Subscriptions
Later this fall, along with our next update bringing major new features, Le Baby will move from a one-time app purchase to subscriptions. We’ll make it very easy to unsubscribe by notifying clients a day or two in advance that the renewal is about to happen.
When the subscription isn’t active anymore, the only thing that won’t be possible will be adding new entries. The journals themselves will remain available and exportable, for all journal participants. There will be a few renewal periods available, and parents who prefer to keep using the app for a long time will get better pricing.
Our motivation to switch lies in these three reasons:
parents who think they will need the app for an extra week or two can be hesitant to pay for a full app price. With subscriptions they will be able to pay less money than they would today.
offer codes distribution is possible with subscriptions, not with single purchases, and they are a great way to promote Le Baby to new parents
subscriptions are said to offer a more sustained revenue stream on which our business could rely on to provide more frequent updates to the app, which in turn will benefit parents.
The main discomfort with subscriptions is this feeling of being trapped and paying for a service you don’t really use anymore. We wouldn’t feel good about getting money from clients because they’re busy with their lives and forget to cancel an automated process. This is why we’ll provide a clear indication to the exit door every time the subscription will be about to renew. And this is also why we’ve waited to offer new major features in Le Baby before introducing subscriptions: parents will have more opportunities to use it while paying for it. It’s important for us that it remains a fairly priced app.
Of course, parents who already made a one-time purchase before the switch won’t have to subscribe and will benefit from future updates. We’ll be paying a close attention to how parents react to this shift, and will adapt our offering if need be.