We’ve been struggling with churn in our meditation app for ages. It was hovering around 13% monthly, which was killing our unit economics.
The biggest problem? Through the app store, once a user decided to cancel, they were gone forever. No chance to save them, understand why they’re leaving, or offer them an alternative.
Two months ago, we moved our subscription management to web2wave. Now when users try to cancel, we don’t just let them go. We show a quick one-question survey about why they’re leaving, then offer a personalized retention deal based on their answer.
- “Too expensive” → 50% off for 3 months
- “Don’t use it enough” → Pause for 2 months instead of canceling
- “Missing features” → Downgrade to a lighter plan
The results have been incredible. We’re saving 47% of cancellations, bringing our effective churn rate down to just under 7%. And because we own the customer relationship directly, we can be flexible with refunds, extensions, and custom offers that would be impossible through Apple.
Has anyone else found creative ways to reduce churn with direct customer relationships? What retention offers have worked best for your app?
Direct customer relationships changed everything for my productivity app.
I implemented a similar flow with Web2Wave last quarter. Found that the “pause subscription” option saves 39% of would-be cancellations. Most people just need a break, not a permanent exit.
My best performing win-back offer is actually a free month plus a feature they requested. Shows we’re listening and gives them time to get value again.
Custom offers at cancellation are gold. When we set this up with Web2Wave, our retention rate jumped by 34%.
Best tactic: targeting seasonal users with a “hibernate” option that keeps their data but pauses billing for up to 3 months.
We did something similar for our language app. Most effective was offering a 3-month pause instead of cancellation for people who said they were “too busy right now.”
60% of those users came back and reactivated without us spending anything on re-acquisition. The direct relationship makes all the difference.
App store cancellations are final. Web lets you save them.
Direct customer relationships are the single biggest advantage of web-based subscription management. I’ve implemented these systems for dozens of apps, and the impact on retention is always substantial.
Most effective approach I’ve seen is the “downgrade cascade” - when someone tries to cancel, offer these options in sequence:
- Switch to annual at a discount (best for LTV)
- Downgrade to a lighter plan
- Pause for 1-3 months
- 50% discount for 3 months
Each step catches different users with different concerns. On average, this flow saves 40-60% of cancellations.
We ran cancellation flow tests for our fitness app and found something interesting - timing matters as much as the offer itself.
Users who tried to cancel right after renewal were mostly price-sensitive and responded well to discounts. But users canceling mid-cycle were usually inactive and responded better to “pause” options or feature education.
Now we show different offers based on where they are in their billing cycle. Recovery rate jumped from 29% to 44%.
We found pause options work better than discounts usually. People just need a break sometimes.