Maybe change your pricing plans for new customers but tell existing annual customers that they can keep the current deal as long as they stay subscribed. Then you can compare the split for new customers and old customers and see how your price change affects it.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#34

Post by paxys »

You need to look at a lot more data before drawing any conclusions. Are you selling to consumers or businesses? What's the split in monthly vs annual subscription for brand new users (vs those that changed plans on renewal)?

IMO users switching to annual plans after using your product for a couple of months is amazing. It means that they see value in the product and decided to commit to it.

Users opting for an annual subscription off the bat is still amazing - but also a tad suspicious. Maybe a combination of low cost and good marketing?

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#35

Post by ComodoHacker »

traceroute66 wrote: post #11
glacials wrote: post #4

Where are your customers in the world? Many non-US countries have little/no credit card presence, so if you don't have an international-friendly payment option like PayPal your customers may be using "gift card credit cards" purchased from a store. It's easier to do this once a year than once a month. Ultimately though, talk to your users! That's how you'll find out.

> Many non-US countries have little/no credit card presence Was that statement accidental horrible wording or did you actually mean it ? If the latter, then you must be one of those many Americans that needs to travel more. The rest of the world are not neanderthals who've never heard of credit cards. Go to Kenya (Africa) and the only reason you might struggle to pay by credit card is if the merchant has decided to p…

>which is what most of the locals use

That's the point GP is making. It's not that people can't use credit cards, just don't have one available at the moment they are ready to pay for your product.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#36

Post by gpas »

glacials wrote: post #4

Where are your customers in the world? Many non-US countries have little/no credit card presence, so if you don't have an international-friendly payment option like PayPal your customers may be using "gift card credit cards" purchased from a store. It's easier to do this once a year than once a month. Ultimately though, talk to your users! That's how you'll find out.

EU here. Credit cards are just a way to pay online. There are countless debit cards and every bank account comes with a card issued in partnership with a international service like VISA or Mastercard to enable online payments and money withdrawal at foreign ATMs.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#37

Post by guillegette »

My opinion as someone who is running a SaaS business: - Annual contracts are better than month-to-month, because you will get a customer for a year in most cases, extending your LTV - Customer choose annual not only for the pricing discount but speaks to their commitment with your solution. I take it as a great product market fit indicator. - Your price should be aligned with your competition. You can increase prices for new users but don't increase the price for your existing pay customers. - Offer your monthly customers the option to upgrade to annual as well

Re: Ask HN: My startup has more annual subscribers than monthly. What to make of it?

#39

Post by Graffur »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #26
traceroute66 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many non-US countries have little/no credit card presence Was that statement accidental horrible wording or did you actually mean it ? If the latter, then you must be one of those many Americans that needs to travel more. The rest of the world are not neanderthals who've never heard of credit cards. Go to Kenya (Africa) and the only reason you might struggle to pay by credit card is if the merchant has decided to p…

Dunno, in a lot of europe, though credit cards are readily available , most of my family (I have relatives in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia) doesn't have or want them. They have forms of payment which are strange to me but basically are some form of bank debit card, accepted everywhere. Or fancy phone / app payment methods we can only dream of here. I didn't read the OP as necessarily implying technical or cult…

How do you know what cards your relatives in other countries have?
Post reply on HN