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Increasing subscription prices

  • 3 February 2022
  • 4 replies
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Userlevel 2
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Hello,
I have an app that is live on the App Store and the Google Play Store. We have a paywall where users can subscribe to access our app, either subscribing to a monthly plan or a semi-annual plan. We are now wanting to raise our prices, but want to keep the existing prices for those who are currently subscribed. I read online in the RevenueCat docs that you recommend creating new products as opposed to increasing prices of existing products. That makes sense because we want our revenue data on RC to be accurate, and our product names have the price in them. I know how to create new products, but my main concern is that on iOS, users will be able to change their subscription to the old "grandfathered" pricing through the Subscriptions section of the settings app. Will that be the case? Or is there a way to stop users from moving to a cheaper subscription within the same entitlement/subscription group. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

I have attached a screenshot below to show what I mean by being able to switch subscriptions in the iOS Settings app.

 

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Best answer by cody 3 February 2022, 19:06

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Userlevel 6
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Hey @Jace!

There’s not a way to include new subscription products in a Subscription Group and prevent users from switching to those products. I’d recommend creating a separate Subscription Group if you don’t want users to be able to manually change their current product, as they won’t have access to that group if they aren’t already subscribed to it (and so they can’t change to it manually).

It’s important to note, though, that you’ll need to be sure that a user doesn’t have an existing subscription before allowing them to subscribe to a product in a different group. Apple only allows one active subscription per group, but that means multiple groups could be subscribed to at the same time if you allow it. Does that make sense?

Userlevel 2
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Hi @cody thanks so much for the response. Is this the way that RevenueCat recommends changing prices (ie. creating a new subscription group so that users can’t just subscribe to a lower price)? Or is this a more complicated approach? If I go this route, will I also need to create a new entitlement in RevenueCat, or can multiple App Store subscription groups be associated with the same RC Entitlement?

Userlevel 1
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Would also be interested to hear the recommended approach.

Badge +4

Hey @Jace!

There’s not a way to include new subscription products in a Subscription Group and prevent users from switching to those products. I’d recommend creating a separate Subscription Group if you don’t want users to be able to manually change their current product, as they won’t have access to that group if they aren’t already subscribed to it (and so they can’t change to it manually).

It’s important to note, though, that you’ll need to be sure that a user doesn’t have an existing subscription before allowing them to subscribe to a product in a different group. Apple only allows one active subscription per group, but that means multiple groups could be subscribed to at the same time if you allow it. Does that make sense?

 

If we want to make a price increase and prevent the possibility of users getting back to the “old” price should their subscription lapse, would it make the most sense to simply increase the price on both stores and grandfather in existing users?

That seems to be the only way to prevent users from subscribing. If we had new groups, call them GroupNew and GroupOld...ideally even someone who upgrades from the lower tier in GroupOld must upgrade to GroupNew. From what I understand, users that had a product from GroupOld could always subscribe to GroupOld products and potentially could subscribe to GroupNew simultaneously. 

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