How to price an app subscription
October 1, 2026 · 7 min read
Pricing feels like a guess, but the store has already run the experiment for you: every leader in your niche shows its prices on its store page. Start there, then make three decisions — the yearly discount, the trial, and whether to sell a lifetime plan.
In short
- Price at what the leaders in your niche charge, not below it.
- Offer a yearly plan at roughly five to eight months of the monthly price.
- Use a free trial only if your app's value takes days to show.
- Check the price with lifetime value before you ship it.
On this page5 sections
01Start from what the leaders charge
Open the top five apps for your niche and write down every price in their in-app purchase lists. You will usually find a cluster: most charge within a dollar or two of each other for the monthly plan. That cluster is what users in the niche already accept.
Price at the cluster, not below it. Being the cheapest rarely wins a store search; being clearly better at the thing people complain about does. If you are new and unproven, an introductory price for the first period is a safer lever than a permanently lower one.
02Anchor yearly against monthly
Most subscription apps offer both, and present the yearly plan as the better deal — often priced at five to eight months of the monthly plan. The monthly price's real job is to make the yearly one look reasonable.
Yearly plans turn churn into one decision a year and bring the cash forward. For a small team, that cash is often the difference between building and waiting.
| Monthly | Yearly at ~5 months | Saving | Yearly at ~8 months | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $4.99 | $24.99 | 58% | $39.99 | 33% |
| $9.99 | $49.99 | 58% | $79.99 | 33% |
| $14.99 | $74.99 | 58% | $119.99 | 33% |
03Trial or no trial
A free trial raises how many people start and lowers how many of them pay; what matters is the product of the two. Trials suit apps whose value shows after a few days of use. Apps that prove themselves in the first minute can skip the trial and show the value before the paywall instead.
Whatever you choose, say plainly when the trial ends and what it will cost. Unexpected charges are among the most common reasons for one-star reviews.
With a free trial
Apps whose value shows after a few days of use.
Works for you
- More people start
- Users see the value before they pay
Costs you
- A smaller share of starters pay
- Forgotten trials become refunds and one-star reviews
No trial
Apps that prove themselves in the first minute.
Works for you
- Every subscriber chose to pay
- Revenue from day one
Costs you
- Fewer people start
- The first screens must sell before the paywall
04A lifetime plan?
A one-time lifetime price — often two to three years of the yearly plan — brings cash early and appeals to people who dislike subscriptions. The cost is revenue you would later have earned from your most loyal users. Many indie apps offer it to early buyers only, or for a limited number of seats.
05Check it with lifetime value
Lifetime value is the net price after the store's cut, times how long an average subscriber stays (one divided by churn). Multiply it by the share of installs that end up paying and you have what one install is worth — the most you can spend to get it. If that is below what installs cost in your niche, the price or the product has to change.
- a $9.99 month after a 15% commission
- $8.49
- a $9.99 month after a 15% commission
- the average stay at 10% monthly churn
- 10 months
- the average stay at 10% monthly churn
- lifetime value of one subscriber
- ≈ $85
- lifetime value of one subscriber
The free subscription LTV calculator does that arithmetic, and SideRadar shows the price ceiling of every niche's leaders, read from their store pages. How we score