{"id":31565,"date":"2022-05-06T05:52:10","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T05:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/?p=31565"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:51:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T12:51:11","slug":"subscription-pricing-models-the-6-most-common-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/blog\/subscription-pricing-models-the-6-most-common-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Subscription Pricing Models: The 6 Most Common Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Companies everywhere \u2013 from entertainment to healthcare \u2013 are transforming their businesses by launching a subscription business<\/a> with new pricing models. But finding the right subscription model for your business can be tricky. If you opt for flat-rate subscriptions, you may grow subscribers quickly, but your revenue may level off as you offer more services for the same price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many companies are finding rapid revenue growth by combining flat-rate subscriptions with services where customers can simply pay for what they use, like on-demand access to music, movies, software, services, connectivity and beyond (I\u2019ll get into this more below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a multitude of flexible pricing models to consider, from simple subscriptions to more complex shared service bundles.\u202fLet\u2019s get started with a subscription model we\u2019re probably all familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a freemium model, customers give up their email address and basic profile information in exchange for limited access to a product. This allows businesses to establish contact without customers needing to pay before experiencing the product.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email and CRM platforms, for example, allow partial access to their platform. For small organizations who need basic functionality for limited users, freemium models tend to be sufficient. Meanwhile, larger organizations may sign up in order to trial a fully functioning feature set. Ultimately, your long-term intent is to convert these subscribers from freemium to premium status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freemium is the lowest barrier to entry of all of the subscription models.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A well-established example of this is Dropbox, the cloud storage company. Anyone can sign up and receive 2GB of free storage to use, but users need to pay to expand the size of the available storage. In this model, collecting data about how customers use your services is important, since it can give you key information about the right time to offer an upsell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pros\u202f<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cons\u202f<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n A flat-rate subscription is the simplest charging model, in which the amount charged is a fixed price, applied as a periodic or recurring fee<\/a>. Either billing in advance or arrears works for flat-rate pricing. While common for B2C offerings, flat-rate subscriptions are less common in B2B use cases, where tiered pricing structures tend to provide more scalability for larger customers (more on this below). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Businesses that sell physical products and services often use flat-rate pricing \u2013 like delivery and shipping services \u2013 to appeal to consumers (like Amazon Prime) or small businesses and entrepreneurs (think FedEx). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pros<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cons\u202f<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pay-as-you-go is the next step up from a basic flat-rate subscription. In this model, the more a customer uses the product, the more they pay. Usage can be charged based on a multitude of different metrics, such as messages sent, calls made, APIs called, transactions processed, product consumed, and so on. Some variants of this model are purely based on usage, while others charge a base subscription fee and then charge according to usage.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scooter services like Bird and Lyft charge per ride or offer subscription models for regular use.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Cell phone plans are a well-established example of usage-based subscription pricing \u2013 the telecommunications industry pioneered usage-led billing models. A more modern example would be city scooters such as Bird, Lyft and Lime that are gaining popularity across major cities worldwide. These companies use either usage-based billing (i.e charges per ride), or subscription models for regular use. Both generate enormous amounts of useful data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that data is incredibly precious to the business. Both customers and suppliers need to be able to monitor service consumption \u2013 so that customers can monitor how much they spend, and companies can identify usage patterns to inform upsell opportunities or tier upgrades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Freemium subscription models<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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2. Flat-rate subscriptions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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3. Usage-based or pay-as-you-go\u202fpricing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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