App Subscription Proceeds Calculator · guide

What a 30 vs 15 percent store fee does to subscriber value, and when churn matters more

Short answer: the fee tier changes what you keep by about a tenth; churn changes it several times over. The calculator runs both for your own numbers.

Everything below is arithmetic on invented numbers. Not financial, tax or business advice. Store rates, small-business programs and linking rules belong to the stores and change; read your own agreement. No warranty.

A worked subscriber

A $9.99 monthly subscription, no tax in the price, 3 percent of charges refunded, a 30 percent store fee in year one and 15 percent after, 8 percent monthly churn, counted over 36 months, with $25.00 spent to acquire each subscriber.

• Each charge nets $6.78 in year one and $8.24 afterwards.
• A subscriber is worth $86.35 over 36 months, 3.45x the cost to acquire one, paid back in month 5.
• To pay back inside 12 months you can spend at most $53.62 per subscriber.

Fee tier versus churn

At a 15 percent fee in both years the same subscriber is worth $97.84, $11.49 more. Halve monthly churn to 4 percent and the value is $144.48; let it rise to 12 percent and it falls to $58.45. A tier change is worth having, but a month of retention is worth more. Try 20 percent churn and a $40.00 acquisition cost in the calculator: the subscriber is worth $34.40, 0.86x the cost, and never pays back.

What a web checkout changes

With a 2.9 percent plus 30 cents card fee, a charge nets $9.10 and the subscriber is worth $108.10, $21.75 more over 36 months. That is before the work the store does for you: tax collection, refunds, receipts and support. Whether you may link to a web checkout from the app depends on the store's rules in your country, so read them before counting on it.

How to measure your own numbers

• Churn: take a cohort that started in the same month and count how many renew at each step; use the long-run figure, not the first week.
• Refund rate: from your store's refund report, as a share of charges.
• Cost to acquire: spend divided by paying subscribers gained, not installs.

Common questions

Is the 15 percent app store rate worth enrolling for?

On the default numbers, moving from a 30 percent first-year fee to 15 percent lifts the value of a subscriber from $86.35 to $97.84, $11.49 more. Check the store's current eligibility rules; they are the store's and change.

What matters more, the store fee or churn?

Churn, on these numbers. Halving monthly churn from 8 to 4 percent lifts a subscriber's value from $86.35 to $144.48, five times what the fee tier is worth.

Does a web checkout beat the store checkout?

On the default numbers a web checkout at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents leaves $9.10 per charge against $6.78 in the store's first year, worth $21.75 more per subscriber over 36 months. It also means handling tax, refunds and support yourself, and where you may link to it depends on the store's rules in your country.