AppCalcsPricing model
One-Time vs Subscription
Compare a paid-once app against a subscription, per interested user rather than per paying customer.
Free calculator
Your assumptions
Per interested user
- One-time purchase net
- $42.49
- Subscription net
- $42.87
- Subscription overtakes at
- Month 36
- Average lifetime
- 16.8 months
- Apple fees, one-time
- $7.50
- Apple fees, subscription
- $7.56
Estimate only. Compared per interested user, so the conversion gap counts: a subscription normally converts worse than a one-time purchase, and setting that to 100% flatters it. Upgrades, paid major versions, refunds, taxes, and support costs are excluded.
The comparison people get wrong
The usual version of this calculation compares a one-time price against twelve months of subscription revenue and concludes that subscriptions win. That answer is built into the question. It assumes the same people buy either way, and they do not: asking for a recurring commitment converts worse than asking once.
This calculator therefore compares per interested user. If a subscription converts only sixty percent as well as a one-time purchase, that is the share of interested users it earns anything from. Set the conversion figure to 100% and you get the flattering version back, which is useful mainly for seeing how much of the usual answer rests on that assumption.
Churn is the other half. Subscription revenue is the sum of a decaying series, so at 5% monthly churn the average subscriber stays about twenty months, not forever. The break-even month tells you how long you must retain someone before the subscription has out-earned a single purchase.
Apple's commission applies to both, at 30% standard or 15% under the Small Business Program, falling to 15% for subscribers past a year. Fee assumptions last reviewed 2026-08-25.