Ask HN: Pricing/revenue model for personal finance app

6 points by filipcte 14 years ago | 6 comments

Hi guys! I'm the founder of CashBase (http://www.cashbasehq.com/), a personal finance suite of apps (web, iOS, Android). We're a small team and doing this sort of on the side. Growing with 3500-4000 new users per month, now a little over 26k.

CashBase has been free from the start and we now have a product worth paying for - so we're looking for the best revenue model.

Our best option goes like this: 1. User signs up for free and can use the entire app with no feature limitations until they hit 100 transactions (expenses...) - which adds up to roughly 3 months of usage. 2. At that point, they are allowed to view the data, reports, export it etc. We ask them to subscribe for $X/mo or $Y/yr, to continue using the app (adding transactions).

The price point we're considering is $29/yr ($2.4/mo) - one yearly payment, 60-day money back guarantee.

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How does this sound? Could you think of a better model? Do you think the price is right, or too high, or too low?

Thank you in advance. Any feedback is hugely appreciated.

md1515 14 years ago |

A few things to think about:

1) You are still growing quite rapidly, so you need to be wary of killing off that growth. I think your method of giving ~3 months usage free will go a long way in retaining that growth

2) I don't think it is too expensive on a yearly basis, but maybe give them a discount if they pay by the year? Even if it is a couple bucks. They will already be inclined to pay for the full year because it isn't that expensive and $2.40 is a hassle to pay every month. Give them an additional reason to stay with you the entire year.

Good luck

rcavezza 14 years ago |

I remember talking about this at the startup guild. one of the founders had a similar idea and then tested a shorter period and had similar results. Three months seems like a long time. Why not one month or two weeks? also different people make different numbers of transactions - if you're thinking in terms if days already, why not have a 30 day free trial instead of transaction based so users will know when the free trial will end.

What's the plan for existing users?

filipcte 14 years ago | |

3 months is indeed a long time for us to have to wait for revenue. However, it's good for users because if they get to the 100 transaction limit, it means that they use it, which means that they get value out of it and would be more willing to pay to continue to use it. Or at least that's our line of thought. Also, it takes at least a month of transactions to be able to look at stats and get some insights from your spendings.

For existing users, we'll set the transaction counter at 0 (zero) when we launch this. Also, we are thinking of offering them 50% lifetime discount.

I think the other project you're talking about is http://thebirdy.com/.

rcavezza 14 years ago | | |

I'm glad you're thinking about your existing users. I don't have a problem with your plan but I would suggest cohort analysis to test different free trial versions. Eric Ries talks about this on his blog and in his book.

Also the sure I was referring to is in a completely different niche.

filipcte 14 years ago |

Clickable: http://www.cashbasehq.com/

bigohms 14 years ago |

How is this different from Mint (that is free and syncs with all the accounts)?