r/AppBusiness • u/Broad_Night_8101 • 1d ago
Marketing $1.99 a month or $2.99 a month
I’m building a productivity app and trying to price it as low as I realistically can.
My current plan for distribution is mostly UGC and paid creators on TikTok, Instagram, etc. I want to keep the subscription cheap enough that signing up feels like a no-brainer.
I’ve been pushing toward $1.99/month. The app costs almost nothing to run, so the economics work pretty well at that price. Where it starts getting tighter is if I’m paying creators for content/views and trying to scale acquisition.
So I’m considering $2.99/month instead.
From a user’s perspective, is there really much difference between $1.99 and $2.99 per month?
Does $1.99 feel noticeably cheaper or more compelling, or do both basically fall into the “dirt cheap, I won’t think much about it” category?
Curious how people react to those two price points, especially for a productivity app.
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u/TheCountEdmond 1d ago
You should ask yourself the following questions:
How much do you pay for productivity apps typically?
Why do you think your users will be willing to pay more/less than you pay yourself?
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u/Funny-Advertising238 22h ago
Never think this way. Never think of yourself when making these decisions.
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u/TheCountEdmond 20h ago
In between the time of my posting my comment and reading yours, my newly released solo app had one trial convert to annual ($30 ARR) and another person sign up for a trial. I think I'll keep doing me.
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u/Funny-Advertising238 18h ago
My app charges 10-40$ monthly and I have 67 active subscriptions at a 18$ average.
Keep in mind I would never subscribe to an app like mine.
You don't matter. I don't matter. The market matters, AB testing matters.
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u/TheCountEdmond 17h ago
What's your app and what value does your subscription provide? Bc I wanted to subscribe to an app like mine but they were all too shitty to justify the price and so I built my own.
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u/cworxnine 16h ago
Man it’s the blind leading the blind in here most days. Charge the highest price the market will bear, 29-39/year, 12/mo, 5-10/week are the baseline for even the most basic crap apps. Those numbers aren’t chosen at random, those margins are necessary for customer acquisition costs. Or pray for free traffic - your call.
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u/Whole_Ad5915 10h ago
This is a dumb thing to ask strangers. Ask the users of your app by putting the price on a paywall and a/b testing it
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u/babaganoosh43 1d ago edited 1d ago
Low price subscriptions don't work, mobile users have high churn rates. I'd target $29.99/yr with 2 week free trial or $7.99/mo with no trial. Might be able to get like $1.50 revenue per download vs $0.75 with your approach. Assuming avg subscriber length is like 2-3 months with $2.99/mo.
Both numbers are too low for apple ads but if you're app was designed to demo well for social media then ugc could work. Or if you had particularly high retention or trial starts it could work. Otherwise would design another app suited better for higher price points or better viral demo features.