CommentComment

Pricing is a vast, complex topic, and itā€™s hard to talk about in generic terms ā€“ itā€™s far too dependent on the product being priced.

Business models are easier to talk about, proven by the multitude of posts every year about paid-up-front vs in-app purchases vs subscription. Upgrade pricing, feature unlocks, Iā€™m sure youā€™ve read plenty of them.

I really enjoyed Jacob Eitingā€™s post the 85%/15% subscriptions revenue split this week. The reduction in Appleā€™s cut for subscribers that stay subscribed for more than a year is sometimes cited as a benefit over other business models, but how much difference does it actually make? Itā€™s hard to say for sure unless you can see aggregated data coming in from a huge range of subscription-based apps ā€“ which is where this post comes in useful! You should read the whole post, but the tl;dr is that unless you have incredibly low churn rates, the reduction in cut probably isnā€™t affecting your bottom line much.

Iā€™ve often said that I feel that itā€™s far more beneficial to concentrate on growing your business rather than worrying too much about Apple's cut, and I think this article reinforces that point of view. Just as thereā€™s no ā€œbestā€ price for an app, there is no ā€œbestā€ business model. Donā€™t be tempted to think subscriptions are the best way because Appleā€™s cut reduces, or because itā€™s what everyone else is doing. Not every app is well suited to a subscription business model.

Itā€™ll seem obvious if I say that the best price for your app is different from the best price for other apps. Thatā€™s obvious! Iā€™d suggest thinking about business models in the same way. Base your choice on how you think your app will be most successful, not whatā€™s fashionable or the possibility of a potential reduction in Appleā€™s cut. Getting both price and business model right will make a much bigger difference than any percentage cut in the long term.


For full disclosure, RevenueCat (which Jacob is the CEO of, and whoā€™s data this blog post is based off) has previously been a sponsor of iOS Dev Weekly. However, I wrote about this post purely because I found it interesting. They did not send me a link to the post, I read it via their RSS feed.

Dave Verwer  

News

Tools

Code



macOS Development

Business and Marketing

Videos

Jobs

Senior iOS Developer @ Atomic Robot ā€“ Atomic Robot works with some of the most exciting companies and brands to help them bring their innovative projects to life! We have a highly collaborative team that is focused on high quality engineering and continuous learning ā€“ Remote, or Cincinnati OH

Software Engineer, iOS @ Lyft ā€“ Lyft is looking for iOS developers who want to own large projects and have a monumental technical impact in a 100% Swift codebase. Come join the ride and help us fulfill our mission of creating the real-time transportation network of the future! ā€“ San Francisco CA

iOS Engineer @ Karbon ā€“ Join our dedicated, all-remote agency and help us build amazing iOS apps for amazing clients. We've spent the past 10 years helping companies ship apps to millions of usersā€”join us as we focus on the next 10 years. ā€“ Remote, or Portland OR

 

And finally...

Cthulhu Enforced Tracking is going to be the next big thing, trust me. šŸ’µ