How to price annual and monthly plans

1 The bottom line

Make annual the default plan, put the trial on it, and keep a cheaper plan nearby as an anchor. Annual buyers pay upfront and decide once a year, so cash returns sooner and you can spend more on growth.

2 Key takeaways

• Make annual the default plan and put the free trial only on it. A trial makes annual feel safer, so more users pick it.
  • Moonly's trial-only-on-annual test lifted paywall conversion 39% and revenue per 100 installs 47% Moonly, Moonly.
  • Built With Science moved annual share from about 60/40 to 75 to 80% with a clearer trial timeline and no price change Ethan Ethier, Built With Science54:00.
• Keep a cheaper plan on screen as an anchor for the annual plan. Next to a low price, the annual price looks like the deal.
  • With a decoy middle plan added, yearly buyers rose from 40% to 86% and conversions rose 233% Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle22:39.
  • Removing a $1.99 monthly plan next to a $10 yearly plan made sales tank Steve P. Young, App Masters11:56.
• Show the annual price in small units. Users react to the small number, not the yearly total.
  • Showing per-month or per-week equivalents on every price gave a 38% increase in conversions Steve P. Young, App Masters17:39.
  • A monthly equivalent line beside the yearly price lifted about 10% in the US and 30 to 40% in Latin America Michal Parizek, Mojo3:11.
• Collect cash upfront and spend it on growth. Longer plans bring payback forward.
  • 8fit priced yearly at half of twelve months. Conversion held at about 8% and upfront cash rose a lot Saulo Marti, 8fit13:45.
  • Savvy Navvy called its two-year plan the biggest win of its year Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy58:34.
• Use weekly or monthly plans only when the category fits. Short bursts of use suit weekly, and slow habits do not.
  • The PDF scanner's weekly plan with a trial converted at 2.29%, against 1.21% for monthly the pdf scanner, the pdf scanner.
  • Miracle Morning dropped weekly because weekly payers tend not to use the app Josh and Steve P Young, Miracle Morning18:02.

put the thing you want them to do as the default option.

Koby Conrad, Sunflower

2.1 Choose plan lengths that fit how long people use the product

Start from your category, because the plan length with the highest LTV differs by app type.

• Test which billing period has the highest LTV for your category, then push it. Source: Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle24:12
  • Weekly tends to be highest LTV for AI and photo and video apps. Yearly is usually highest for all other apps.
  • A photo and video client insisted weekly had the highest LTV in 2021. An Adapty report months later confirmed it.
• Use weekly for short-burst products. Source: Steve Young, App Masters21:25
  • Photo and video AI apps and logo makers are used in bursts. Weekly feels transactional, so users subscribe, cancel, and return when they need it again.
  • Dating apps and unfollow trackers also fit. Weekly brings revenue in upfront but is a weaker exit strategy Josh, Blue Throne31:02.
  • Photoroom's occasional users moved from monthly to weekly because it was cheaper. Weekly made much more than monthly Olivier Lemarié, Photoroom43:14.
  • On an AI app, a weekly default with a 3-day trial drove 3x more sales than a $50 yearly with a 7-day trial. The yearly-only paywall had made about $800 in three months Steve P. Young, App Masters11:30.
• Skip weekly when users need time to see results. Source: Yoav Sharon, Simply49:15
  • Learning piano or singing is slow. Users cannot judge progress every week, and a weekly payment prompt works against how people learn.
  • Sprout skipped annual because a job search app should not imply you need a year to find a job. It sells weekly and monthly, with prices up to $80 a month Nicole, Glam Up and Sprout40:05.
  • Match the plan to the user's need. An injectable taken every three months should not sit on a monthly plan David Futoran, Honeydew49:10.
• Offer monthly only when retention can carry it. Source: Yoav Sharon, Simply38:50
  • Monthly gives a fast feedback loop, because every usage improvement shows up as a renewal. Simply moved to monthly only in mature apps with strong monthly usage, and still offers annual.
  • Most subscription apps lose many users in the first three months. Saulo Marti compares 45 to 50% retention on a yearly plan with roughly 85% on a monthly plan, a level only Netflix and Spotify reach Saulo Marti, 8fit14:36.

2.2 Make annual the default and give it the trial

Put the plan you want sold in front, and lower the risk of choosing it.

