Subscription revenue AND one-time revenue
Why the false dichotomy? Why not both?
It’s not either/or when it comes to subscription revenue vs one time revenue for your products.
Why not both?
Start 1 or 2 small one-time payment bets, while building and having a longer game for a subscription SaaS. Monthly revenue AND monthly recurring revenue.
Because when you’re just starting out, building a SaaS is hard. Getting people to open their wallets every month is hard. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Maybe just not go all in as a first product…
Write a ebook about something you’re good at. Or a nifty, single feature app, extension that people pay one-time for. Or simply, a simple boilerplate.
One-time payment products are easier because there’s subscription fatigue. And people have different mental buckets when it comes to pricing. $10 per month? Hmm gotta think about it. $100 lifetime deal? Sound great! Getting people to commit their wallet to a hard-to-foresee future is burdensome for them, even if they can terminate anytime, even if they only pay 10x lesser the first time. Whereas people impulse buy one-time things all the time. It’s irrational, but it works.
Launch 1 or 2 one-timers, get a reliable and steady distribution channel going, and then start building out the SaaS of your dreams.
Or try one-time annual plan that’s non-recurring, no auto-renew but auto-reminders. Something in between subscription and one-time payment.
Or skip the one-time products and just freelance for 2-3 days a week to maintain cash runway while you SaaS your way to ramen profitability.
Use both, not choose one.
Twitter tends to like dumb polarised dichotomies between tribal gangs because it triggers conversation and engagement, but it’s a dumbass way to approach this issue (or any issue at all).
A mix is the best, the most rational, I feel.
Just enough diversity to be resilient, just enough focus to matter.
Love your take on this and agree that 𝕏 is rarely a good place to learn about the differences between concepts because it just turns into a gang fight - which is the point of those questions usually.
I feel the subscription fatigue too. I have two books running right now and working on the 3rd one. I think books are great for the start if you can write them quickly. Sales provide great feedback if the topic is popular and then you can expand on it if you want.
Does one-time payment mean users will have access to the app for a lifetime? What happens if you had only a couple of one-time payments and after sometime you decide to pull the plug on the bet? Would you have to refund the paid users?