Subscriptions feel like a leak.

Strategy · 5 min read

A client said something during a monetisation conversation that stuck with me. He described subscriptions as "money disappearing into the ether." He wasn't wrong. His target users are tradies. They buy tools. They own things. When they spend money, they expect to hold something at the end of it. A subscription doesn't give them that feeling. It feels like a slow leak.

And it turns out most consumers agree. Research from Harvard Business School found that 62% of consumers report subscription fatigue. People are tired of monthly charges for things they might not be actively using. The default pricing model for most apps is a subscription, but that doesn't mean it's the right one for yours.

Ownership feels different

For the client's education app, we explored module-based pricing instead. Buy the module you need. Own it. Go back to it whenever you want. It's like buying a textbook. You pay once, and it's yours. You don't lose access if you forget to renew. You don't get a notification telling you your subscription lapsed.

That mental model works for niche apps with a specific goal. Pass this exam. Complete this course. Manage this vehicle. The user isn't signing up for an ongoing relationship with the app. They're trying to accomplish something concrete. A one-time purchase matches the intent. A subscription creates friction because the user knows they'll probably stop using the app once they've achieved their goal, and nobody wants to pay for something they're not using.

Subscriptions make sense when the app delivers ongoing value. New content every month. Regularly updated data. A service that's useful indefinitely. But if your app's value has a natural endpoint, the pricing should reflect that.

Simpler pricing converts better

There's a famous study by Iyengar and Lepper where shoppers at a grocery store were offered jam samples. When there were 24 options, only 3% bought a jar. When there were 6 options, 30% bought one. People were ten times more likely to buy when there were fewer choices. The same principle applies to pricing.

I've seen app pricing pages with five tiers, each with a different feature set, each with monthly and annual options. That's ten choices. The user doesn't want to study a comparison table to figure out which plan they need. They want to know the price and what they get. Simple pricing removes a decision point. And every decision point you remove increases the chance someone actually pays.

For niche apps, one price often works best. Here's what you get. Here's what it costs. Buy it or don't. No tiers. No feature gating. No "upgrade to unlock." Just a straightforward exchange of money for value. Your users will appreciate the honesty.

Choosing the right model for your app

Ask yourself two questions. First, does your app deliver new value every month, or is the value mostly upfront? If the value is upfront, a subscription will feel like a penalty to your users. Second, how do your users think about spending money? If they're in an industry where ownership matters, where people buy gear and keep it for years, a subscription is going to feel foreign.

There's no universal right answer. Some apps need subscriptions to fund ongoing infrastructure and content creation. That's valid. But too many founders default to subscriptions because that's what every other app does, without asking whether it fits their specific users and their specific product.

The client who called subscriptions "money disappearing into the ether" wasn't being dramatic. He was describing how his users think. And that thinking should shape your pricing, not the other way around.

Sources
Consumers Are Growing Wary of Subscriptions (Keinan et al., 2023, Harvard Business School) - 62% of consumers report subscription fatigue, preferring ownership and one-time purchases where possible.

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