What does that look like? You turn on subscriptions and surround yourself with metrics. MRR, ARR, NRR — and suddenly you’re almost a “mature business,” even if half your customers are paying out of sympathy.
But here’s the thought: subscription isn’t an ideal model. It’s just a model.
It works when value delivery is regular. When it’s not — when client work happens in bursts — a subscription becomes a tax on the fact that users don’t live by your financial calendar.
Many B2B products aren’t “every day.” They’re more like:
- launch a campaign → use the tool → pause
- build a quarterly report → export data → forget about it
- enter a new market → need it → then silence again
Instead of acknowledging this pattern, teams often try to force a habit. Not because it’s better for the user — but because it feels safer for stakeholders.
A great example is Elena Verna’s case about Lovable: “We stopped forcing the subscription model on our users. Here is what happened.”
They realized that a subscription-only model didn’t match how people actually used the product — in irregular sprints. So the team introduced top-ups / credit packs and started testing.
When they priced the packs at the same effective rate as the subscription, engagement went up — but revenue dropped. Then they made packs more expensive, keeping the subscription the best option for regular users, while packs became a fair alternative for burst usage. In testing, a moderate markup worked best.
My takeaway is simple: subscription is not the default.
First, understand the rhythm of the job you’re hired to do — then choose the pricing model.
Is your customer’s value delivered “every month” or “on demand”?
If it’s the latter, a hybrid model might be more honest: subscription + packs, usage-based pricing, retainer + variable component.
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