Subscriptions & trials

Most indie founders bolt a paywall on at the end and wonder why nobody converts. Pricing is a product decision, not a config screen — the model you pick, the trial you design, and the plumbing underneath decide whether your revenue is real and whether it sticks. MRR is the spine here: it's the hardest number to fake, so build the machinery right instead of eyeballing two store dashboards.

Subscription, one-time, or consumable

Pick the model that matches how your app actually delivers value.

• Subscription fits ongoing value — a habit, fresh content, sync, anything a user returns to weekly. It's the only model that produces MRR, which is why it dominates. If usage recurs, this is your answer.
• One-time / lifetime fits a tool used once or rarely — a converter, a wallpaper pack, a utility. Honest and simple, but it's a treadmill: every month restarts at zero and you're forever hunting new buyers. Nothing compounds.
• Consumable IAP fits credits or currency — coin packs, generations, tokens. Great for games and AI apps where value is metered, and it can pair with a subscription (a sub for the base, consumables for heavy use).

Gut-check against this product's doctrine: is this valuable at 10 paying users? A model that only works at 10,000 installs isn't a business yet — it's a bet on scale you can't afford.

Design the trial around the aha

The trial has one job: get the user to the moment they feel the value — the aha — before it ends. Everything else is secondary.

• Free trial — best when your value takes a few sessions to land. Long enough to reach the aha, short enough to force a decision.
• Hard paywall (pay before entry) — works when the promise is obvious and traffic is warm, like an ad that already sold them. Fewer installs, higher-intent buyers.
• Freemium — a real free tier plus paid upgrades. Powerful but dangerous solo: too generous and nobody upgrades, too thin and nobody sticks.

Trial length is a lever, not a default. If most users hit the aha on day two, a 30-day trial just delays the decision and invites forgetting. Short enough to force the aha, long enough to reach it — find where your aha actually lands with real data, don't guess.

Two levers do most of the conversion work:

1. Front-load the aha. Onboard straight into the core action, not a settings tour.
2. Warn before the charge. A well-timed "your trial ends tomorrow" nudge beats a surprise charge — it cuts refunds and builds trust.

The plumbing: StoreKit, Play Billing, RevenueCat

For digital goods consumed in-app, you don't get to use Stripe — Apple and Google require their own billing (StoreKit on iOS, Google Play Billing on Android), and each takes a cut. Wiring receipts, renewals, and restores correctly across both stores is genuinely fiddly.

That's why most solo founders reach for RevenueCat: one SDK wraps both stores, handles receipt validation and restore-purchases, and gives you a clean, server-verified view of active subs and MRR. That last part matters — it's the trustworthy MRR number you connect straight to ProveMyApp instead of eyeballing two dashboards.

Kill churn, especially the involuntary kind

Voluntary churn (someone cancels) is a product problem. Involuntary churn — failed renewals from expired or maxed-out cards — is pure leakage, and it's a meaningful slice you can win back with zero product work.

• The stores run billing retry and grace periods automatically. Keep the user's access on while the store retries the card, instead of cutting them off the instant a renewal fails.
• Treat store dunning as a feature — don't override the grace period by revoking entitlements early.
• Watch cancellations as signal. A spike right after a specific screen or update is telling you something.

Annual vs monthly, and raising prices

Offer an annual plan beside monthly. It smooths churn (one renewal decision a year, not twelve), pulls cash forward, and rewards believers. Anchor it against the monthly price so the savings are visible — that's anchor/decoy pricing doing honest work.

When you eventually raise prices: raise for new users first, watch conversion, and grandfather existing subscribers (both stores let you keep current subs at their old price). A loyalty tax on your earliest users is the fastest way to spike cancels exactly when you're trying to grow.

Ship-ready when

• Your model (sub / one-time / consumable) matches how the app delivers value.
• Trial type and length are set to force the aha, not delay it.
• Onboarding drops users into the core action, and a reminder fires before the charge.
• Billing runs through StoreKit / Play Billing (via RevenueCat or equivalent), with a verified MRR number.
• Grace periods / billing retry are on so failed cards don't silently churn.
• An annual plan exists and is anchored against the monthly price.
• Your price-raise plan grandfathers existing subscribers.