Set Up a Freemium Business Model

A freemium business model lets you offer a basic version of your app for free and encourages users to upgrade for additional, premium features. It includes a free plan plus at least one single and/or recurring (monthly or yearly) paid plan.

This is what it looks like on your App Market listing:

In this article you will:

Don’t want to offer a free plan? Set up a premium, pay as you go, or usage-based business model instead.

Step 1 | Choose whether to offer a free trial

A free trial is optional – it can be a great way to show off your app's best paid features for a limited time. After the trial, users decide if they want to pay.

Note: A free trial isn’t the same as the free plan in a freemium model.

To do this, enable Free Trial and input the amount of days you want to offer it for. You manage both the UI and code for the trial on your side.

Learn how to manage free trials >

Step 2 | Add Pricing Plans

A freemium model always includes an automatically-added free plan. You can add multiple paid plans each offering their own set of features and benefits.

  1. Go to Pricing in your app’s dashboard.
  2. Select Freemium under Business model.
  3. Go to Pricing Plans and click Add Plan.
  4. Choose the specific Billing model associated with this plan:
    • Recurring (Monthly and / or Yearly): A stable, recurring fee that is billed monthly or yearly. You can offer a discount to encourage users to sign up for a Yearly plan.
    • Single: A non-recurring upfront fee each time users use a service within the app. For example, credits for sending SMSs.

Note: If these billing models don't meet your needs, Wix also supports flexible custom and usage-based models that handle variable fees. For example, when shipping fees are taken within your app or you charge per emails sent in the last month. Please open a ticket to request access.

  1. Set a price: Add the price you want to charge for each of your app’s paid plans.
  2. Add plan details:
    • Plan Name: Add a name for each plan (max. 23 characters). Aim to structure the names so they have some sort of progression – e.g. 'Beginner', 'Intermediate', and 'Pro'.
    • Benefits: Add up to four benefits for each plan with a clear distinction and progression for each plan, with stronger benefits reserved for plans with a higher price. You can also write out the plan’s benefits in paragraph form.
  3. Click Add Plan.
  4. Use the Visible toggle next to each plan to control whether it is displayed in the Wix App Market. Your marketplace listing can display up to four plans, one of which will always be the free plan. If you add more than four plans, mark only 4 as visible, and display the others on an external pricing page.
  5. Click Save.
  6. To check how it looks, click Preview Listing.

Change a pricing plan: You can adjust or delete your plans or add new ones for a number of reasons. For example, changes to your product, to stay competitive, or just to increase prices. Learn how to change pricing plans >.

Step 3 | Set up a Wix pricing page

Pricing pages are the way you package options of your app for users to choose from. It shows all the key features of each plan.

This guide shows you how to set up a Wix pricing page. If you want to use an external pricing page, see set up an external pricing page.

  1. Go to Pricing page.
  2. Select Wix pricing page, then click Customize Pricing Page. This option isn't available if you don't have any paid plans.
  3. Click Add Feature.
  4. Feature Details: Add a title and description to say what it includes and why it's useful.
  5. Comparison: Select the plan that the feature is relevant for and add custom text (optional). Try to distribute features progressively, with better features reserved for more expensive plans.
  6. Click Done.
  7. Choose a Recommended plan from the dropdown – this is shown as 'Most Popular' on your pricing page.
  8. To check how it looks, click Preview Pricing Page.

Step 4 | Create an upgrade entry point to your pricing page

You need to make sure all ‘Upgrade’ buttons or CTAs lead to your app’s pricing page. To do this, use the following URL with the App ID and Instance ID in the correct place:

https://www.wix.com/apps/upgrade/APPIDHERE?appInstanceId=INSTANCEIDHERE

Step 5 | Identify and manage paid app users

Your app will need to present the correct user experience for each customer, depending on the plan they selected. There are two key elements involved in this:

  • Being able to detect those users and identify when changes occur to their plan. We offer several different methods for this.
  • Delivering the right user experience within your app. For example, activating and deactivating specific features.

Learn how to identify your users >

Step 6 | Test your pricing flow

You should test the app’s upgrade flow as a user. Make sure that:

  • Premium features that were disabled in the free plan are now enabled in the paid plan.
  • If you have multiple plans, check that the correct features are enabled / disabled between them.
  • Test your free trial flow (if offered).

See also

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