• Make your preferred plan the default option. Source: Koby Conrad, Sunflower45:25
  • Sunflower went from monthly only, to adding annual, to defaulting to annual, to upfront annual with a toggle to switch it off. Each step brought more annual revenue.
  • Sway defaults to annual to collect revenue upfront and fuel growth. A weekly plan gave much slower growth Daniel Heintzman, Sway AI19:40.
  • Daniel says Sway's LTV is higher than any other app he has seen.
  • Calm's most popular purchase is its $70 annual plan. It earns over $5 million a month on iOS and Android combined, mostly from annual Steve P. Young, Calm1:45.
• Show only the annual plan first and put monthly behind a View All Plans link. Source: Mojo, Mojo
  • Do not delete monthly. The link keeps it available for users who need it.
  • Mojo moved yearly adoption up by roughly 15 to 20 percentage points this way Michal Parizek, Mojo2:06.
  • Pingo gives the trial only to annual and hides monthly, with no trial, behind the link Morrie Schonfeld, Pingo46:20.
  • Blinkist shows only annual in onboarding and keeps a full pricing page elsewhere Steve P. Young, App Masters15:37.
  • A friend's design app doubled conversions after offering only yearly Saulo Marti, 8fit11:13.
• Show a day-by-day trial timeline to cut perceived risk. Source: Ethan Ethier, Built With Science54:00
  • Day one gives a personalized plan. Day seven shows how the plan adapts. Day 12 sends a reminder before the trial ends, and users can cancel anytime.
  • Only the layout and perceived risk changed. Price and positioning stayed the same.
• Put the trial on your highest LTV plan, and nowhere else. Source: Steve P. Young, App Masters9:58
  • Give a 7-day trial when pushing yearly and a 3-day trial when pushing weekly Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle24:12.
  • A trial on one plan also raised revenue per paying user by 5% at Moonly Moonly, Moonly.
  • Discount offers need their own yearly products with no trial, so add new plan SKUs and keep your normal pricing with the trial Steve P. Young and Chaim, B7 Dev2:37.

2.3 Build the lineup: a cheap plan, your ideal plan and a decoy

Two or three plans beat one, and the extra plans exist to make the ideal plan look best.

• Show two or three plans, and lean toward three. Source: Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle24:39
  • Superwall data showed two plans gave a 61% increase over one plan, and three plans a further 44% over two. Adapty has a similar report.
  • Do not overwhelm people. They like options, but not too many Steve P. Young, App Masters8:39.
  • Steve's own app sells monthly at $10, annual at $60 and a six month plan as the decoy. About 80% buy the annual. Test LTV, because more plans can lower it Steve P. Young, App Masters16:07.
• Make the decoy clearly worse than your ideal plan. Source: App Masters, App Masters12:15
  • Use a deliberately less attractive "A minus" plan, like the movie theater popcorn trick where the large costs only $1 more than the medium.
  • It works like Paris with free breakfast next to Rome Steve P. Young, App Masters10:06.
  • With monthly at $25 and yearly at $179, the split was 50/50. A basic yearly plan about $20 cheaper made the full plan look worth it. Conversion tripled and the split became 80/20 for yearly Chuka Ikokwu, Exploding Kittens16:40.
• Keep the monthly plan even if almost nobody buys it. Source: Steve P. Young, App Masters9:37
  • A larger client removed it for a cleaner look. The cheap plan was working as an anchor, and removing it killed sales.
  • The variant with monthly got 1.5 sales. Users without it had nothing to compare against Steve P. Young, App Masters16:07.
• Let users self-select across lengths when the options do no harm. Source: Koby Conrad, Sunflower45:30
  • Some people want weekly, some monthly, some annual. Treat it as an optimization game.
  • Sunflower currently shows $9 a month and $35 a year.

2.4 Set the discount and frame the price

Test the annual discount, then show the price in units that feel small.

• Treat the annual discount as a lever to test. Source: Yoav Sharon, Simply43:03
  • There is no single right discount. It depends on the plan and on user psychology such as anchoring.
  • Keep the monthly price high enough to protect LTV while attracting users who prefer annual.
  • Simply's discounts vary, sometimes 60% and sometimes 70 to 75%.
  • 8fit feared a 3% conversion drop from adding yearly, even with a three month payback. Saulo argued LTV would be higher and shipped it anyway Saulo Marti, 8fit13:33.
• Do the math for the user and show where the best offer is. Source: Steve P. Young, App Masters10:47
  • Instead of a per-month price on yearly, convert the other plans into a yearly figure and point arrows at the real offer. A second client saw similar results, with yearly slightly better.
  • Grammarly breaks its annual plan into about $11.60 a month next to $30 a month and $60 a quarter Steve P. Young, Grammarly9:47.
  • A $29.99 monthly figure for an annual plan looks better than $360 a year Madhavan Ramanujam, Simon-Kucher1:22:10.
• Test per-day pricing, but check it looks credible. Source: Steve P. Young, RiseGuide6:37
  • RiseGuide shows 19 cents per day instead of $70 a year, next to a $4 Starbucks and courses that cost thousands.
  • Steve has seen per-day work better on web and rarely on mobile, so test it on mobile Steve P. Young, Photo Revive AI3:53.
  • At some prices per-day looks too small. $11 per month is normal, so show it per month, and be clear about renewal Igor Lyubimov, web2wave16:40.
• Do not price so low that it earns nothing. Source: Steve P. Young and a caller, App Masters3:32
  • A $1 a year price will not produce meaningful revenue and reaches only a small price-sensitive segment. The goal is revenue, not saving people money.

