"Pricing is the most common untapped growth lever," says Bessemer Venture Partners. For Shopify apps, pricing shapes conversion twice: on the app store page and at the end of the trial. It also moves revenue directly. Almost nobody touches it after launch. We redesign the whole monetization system.
Tiers, usage-based or hybrid, and the metric merchants are billed on: one pricing metric, two at most, aligned with how your competitors count so merchants can compare. This step also settles the monetization flow. Opt-out over opt-in: no real free plan, merchants subscribe to a paid plan to start the trial, and if you're usage-based, the max fee goes in the subscription.
We use your current and past customer and usage data to model pricing, optimizing conversion and ARPU while staying competitive with your top competitors. Every candidate change is modeled against your actual customer distribution before anything ships, so you see the projected MRR impact first.
Tiers, metrics and prices, locked with you, with the modeled impact of each choice on the table.
Copy and UI everywhere your pricing appears: your app store listing, the additional pricing options page, and inside your app. Show the low tiers plus "see all pricing options", keep any free plan low-profile, and use simple copy.
| Trial type | Visitor to trial | Trial to paid |
|---|---|---|
| Opt-out (card up front, billed unless cancelled) | 2.5% | 48.8% |
| Opt-in (no card, must choose to pay) | 8.5% | 18.2% |
Source: First Page Sage, 86 SaaS companies, Q1 2022 to Q3 2025. Opt-out usually loses at the door. For Shopify apps it doesn't, because Shopify holds the merchant's card and does the billing.
Three opt-out setups for Shopify apps:
Usually not. Opt-out beats opt-in: no real free plan, and merchants subscribe to a paid plan to start the trial ("default subscribed"). If you are usage-based, put the max fee in the subscription. With no free plan, keep development stores free.
The merchant subscribes to a paid plan to start the trial, and billing starts when the trial ends unless they cancel. First Page Sage found 48.8% trial-to-paid for opt-out vs 18.2% for opt-in across 86 SaaS companies. Opt-out gets fewer trial starts (2.5% vs 8.5% of visitors), but for Shopify apps that entry friction disappears, because Shopify holds the merchant's card and does the billing.
Much of pricing power comes from the metric, model and presentation rather than the sticker number. A big price increase can come with a small conversion dip. We aim to maximize ARPU (average revenue per user) with minimal impact on conversion rate, and we model every change against your data first.
Usage-based ties the fee to value (revenues, conversions, profits), lowers merchant risk and grows ARPU, and few Shopify apps are purely usage-based. Hybrid, a low recurring fee plus usage, gives you a revenue floor and value-driven upside, and merchants are less sensitive to the usage part. Tiers should map to your merchant segments, with one pricing metric, two at most.
Low usage limits, shown in the app. Advanced features on paid plans only. Help free users discover premium features. Keep the free plan low-profile on the pricing page, limit its support, and offer a free trial for the paid plans.
It can help with placement and with getting reviews in the short term, but the app must have a profitable model. A free plan that includes usage-based charges under a max captures the benefit without a real free plan.
Analysis and recommendation in about 2 weeks. Implementation depends on your dev capacity.
The full method, with benchmarks: Shopify app pricing & monetization best practices, and free plan vs free trial for Shopify apps. Pricing and the funnel ship together in the Full Growth Project. See the Shopify apps we've worked with, by category.
Free growth assessment: we'll show you exactly where the upside is, and quote on the call.
Get a free growth assessment →