Indie apps live or die on the pricing decision more than on the feature list. Free with IAP, one-time unlock, monthly subscription, lifetime: each shapes who installs, who pays, and how big revenue is at month 12. This guide gives you the actual 2026 numbers, the store-fee math after the March 2026 Google Play changes, and the price tests that are worth a solo developer’s time.
TL;DR
- If the app is used weekly and improves over time, subscribe: $3-7/mo for utility, $7-15/mo for prosumer, with annual at a 50-60% discount. Annual plans churn 60-80% less than monthly, so always ship the annual option on day one.
- If the app solves a one-shot problem, charge once ($5-15). Subscribing a solve-once app produces cancellations and one-star reviews.
- Require a payment method up front for trials. Opt-out trials (card required) convert at ~31% vs ~9% for opt-in (no card) per 2026 RevenueCat/Adapty data.
- Get into Apple’s Small Business Program: it drops your cut to 15% on everything, including subscriptions, while you are under $1M/yr in proceeds.
- Start from Apple’s globally-equalized price grid; override only your top 2-3 markets after you have install and revenue data.
Store fees in 2026: what actually changes the math
Your take-home depends heavily on which fee tier you sit in, and both stores rewrote their rules recently.
| Scenario | Apple App Store | Google Play |
|---|---|---|
| Standard commission, one-time IAP | 30% | 30% (15% on first $1M if enrolled) |
| Standard commission, subscription | 30% year 1, 15% from year 2 | ~10% flat (no $1M cliff) |
| Small Business Program (under $1M/yr) | 15% on everything | 15% on first $1M (non-recurring) |
| EU alternative terms, subscription yr 2+ | 10% | regional, see Play Console |
Two things to internalize. First, Apple’s Small Business Program gives you 15% on subscriptions from day one if you are under $1M in proceeds, so the old “30% year one” only bites once you outgrow the program. Apply through App Store Connect; most solo developers qualify automatically. Second, Google Play changed its structure on March 4, 2026 with a regional rollout starting June 2026: subscriptions now run a flat ~10% service fee with no first-year/second-year split and no $1M graduation cliff, while non-recurring purchases are 15% on the first $1M for enrolled developers. If you ship on both stores, price the same and let the cleaner Play subscription fee be upside.
Which pricing model fits your app
| Model | Best for | Conversion shape | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid up front, no IAP | Niche pro tools | Driven entirely by visibility + reviews | Avoid below $3; trains users to expect free |
| Free + one-time unlock | Bounded features (export, themes, ad removal) | Buy-to-keep, plateaus at month 12 | Every user only pays once; growth stalls |
| Free + subscription | Daily-use apps (journal, habit, fitness) | 7-14 day trial, then recurring | Solve-once apps get cancelled and reviewed badly |
| Hybrid: subscription + lifetime | Indie productivity | Captures renters and buyers | Price lifetime at 24-36x monthly or it cannibalizes annual |
The 2026 default for any weekly-use app is free-with-subscription, because Apple’s 15% SBP rate and Google’s ~10% subscription fee make recurring revenue the highest-margin path. But the App Store ecosystem also saw a quiet return of lifetime IAPs as users push back on subscription fatigue. Indie productivity apps that add a credible lifetime tier (priced at 24-36x the monthly) around month 12 typically capture more total revenue per user and lower churn anxiety, as long as the lifetime price sits high enough not to undercut the annual plan.
Pricing tiers that actually work
| Category | Monthly | Annual | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utility (weather, unit converter, notes) | free + cosmetic IAP | $0.99-2.99 one-time | n/a |
| Productivity (todo, habit, journal) | $4.99 | $29.99 | $69.99 |
| Prosumer (text editor, design, code) | $9.99 | $79.99 | $199 |
| Premium professional (CAD, video, music) | $19.99 | $199 | none (ongoing support cost) |
| Family / team | $10-20 | scaled | rarely |
Annual is roughly half the per-month rate of the monthly plan, which is the discount depth that actually shifts users over. Don’t price below $3 for a paid utility: indie users are quality-sensitive, not price-sensitive, and cheap pricing halves perceived value.
Trials and paywalls: the numbers that decide conversion
Trial structure is the single biggest lever on a subscription app, and the 2026 benchmark data is clear:
- Opt-out trials (payment method required) convert at ~31%; opt-in trials (no card) at ~9% (RevenueCat/Adapty 2026). Opt-in trials attract 3-4x more signups but convert 2.5-3x worse, so net paid users are usually higher with opt-out. Require a payment method.
- Hard paywalls have a median Day-35 trial-to-paid of ~10.7% vs ~2.1% for freemium-style soft paywalls. A hard paywall shown after onboarding is the indie baseline.
- Median free-to-paid across products is ~8%, but the distribution is bimodal: most apps land in the low single digits or above 15%, almost nobody is exactly at 8%. Don’t anchor on the average; aim to clear 15%.
- Trial length trades cancellation against momentum. A 3-day trial sees ~26% cancellations; a 30-day trial ~51%. Use 7 days for utility, 14 days for habit/journal/productivity, and reserve 30 days for prosumer tools that take longer to show value.
- Category matters: Health & Fitness leads trial-to-paid (~35%), Travel can hit ~54%, Entertainment trails (~19%). Calibrate your expectations to your category, not the global mean.