2.5 Pull more cash forward

Paid intro prices and longer plans bring revenue in earlier than a monthly plan can.

• Offer a low paid intro price that renews into the yearly plan. Source: Steve P. Young, App Masters6:51
  • Offer two yearly options: 7 days free, or $1.99 for the first month and then $60 per year. Around 75 to 80% pick the trial, and 20 to 30% pick the $1.99 option. Those who pay tend to stay and renew.
  • For a weekly plan at $9.99, try a $2.99 or $3.99 first month that renews at the yearly price. A low entry removes the sense that weekly is too expensive Steve P. Young, Wisey2:26.
  • One founder replaced his monthly plan with this offer for 1.5 months. His conversion rate and sales both went up.
  • $0.99 can seem too cheap, so $1.99 works better. Raising an upfront app from $0.99 to $1.99 made Steve more money Steve P. Young and Flo, Sick Days23:52.
  • The same idea in a hard paywall: $20 for the first month, then about $40 Steve P. Young, App Masters16:36.
• Sell a two-year plan at a discount if users keep the product for years. Source: Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy58:34
  • You collect roughly the same revenue per customer, but upfront. The cash returns as soon as you spend on marketing, so you can spend more on acquisition.
  • Savvy Navvy sells $129 a year and $183 for two years, about $75 off Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy58:59.
• Consider a lifetime option next to a cheap yearly plan. Source: Sobhan Eskandari, Penman2:22
  • Penman dropped monthly and kept yearly plus lifetime. Most buyers now choose lifetime, and revenue rose in months with fewer downloads.
  • Notepad sells $15 yearly and $30 lifetime, behind roughly $20,000 a month in revenue Steve P. Young, Notepad2:16.
  • One app shows lifetime only as a promoted in-app purchase on the App Store page, not on the paywall. It is the least popular option, which keeps users on recurring plans Steve P. Young, Universal TV remote app3:30.
  • Calm emailed a yearly subscriber a year later with 50% off lifetime. Steve paid $150 on top of his $60 yearly plan Steve P. Young and Vitaly Davydov, App Masters14:45.

2.6 Check the plan mix and keep testing

Read what your mix says, then test whole models by profit, not by habit.

• Break revenue down by product to see which plan earns most. Source: Steve P. Young, RevenueCat3:46
  • For Steve's app, yearly plans drive the most revenue.
  • Look at payback per channel. Annual lets BoldVoice see subscribers, spend and effectiveness after the 7-day trial, so it knows its LTV over CAC for the first year Anada Lakra, BoldVoice50:10.
  • TikTok produced flimsier, lower-loyalty subscribers than other channels.
• Treat a large weekly or monthly share as a sign your onboarding is weak. Source: Jonathan Parra, Superwall17:30
  • These users usually buy because they are unsure the product will solve their problem. Improve onboarding, and default to annual since it usually has the highest LTV.
• Test whole models head to head and pick the one that earns the most. Source: the pdf scanner, the pdf scanner
  • Run monthly, weekly and weekly with a trial side by side. Conversion is the first signal, but the winner should be the model that earns the most.
  • Monthly, the common default, had the lowest conversion of the three at 1.21%. Plain weekly reached 1.63%.
  • Test every package for each space. Rise skews to monthly and quarterly on web but tests everything Leon Sasson, Rise Science18:23.
  • A break-even question helps too. Offer equivalent options, and the indifferent one has never won in thousands of tries Madhavan Ramanujam, Simon-Kucher1:11:30.

2.7 Where they disagree

Hiding plans, weekly defaults and plan count all depend on the product, so test them.

• Hide the monthly plan, or show it.
  • Hiding monthly behind a link raised yearly share at Mojo Mojo, Mojo.
  • Putting the monthly plan on the paywall instead of the link gave a 31% improvement in conversions. Two visible plans tend to beat one Steve P. Young, App Masters19:30.
• Default to weekly, or to yearly.
  • Halo's default is $8.99 per week with a trial, and it is the winner after yearly tests Dillion Verma, Halo AI41:17.
  • A TV remote app leads with $5.99 a week and a three-day trial, and weekly is its most popular plan Steve P. Young, Universal TV remote app5:03.
  • Sway tried weekly and got much slower growth than annual Daniel Heintzman, Sway AI19:40.
  • For a continuously used health tracker, Steve would put the trial on yearly, not weekly Steve P. Young and Flo, Sick Days22:45.
• Is monthly weak?
  • Highest LTV tends to be weekly and yearly, with monthly far behind Steve P. Young, RiseGuide6:57.
  • Simply sees better LTV on monthly in its mature apps with strong retention Yoav Sharon, Simply38:50.
• Three plans, or one price.
  • ElevenLabs offers one price on mobile and tests incentives around it, though its web app offers upwards of five plans Jack McDermott and Tanmay Jain, ElevenLabs55:40.
  • Steve warns that more plans can lower LTV even while they lift conversion Steve P. Young, App Masters18:35.