Subscription model vs pay-per-use?
Hi guys
I need some advice. I launched my side project and have been getting pretty good feedback: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/huddle-4
The product is a platform for digital board games. So far we've been getting a lot of usage and a positive response from primarily corporate teams using this for team building events, but we've had interest from regular consumers as well.
We currently offer subscription tiers based on # of players, but the consumer crowd feels strongly towards buying games & content a la carte.
I'm not rigid on this and want to make this as accessible as possible, but also don't want to get buried by server costs via a freemium model where not enough of the user base converts into paying customers.
Your help much appreciated!
Roman
I second the idea of offering both options. I think there are not enough people offering pay-as-you-go option but I also acknowledge the fact that power customers may want a monthly subscription.
A product that's going to offer both options is Promomatic (https://www.promomatic.com/?ref=producthunt). It might be helpful for you to go through the website and see if you as a potential user, favor which payment option.
Could you offer both options?
For instance, you could offer the monthly subscription plan at a discounted rate, when compared to pay-per-use.
A good example of this that comes to mind is Cinema's: A Cinema typically charges per-view of a film, but they also offer a very enticing monthly subscription model that almost compels you to sign up for it. With the rationale being that if you went to the Cinema just twice, your subscription for that month has more than paid for itself.
Applied to your biz, regular gamers will want the subscription model and will be able to justify it, even if they only play twice per month. Those playing less frequently still have the option of using and paying for your service, but they pay a little extra for it.
By doing this you could be opening your business up to revenues that it might otherwise have missed out on, while still giving the business some predictability of monthly revenue.