Regional price grid
- Apple now sets globally-equalized prices across 175 storefronts and 40+ currencies from a single base country you choose. It is tier-based, not raw FX: a $4.99 US price maps to a locally conventional figure (e.g. roughly ₹400-450 in India, not a literal exchange-rate conversion), tuned to purchasing power.
- Override the grid only after install + revenue data shows a specific market over- or under-performing. Common move: lower India / Brazil / Turkey to capture price-sensitive demand, leave US / EU / JP on the standard tier.
- For auto-renewable subscriptions, raising a price requires existing subscribers to actively consent to the increase, and the price is otherwise locked per region. You can lower prices freely.
Price tests worth running
- Trial length (3 / 7 / 14 / 30 days): longer converts better on retention apps but raises cancellations; shorter suits utilities.
- Annual discount depth (40% / 50% / 60% vs monthly): steeper discounts push more users to annual, which is where LTV lives, since annual churns 60-80% less than monthly.
- Lifetime multiple (24x / 30x / 36x monthly): lower cannibalizes subscriptions but pulls cash forward.
- Free tier scope: move one premium feature to free for a month and measure trial signups before/after.
- Paywall placement: first launch vs after onboarding vs after a delight moment. The right answer differs by category, so test it rather than guessing.
Measuring it right
- Track per-cohort LTV at day 7, 30, 90, 180. Day-7 conversion alone misleads because renewals dominate the real revenue picture, and annual plans retain ~92% at 12 months vs ~68% for monthly.
- Watch trial-cancellation rate, not just trial-to-paid. High week-1 cancellation means onboarding isn’t delivering value fast enough.
- Refund rate over ~5% is a problem. App Store and Play refunds run through the store’s flow; you can’t block them, but you can fix the source (wrong expectations, hidden recurring charges, bait pricing).
- Smooth FX noise: monthly revenue swings 5-10% on exchange rates alone. Read dashboards on 4-week windows, not week-over-week.
Changing price after launch
- Raise prices for new users only. Existing subscribers stay grandfathered automatically when you bump the App Store Connect tier; note it briefly in release notes and don’t over-explain.
- Lower prices apply to everyone immediately. Use sparingly: subscription price cuts train users to wait for discounts.
- Switching one-time to subscription mid-life requires careful migration: existing one-time buyers must keep what they paid for, new users get the subscription. It’s doable but needs product reconfiguration in App Store Connect.
- A bad price experiment outlasts the test. Even a 2-week trial seeds reviews and word-of-mouth that persist for months, so pick experiments worth running.
Common mistakes
- Pricing below $3 because “indie users are price-sensitive”. They are quality-sensitive; cheap pricing halves perceived value.
- Subscribing a solve-once app. Match model to usage frequency or expect cancellations and bad reviews.
- Not shipping an annual plan at launch. Annual churns 60-80% less than monthly; skipping it leaves real LTV on the table.
- One global price ignoring purchasing power. India and Brazil installs drop sharply at US-grid prices.
- Hiding price in the listing. Apple shows the IAP ranges automatically; use the description to explain what each tier unlocks.
FAQ
- What is Apple’s cut in 2026?: Standard is 30% on subscriptions year one, 15% from year two, and 30% on one-time purchases. But in the Small Business Program (under $1M/yr in proceeds) it’s 15% on everything, subscriptions included, from day one. EU alternative-terms developers can see subscriptions drop to 10% from year two.
- What about Google Play?: After the March 4, 2026 changes (rolling out from June 2026), subscriptions run a flat ~10% service fee with no first-year split and no $1M cliff; non-recurring purchases are 15% on the first $1M for enrolled developers, then 30%.
- Should I require a payment method for the trial?: Yes. 2026 data shows opt-out trials (card required) convert at ~31% vs ~9% for opt-in. Opt-in pulls more signups but far fewer paying users.
- How long should the trial be?: 7 days for utility, 14 days for habit/journal/productivity, up to 30 days for prosumer tools. A 3-day trial cancels at ~26%, a 30-day at ~51%; longer trials convert better on retention apps but cost you cancellations.
- Lifetime or no lifetime?: Offer it for productivity apps, priced at 24-36x monthly so it doesn’t cannibalize the annual plan. Some users want to buy and own; let them.
- Can I change my model after launch?: Yes, but carefully. You can switch a one-time unlock to subscription, but existing buyers must keep the features they paid for. Document the grandfather rule clearly.
- Should I enable Family Sharing?: Yes for subscription tiers, unless your app has obvious single-user economics (e.g. dating). It lifts install rate slightly and review sentiment substantially.
- Launch discounts and seasonal sales?: A 20-30% launch discount for the first 2 weeks works well; avoid permanent “discount” pricing or it becomes your perceived value. Seasonal events (Black Friday, Lunar New Year) lift annual and lifetime signups for ~6 months via review halo, so run them as 1-week App Store Connect promotional-price events.
Related
- App Store screenshot design patterns that convert (2026)
- Writing your App Store listing so people actually install
- What an indie developer should prepare before launching on the App Store
- After launch: how to iterate without panic
Tags: #Indie dev #App Store #Launch #Pricing