Ask HN: Lifetime pricing for SAAS App?
I want to test a different pricing strategy for my SAAS web app - DomCop. Currently, I have a monthly pricing scheme (like normal SAAS apps do) and want to try a lifetime pricing i.e. Pay $X and have access to the app for life.
Do you have any examples for apps that have done something like this? I tried googling it and searching here - but I might be using the wrong keywords for it.
Thanks
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2013 where @webstartupper convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:
Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.
CATEGORY Ask HN Roundtables →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 5 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 8 comments
I've thought about pricing like this in the past but it's important to consider what happens when you decide to stop working on/supporting/customer service.
If memory serves, there was a bit of backlash against 37Signals when they shuttered Breeze (https://basecamp.com/breeze) especially because of the lifetime pricing.
Basecamp from 37signals have a "Basecamp: Personal" account, where you pay once for a single project
https://basecamp.com/personal
teamviewer.com has this though the lifetime price is also linked to the local machine version.
A lot of games are doing that, why not a SAAS app?