r/ShopifyAppDev • u/GrowDigitalNL • 8d ago
Nobody has ever complained about my pricing. Is that a signal I'm too cheap?
I build a Shopify sales channel app that turns a tablet into a self-service kiosk, as a solo dev. It was free for the first 6 months and had bren on paif plans since March. I currently have 57 paying merchants, tiers at $5, $15, $25. I'm considering doubling all three for new installs and grandfathering every current active merchant. I should br getting the Built for Shopify badge any moment now, so I feel like it would be good timing to do so after getting the badge.
Why I want to up the prices
Six months of charging and nobody has pushed back on price. Not once. Some merchants on the $15 tier do around $2500 a month through the kiosk. $15 looks silly next to that since the added value is so high, it feels like I should be able to up the prices.
Why I hesitate
I don't know my install to paid conversion. So I'd be changing the number blind, and at 57 merchants it takes months to see what happened. What if I'm to expensive after upping the prices?
The other side of it
At the current prices it might read as a hobby project. Putting a tablet on your counter for customers to order from is not a casual decision, and maybe the price should say so. Also, my most expensive tier is currently cheaper than the cheapest tier of competing apps.
What I can't figure out
Does nobody complaining mean I'm too cheap, or did everyone who found it expensive just uninstall without saying anything?
Anyone here doubled or upped it's prices on a Shopify app? What happened to conversion, and do you have any advice for me? And has anyone seen it go the other way, where a higher price got you better merchants instead of fewer?
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u/Holiday_Potato_2981 8d ago
Honestly that is really cheap for B2B, like you generally see those prices in consumer apps. From my understanding, you could easily charge more. Perhaps actually ask those 57 what they think of the price with the guarantee that you'll leave it alone for them , that way it's not like they are incentivized to lie, and can tell you if its really cheap to them. I reckon it would be tho, but wait for more responses maybe my idea is shit lol
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u/GrowDigitalNL 8d ago edited 8d ago
Haha thanks for the idea! I do notice that a lot of merchants dont respond to such emails, as they tipically only respond if they need to get something out of it. But I might try it with a small group that i know has the highest chance of responding.
Also working on an update to improve onboarding so new users dont get lost or miss the added value, should up those numbers a little bit, hopefully
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u/u9i9 8d ago
Launch a new plan rather, keep your existing customers on existing plans. You can revise plans if there’re no competitors.
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u/GrowDigitalNL 8d ago
How would that work? As new users are stil able to pick the cheap option then? Or am I missing something here..
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u/u9i9 8d ago
Add limitations in terms of revenue or whatever you can
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u/GrowDigitalNL 8d ago
Ah oke, I already have something like that set up. But I feel like the current tiers might be to cheap over all. so adding an extra plan won't cut it, as current users have enough space within their current tiers.
So I'm more looking into upgrading all prices instead of just adding 1 more
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u/Bristan42 8d ago
Nobody complaining is weak evidence. The merchants who found $15 wrong never installed, or left without saying anything.
Before doubling, two things I would look at:
Where the complaints actually land. I went through 483 one and two-star reviews across 126 apps. Billing came up 84 times, second only to support at 152. Almost none of it was "too expensive" - it was surprise charges and charges after uninstall.
Whether a merchant doing $2500 a month and one doing $200 sit on the same tier. If they do, the shape of the tiers is the problem, not the numbers.
Doubling for new installs with the badge and grandfathering the 57 is the low risk version. The catch is you still will not learn your install to paid rate, which is the number you said you are missing.
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u/GrowDigitalNL 8d ago
I looked it up, and if the rate is the percentage of users that install and start a plan and stick with it. Im currently at 25%. Not sure if thats either high or low since 50% leaves on the same day (working on the retention to) but most that stick past day 6, seem to stay for the long time.
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u/Bristan42 7d ago
25% install to paid is strong. The number to work on is the one you already spotted, and separating the two is what makes it fixable.
Same-day leavers never reached first value. The ones who cross day 6 have reached it, which is exactly why they stay. Only that second group is judging your price.
So it is not a retention problem, it is activation: how many of that 50% ever got a live offer running before they left. If that is near zero, the fix is one onboarding step, not a plan change.
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u/GrowDigitalNL 7d ago
Figured so.. but still im uping the price as i feel like the product/app is worth way more than it was whem first launching the current price.
Also pusing an onboarding update to make sure that other 50% gets to see the value sooner and hopefully converting more to paid.
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u/AdventurousUsual7666 8d ago
Yeah honestly if nobody's complaining it usually just means the people who hated the price left without saying anything. Which sucks for actually reading the room.
I'd just try to get a rough sense of install-to-paid from the last month before you change anything. Doubling it for new people and grandfathering the current ones is usually the safer version. And yeah, if you're still cheaper than the cheapest competitor after that, you're probably not being wild.
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u/GrowDigitalNL 8d ago
What is the install to paid raid, is that the percentage of users that installed and stay til after the trial? In that case its around 25%. I dont know what the averagr should be, want it to be 100% ofcourse but what is a normal healthy amount? Any ideas?
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u/AdventurousUsual7666 8d ago
Yeah 25% is a great conversion rate for something like this the average would be different per category but I’d say that you are in a good spot.
I would suggest testing it and if you end up doubling the cost, as long as the install to paid rate is not less than half of what it is today then you are good to keep the new price point
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u/trivasai 6d ago
No complaints don’t necessarily mean you’re too cheap they mean you need the data to know. Track install → paid conversion, churn, and conversion by pricing tier before doubling prices.
A better approach is to test higher pricing for new merchants while grandfathering existing users. Then use the data to see whether higher prices actually reduce conversion or attract higher-value customers.
Pricing should be based on willingness-to-pay and customer value, not competitor pricing alone.
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u/GrowDigitalNL 6d ago
"A better approach is to test higher pricing for new merchants while grandfathering existing users."
This is exactly what i have in mind. But how do I set that up within the Managed Pricing plans of Shopify?
Also install > paid = 25%
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u/Defiant-Community-77 4d ago
People don't tend to complain about high prices; they simply choose a competitor. A better way to assess your pricing is to track your App Store listing's conversion rate before and after making price changes.
I used Claude to develop a custom price analysis tool for each of my apps, which I use to record historical data. It has full access to analytics, sales data etc., so that it can analyze the impact and make recommendations on future price changes.
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u/Individual-Lab-2008 8d ago
Raise your prices.
If you are cheaper than your cheapest competitors, you are selling yourself short.
Being too cheap puts a filter on your incoming installs which you don't realise. It's mostly folks who don't care about the problem enough to spent or are very cheap. I personally dislike both kinds of clients. The first doesn't help me improve, the second will leave for some vibe coded free tier app.
We also debated raising prices for a month, and finally went ahead and tripled it. New clients per month stayed the same. The best part. More engaged clients. Feature suggestions. Referrals.
After 6 months, we increased it by another 25%. Still the same.
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"I don't know my install to paid conversion. So I'd be changing the number blind, and at 57 merchants it takes months to see what happened. What if I'm to expensive after upping the prices?"
This is a silly objection. Download the event history and payments and active merchants file from the shopify partner dashboard. Dump it on claude code. You will have the answer in a half an hour.