Evernote's dramatic price jump

Evernote changed subscription tiers this year, forcing some users from one hundred thirty dollars per year to two hundred fifty dollars.

A pattern across apps

Plex's lifetime pass rose from seventy five dollars in two thousand twelve to two hundred fifty dollars today. Quicken, Robokiller and Inkdrop have each doubled in price in recent years.

Why Bending Spoons bought Evernote

Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in two thousand twenty-three, attracted by two hundred million accounts and high user engagement. The average customer tenure was seven point two years, with thousands of notes stored per user.

“Many customers had thousands of notes stored in Evernote and had developed personalized workflows on and around the product.”

Growth wasn't the problem

Evernote had negative new user registration growth for years: minus twenty-three percent in two thousand twenty-one, minus twenty-three percent in two thousand twenty-two, and minus twenty percent in two thousand twenty-three.

Testing how much users would pay

From two thousand twenty-three through two thousand twenty-five, Bending Spoons ran more than two hundred experiments testing alternative price points and evaluating how pricing changes affected retention and user engagement.

“we leveraged our proprietary technologies to launch more than 200 experiments across a range of areas, including evaluating the impact of new features on retention, testing alternative price points, and iterating on the user experience at onboarding.”

Prices rose after acquisition

Shortly after buying Evernote, Bending Spoons raised prices from eight dollars per month to fifteen dollars per month, or from seventy dollars per year to one hundred thirty dollars per year.

Usage limits drive conversions

Bending Spoons made previously paywalled features free but added usage limits to certain features. Subscription conversions triggered by reaching usage limits doubled from two thousand twenty-two to two thousand twenty-four and accounted for fifty-one percent…

Inkdrop's developer chose niche focus

Inkdrop doubled its price in two thousand twenty-four from five dollars per month to ten dollars per month.

“I'd prefer to have a few thousand customers who really like my app rather than >10k broader customers.”

The loyal customer trap

Mature apps with longtime subscribers face a predicament.Loyal users are good for business but often content with software as it is and don't expect to pay more.Stagnant growth conflicts with inflation and stockholder expectations.

Alternatives to steep price hikes

Developers could reward longtime customers with grandfathered pricing, exclusive features or other perks.They could offer more subscription tiers, including cheaper options without new features, or sell advanced features as individual add-ons instead of bundling them.

When to reconsider your apps

Sometimes internal and external factors make higher prices inevitable. When that happens, users should reexamine whether that beloved app is still the best option after all these years.