Re:Ask HN: Annual or Monthly billing, which is better?
by carlmungz on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @05:54AM
(#14245198)
Annual billing works for my model because my users will not be making enough frequent purchases to justify a monthly fee (which is what I initially started with). I provide actionable information which they can use once, twice or more times a year.
Re:Ask HN: Annual or Monthly billing, which is better?
by saluki on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @08:36AM
(#14245818)
We offer both, about 20% subscribe to annual plan.
It's pretty common for SaaS to offer a monthly plan and an annual plan for each tier that is 10 x Monthly cost so users get 2 months free paying annually.
Re:Ask HN: Annual or Monthly billing, which is better?
by jasonkester on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @03:38AM
(#14253742)
Not always. Personally, I find annual billing a bit annoying to deal with because it introduces spikiness into our monthly revenue numbers. Whereas before I could tell you roughly what we'd bring in each month (by looking at the previous month and adding a bit), now it can vary by a few thousand dollars depending on where our Annual subscribers land in the year.
In the long term, it's probably better for the business, since it bumps Lifetime Value up a bit for those customers. But I'd actually prefer it if nobody took advantage of it, so that I could have a nice smooth revenue chart to look at.
Re:Ask HN: Annual or Monthly billing, which is better?
by hekker on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @04:56AM
(#14244967)
Not tested them both: I work with annual billing for my SaaS. The pricing page shows monthly prices, which works well for me. Customers buy a contract for a year which they can cancel at any moment. Obviously the remaining months within that contract year will not be refunded. Note that the SaaS is only 300 euros a year so your mileage may vary. (B2B market)
It's pretty common for SaaS to offer a monthly plan and an annual plan for each tier that is 10 x Monthly cost so users get 2 months free paying annually.
In the long term, it's probably better for the business, since it bumps Lifetime Value up a bit for those customers. But I'd actually prefer it if nobody took advantage of it, so that I could have a nice smooth revenue chart to look at.
We do non-recurring monthly and recurring annual as a in-between solution.