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

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121–130 of 136 posts

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

#121
post #82

I'm a little confused on how you are interpreting the majority of your customers opting for discounted pricing as an indication that you should raise prices. But, yes, in general a lot of SaaS service could probably raise prices. And also in general, annual billing is appealing.

> I'm a little confused on how you are interpreting the majority of your customers opting for discounted pricing as an indication that you should raise prices. The way I see it, most customers are happy enough after a 30-day trial to commit to my product for at least a full year. That's a good signal for loyalty and the product being worth it for the price. While I agree that the discount aspect is a signal in the ot…

The consumer's choice isn't always buying the monthly plan vs. yearly.

It can also be yearly plan vs. nothing.

You're trying too hard to extrapolate information from a single data point.

You seem to be focusing on the yearly customers because you don't have the same mindset or budgeting habits.

If it were me, I would be looking at the monthly subscribers. How long they sign up for, what the retention rates are like, how many switch to yearly, reasons people give for canceling, etc. I would be trying to find out why my product isn't good enough for people to be willing to commit to it in exchange for a lower fee.

You've got a lot of good advice in this thread but you seem to be still seeing things from your own point of view.

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

#123
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What metric confirms that correlation?

It's basic pricing strategy: Kevin Hale - Startup Pricing 101 https://youtu.be/jwXlo9gy_k4?t=578

So if you drop the price a dollar the day before Christmas Eve, sales drop, you can't drop the price any lower?

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

#124
post #57
post #47

Because the discount rate of the yearly plan is financially very attractive (17% off), there are really two main reasons people go for the monthly option: 1) they are unsure if they are going to like your product enough to be willing to go for the bigger commitment of the yearly subscription 2) they can’t afford the yearly payment upfront (this is especially valid for very expensive subscriptions) On the yearly subsc…

> On the yearly subscription, do you charge for the entire year upfront? I mean, to my knowledge, that's the whole reason to give a discount for the yearly payment. Isn't it?

It's predictable revenue. I've committed for a year but paid monthly before. You generally get more of a discount if you pay up front, though.

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

#127
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know what cards your relatives in other countries have?

I mean, if genuine question, how do you know anything about your family? :) You talk, you notice when you go shopping together, etc :)

Of course it's a genuine question. I am calling you out. You don't know what cards they have. You have gone shopping with your relatives in 5 different countries within the last year? You know that they haven't gotten new cards or changed their habits since you last saw them? You don't talk about credit cards that often. :)

You make an assumption because of some info at some point in time and think of it as a constant fact. :)

For example, I know my brother had a credit card. Does he still have it? I would have to call him and ask him. :)

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

#129

If it's not broken don't fix it. I would focus on the top of your funnel to increase sales. Also, you want to have more annual subscribers than monthly. It's almost certainly more profitable. You're essentially giving up 1/6 of revenue in exchange for guaranteed 0% monthly churn. A simple estimate of what your breakeven monthly retention is: 98.5% = (5/6)^(1/12). So if you're losing less than 1.5% of your customers m…

But it could be an opportunity to improve, as well. I would start by investigating how customer segments are converting. One hypothesis could be that you have more annual subscribers because more uncertain users are not signing up at all. Maybe the monthly plan is too expensive for testing or the messaging is unclear.

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

#130
This stats is going to create mess without actual numbers

Can you provide value of X ? Also #number of subscriptions? also growth rate? dropout rate? timeline?

My point any advice without enough data is risky to give and take. I hope you understand.

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