Considering a price increase for our subscription but worried about losing current users.
I think A/B testing might be limited to new signups, as existing users will definitely notice any changes.
What’s the best way to approach this without impacting retention?
Run the new pricing on fresh users for 2-3 weeks first. Track conversions and retention before touching your existing base. Keep current customers at their old price for 60-90 days with advance notice. This way you can see how the new pricing performs without risking churn. If the metrics look good with new users, roll it out to existing customers gradually - start with your most active users.
Just raise it for new users first. Test for a month.
Grandfather your current users at their existing price for three months. Run the new pricing on fresh signups only. This way, you will get clean data on whether the higher price works without upsetting your loyal users. Many apps do this successfully.
Two-phase approach works best from what I’ve seen. Start with new users only for about 30 days to get baseline metrics on conversion and early retention.
Then notify existing users 45 days ahead about the change. Give them a reason - new features, improved support, whatever. Most will stay if they’re getting value.
I tested this on a productivity app where we bumped monthly pricing 25%. Lost about 8% of existing users but the higher price more than made up for it. New user conversion only dropped 3%.
The key is watching your LTV to CAC ratio during the test period. If that stays healthy with new users, you’re probably good to roll it out.
Found this breakdown really helpful when I was figuring out the testing approach:
Don’t overthink the grandfathering period. 60 days is plenty of time for users to adjust and for you to see the real impact on your metrics.
Email your users before raising prices. People just want a heads up.