Built this little productivity app on weekends and thinking about letting users pay whatever they want.
Logically it sounds terrible but keep seeing conflicting data about whether people actually pay decent amounts.
Anyone actually tried this pricing model?
I ran a quick test with my app. Having a minimum price makes a huge difference.
Set the floor at $2 or $3 but let people pay more if they want. You’ll dodge the freeloaders and still catch those awesome users who throw extra money at apps they love.
Without a minimum, you’re just attracting people who weren’t going to pay anyway.
Don’t do pay-what-you-want - it makes your app look worthless. Set a real price first ($2.99 or $4.99), then run a short promo where people can pay anything over $0.99. You establish value upfront, create some urgency, and still get goodwill without trashing your app’s perceived worth long-term.
Most people won’t pay anything, maybe a buck at most. You might want to throw in a suggested price to nudge them.
Tried this with my habit tracker for 3 months. Average payment hit $2.40, but the spread was crazy.
Most people paid zero. About 15% actually paid anything. When they did, it was usually $1, $5, or $10 - nice round numbers.
What shocked me were the few $20+ payments from users who really got value from it. Those outliers skewed the average way up.
Switched to $4.99 flat rate and tripled my revenue with way less headache. Pay-what-you-want feels nice in theory, but the numbers don’t lie.
People rarely pay what you want. Just try it.