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What monetization strategy do you apply during the launch on Product Hunt?
I noticed that many of you are using discounts, which is great.
Well, recently I started "witnessing" a very specific behaviour about myself:
I am more likely to purchase products with a one-time payment rather than a subscription plan when they are launched.
Do you have the same from the user's point of view?
Startups and businesses, what monetization strategies are you using on this special day? 💰
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Replies
From my experience, many users indeed prefer one-time payments during a launch. It’s likely because they view it as a low commitment way to support and explore a product without worrying about recurring fees.
@priyankamandal I think that PH + one-time purchase is a good way to have the first users and feedback so you can build on top of that.
Great topic as always, Nika.
From my perspective, I prefer subscriptions over one-time payments for the simple reason that I often don’t know if the product will still exist in 5-6 months or a year. And it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault—it’s just that most of the time these are solopreneurs who often lose motivation or shift their focus to other things in life. So, I tend to prefer subscriptions.
Another reason I’m not a fan of one-time payments is that they often require $100-200-300 upfront. I’d rather pay a monthly subscription of $10-20 for 3-4 months while knowing I’m actively using the product, instead of spending $100 all at once on something that might disappear after 3 months—or something I might stop using myself.
Of course, if the product is really solid and I know I’ll use it, then yes, I’d pay a one-time fee—for example, an annual payment for Cloud or OpenAI is no problem. But for random tools where I’m unsure of their quality or whether I’ll actually use them, it doesn’t seem very reasonable to me to pay a large upfront fee.
That being said, discount codes are universal and, in my opinion, an evergreen strategy when launching a product.
@byalexai This is a valid point. I used to have DaVinci Resolve for editing videos – I was considering to make that one-time payment (300 or 400 euros), but then appeared CapCut with more smooth flow and since then I barely use DaVinci Resolve. If I purchased it, It would be only a cost for me.
I totally agree, one-time payments feel better since they don’t give you the sense of being tied down. However, for an app developer, they often don’t support long-term development or recurring costs like AI APIs.
How do you think we should approach this? Set a high one-time price, or is there a better way to balance user preferences and sustainability?
@tymoxx yes, interests are extrapolated because when you want to grow it is ideally to have subscription (and increase it over time) to finance other people (employees) involved in the process.
Usually try to have more plans consisting of subscription + one-time plan.
Some people want to try it temporarily and when they are prepared, they will go for one-time. Because everybody is comfortable with the different things.
Opencord AI