Subscription, One-time or Credits: How to Choose
Source: the What Your Product Is Really Worth playbook
Symptoms you may be seeing
Check what matches — if more than half applies, this page is for you.
- You copied a competitor pricing page
- Can't state your per-user monthly marginal cost
- You promised "unlimited use" on a high-cost service
- Free-tier boundary was a guess
- Pricing has no relation to the user's value
Why this happens：4 root causes
1. Marginal cost never calculated
The pricing model follows cost structure: high-marginal-cost services (AI APIs) must be subscription or credits, or you lose faster as you grow.
Self-check: Compute the monthly serving cost per active user.
2. Copying competitors
Competitors' cost structure and usage patterns differ from yours; copying their pricing runs your business on their assumptions.
Self-check: Do your usage frequency and cost structure match the one you copied?
3. No free-tier boundary design
An undesigned free tier either gives too much (nobody pays) or too little (nobody boards); the boundary must be built around the paying motive.
Self-check: What exactly triggers a free user to pay?
4. Not pricing by value
Cost-plus pricing undervalues high-value low-cost software; the anchor is the value users get — cost only sets the floor.
Self-check: How much time or money does your product save or earn per user?
Where this fits in the growth roadmap
Pricing & Conversion
Choose the right monetization model based on value and cost structure so the product starts generating revenue instead of losing money the more it is used.
Why this stage is prone to it
- Copying competitor prices without considering your own cost structure
- Selling unlimited-lifetime for AI products, drained dry by heavy users
Related playbook: the direct answer
Buyout, subscription, or credit packs for an indie product?
It comes down to marginal cost and usage pattern. Low marginal cost + one-time delivery → consider buyout; high marginal cost + ongoing use → subscription or credit packs; material AI/API cost → you must set usage limits, never "unlimited lifetime".
Full playbook: What Your Product Is Really WorthWhat to do next
Log in and run the failure diagnosis — in 3 minutes get the verdict for your product: which root cause comes first, the exact next step, and the tool to use.
Run the failure diagnosis to see which fix applies to your product