Ways to monetize your app

I’ve been learning lately about monetization strategies for an app for me as an indie developer for quite some time. In this short article I’ll gladly share my learnings. So without further ado:

There are 7 main strategies to monetize your app:

• Free – this is actually a way to not monetize yours app but it’s worth mentioning, let it be a starting point. Apps with this type are free have all their features free to everyone

• Paid – this is a good old way to sell your app. User is required to pay once upon first installation for apps of this type. After that they’re able to access the app and it’s features forever without any other payment

• Freemium – this type is similar to Free, it also allows to install the app without any payment. However in the app there are features that are unavailable unless the user pays for them. As soon as they pay, the features are always open for them. There’s a variation of this type where the IAP (in-app purchase) is based on credits which the user spends to use features. After they spend the credits they got to purchase new ones

• Paymium – combines Paid and Freemium in a way that the user pays for initial installation, gets access to some features and in order to use some other features, has to pay. Again, both single-time IAP and credit system can be used

• Subscription – this type of monetization is the one that actually makes predictable recurring revenue possible. Having an app with subscription means that users will pay on weekly/monthly/yearly basis to have access to certain (or even all) features. As soon as their subscription expires they aren’t able to use that set of features anymore until they subscribe again

• Limited support – this is the type of monetization which is a subscription and not a subscription at the same time (Schrödinger sends greetings). The app in this category unlocks certain or all features forever after a one-time payment. However after some time the app doesn’t get free updates anymore or new features are unavailable until the user pays again for the next time period of new updates and features. Variation of this type would be to make a paid app and then, after some time, release not a new version of the app but a new app itself, e.g. YourApp and YourApp 2. Users who bought the first app will continue using it but as well as new users they will have an option to purchase a new app with all features from previous app and also new ones

• Ads – here and there in the app there are ads shown to the user. It can be a static banner, a dynamic targeted ad or anything in between. This type of monetizations works best if the app has a huge user base. The more users the more money ads will bring. Ads can also be combined with IAPs and especially with credit system: users would watch an ad to get credits

Also back in the days combination of Free and Paid types was fairly popular. The idea is to have 2 apps: a free app with limited capabilities and features and a paid app with full set of features. Users would download the free version, see if they like it and if they need more features and consider purchasing the paid app.

If I missed something or just want to discuss anything, feel free to reach out ☎️Contact