Subscription pricing

Structure recurring prices so people choose a plan, pay the flat rate, and step up a tier. This skill is the delta versus pricing, discounts, and post-purchase. One-off digital products → digital-product-pricing.

When to use

• Designing or reviewing plan tiers and their prices
• Choosing flat-rate vs pay-per-use, or pricing seats, storage, minutes
• Adding a paid membership perk, or rewards for members

When not to use

• One-off digital products → digital-product-pricing
• Shared digit and component rules in isolation → pricing
• Wording a plan discount → discounts; measuring willingness to pay per month → price-research

Inputs

Collect, or state your assumption: tiers, prices, billing period; any per-unit component; whether members optimize for quality or lowest price; which tier you want people to move to; order/usage frequency.

Procedure

Only the rules that change for recurring plans. Shared catalogs live in the Depth skills.

1. Lead with a flat rate that covers what most members want, priced above the pay-per-use equivalent. Keep pay-per-use only as a low-commitment entry. The source study is purchasing professionals buying usage-based services; applying it to consumer memberships is a transfer. Depth: pricing.
2. Put the upgrade path on the same left digit. No just-below on the lower tier if you want Basic → Pro ($40 → $48, not $39.99 → $48). Depth: pricing.
3. Simplify every component. Rounded per-seat / per-GB prices, the same ending, no admin fee. Depth: pricing.
4. Paid perk needs a minimum. A membership that unlocks free shipping or member rates raises spend; without a minimum, members split into many small orders. Depth: post-purchase.
5. Rewards: automatic, single tier, threshold. Optionally variable; combining variable rewards with auto-enrollment is untested. Depth: post-purchase.

Shared, unchanged: quality-led → rounded, price-led or post-trial → just-below (subject to step 2); "for $0" on free trials; abandoned-signup reminder at 24–72 h is an assumption transferred from carts. Depth: pricing, promotions, post-purchase.

Worked example

Membership site, plan: Basic $9.99, Pro $29.99, pay-per-video $2.49, extra seats $4.61 + $6 admin fee, opt-in 3-tier rewards, goal: more Basic→Pro upgrades.

• $10 → $30 removes the just-below start that discourages the step up. Same-left-digit ($40.50 → $48.50) is the stronger version and needs closer tiers.
• Pay-per-video stays as entry, priced so ~10 videos equals Pro.
• Seats: $5, no admin fee.
• Rewards: auto-enroll, one tier.

Output

Common mistakes

• Adding a mid-tier to "shrink the jump" — the jump is the .99 boundary; fix the digits first.
• Pricing the flat rate at the pay-per-use equivalent "to be fair" — people pay more for the cap.
• A perk with no minimum — members fragment usage to exploit it.
• Opt-in tiered rewards — automatic, single tier, threshold reward.

Quick reference

Evidence and effect sizes: see reference.md.