How do you test a price increase? A/B test on new users only? Or do you just have to roll it out and pray the churn isn't catastrophic?

Payments & Revenue
1

Thinking about increasing our premium tier by 30%, but I’m really worried about how current users will react.

Should I test it on new users first to see the effect?

Rolling it out to everyone seems risky. What’s a safer approach?

2

Did this twice with subscription apps. Both times I tested new pricing on fresh users for 3 weeks before touching existing customers.

First app - productivity tool. Bumped from $9.99 to $12.99. New conversions dropped 8% but LTV jumped since the people who converted weren’t as price sensitive.

Second time was brutal. Meditation app from $4.99 to $7.99. Conversions crashed 40%. Had to revert.

Biggest lesson: you need 2-3 weeks of data on new users before you know anything. Don’t rush it. And never touch existing users until you’re sure the math works on fresh traffic.

30% is aggressive but doable if your retention’s solid.

3

Grandfather current users at their existing price. Only test the new pricing on fresh signups for 2-4 weeks. Track conversion rates and churn. If metrics stay solid with new users, slowly move existing ones over with plenty of heads up. 30% is pretty steep though - I’d test 15-20% first. Big price jumps usually backfire even when you’ve got the value to back it up.

4

Test on new users only. It reduces risk.