HACKER Q&A
📣 hknmtt

Which Subscription Model?


I am working on a website with recurring payments for subscriptions and am wondering which approach is the best.

I have came up with tree options:

1. fixed 30 days recurring subscription

2. payment is always made on the day of the month that it was initially created (ie 12th march -> 12th april -> 12th may...) with shift when days don't match(ie february with 28 days or 30 vs 31 day months)

3. charged on 1st day of the month with first payment increased by the time left in current month with following rules: 1st week of the month adds 75%, 2nd weeks adds 50%, 3rd week adds 25% of the monthly subscription price and 4th week ads 0(essentially free couple of days until the month ends)

Which one would you prefer or which other option would you suggest?

  👤 throw03172019 Accepted Answer ✓
Option #1 is the simplest to explain to the user. Showing a prorated price is extra work. Option #3 is way overkill and even harder to explain to the subscriber.
👤 gnicholas
We use Stripe and I believe it uses 2. We see small spikes on certain dates due to clumping caused by months having different numbers of days.

Option 1 isn't that much different, but why complicate things? There's virtually no difference in revenue, but people's payment dates are changing in ways that could misalign with their other monthly payments/inflows. I have all sorts of bills and credits that come in at the same time each month. To my knowledge, I have none that migrate through the month by following a 30-day timer. Most people wouldn't notice though, of course.

Don't do 3. Way too complicated, and adding complications means losing customers.