💸🌍 Global pricing guidance
Nine top app's pricing across nine major countries
💡 Guidance based on Calm, Strava, Duolingo, Spotify, and 5 others:
I analyzed nine top app's pricing across nine major countries. Here's what I found.
🇺🇸 Start with your US price point that converts well
🇬🇧 Price Eurozone* and UK at about 80-90% of the US price (after conversion)
🇨🇦 Canada: 1:1 w/ US price after conversion rate
🇦🇺 Australia: set at 80-90% of the US price
🇮🇳 India: set at 20-50% of US price
🇧🇷 Brazil: set at 40-55% of US price
🇲🇽 Mexico: set at 60-70% of US price
*Some companies price Germany higher than other Eurozone countries because of higher purchasing power.
I created a price index using a "basket of apps."
I put all app prices into a spreadsheet for all countries
Converted them to USD to "normalize" data
Found the percentage difference to the US market
🍔 You may have heard of the Big Mac index. Digital goods are different, so Netflix is also used as a global price index. Netflix varies prices based on content available in the country, so I don’t think it’s good to use.
Looking at your global competitors or specific local competitors is better for understanding willingness to pay.
For example, Duolingo is more expensive in Europe than the US. Why? Because learning English can get you a higher-paying job. In the US, people learn a language to go on vacation.
The value of your product changes on the specifics of the market and the type of product.
If you’re converting well, but your price doesn’t match the guidance above, that’s fine! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Changing prices is tricky. Start first with markets that aren’t converting or have a large amount of free users, but few paying.
📊 Do the math - what’s your highest converting country? If you lower prices, can you break even if your conversion rate increases to that amount?
It’s unlikely a lower-converting country will all of a sudden convert better than your best-converting market.
Don’t blindly make pricing changes. Get all the data you can, and then test with a smaller market to limit risk.
🇮🇳 India may be the largest opportunity for a lot of apps to optimize pricing.
Huge English-speaking market but has lower purchasing power. India will often rank in the top 5 markets for new users, but waaay lower for actual paying users.
Let’s dig into some of the specific apps:
Calm - US annual: 69.99 USD
UK: 49.99 GBP → ~90% of US price after conversion rate
France: 49.99 EUR → ~77% of US price after conversion (same for Germany, and Italy)
India: 3,999 INR → ~68% of US price after conversion
Australia: 89.99 AUD → 85% of US price after conversion
Strava - US annual: 79.99 USD
UK: 54.99 GBP → ~86% of US price
France: 59.99 EUR → ~80% of US price (same as Italy)
Germany: 74.99 EUR → pretty much 1:1 after conversion rate
India: 2,499 INR → ~37% of US price
Australia: 99.99 AUD → ~80% of US price
Duolingo - US annual: 83.99 USD
UK: 59.99 GBP → 90%
France: 94.99 EUR → 123%
Germany: 89.99 EUR → 116%
India: 1,119 INR → 17%
Australia: 129.99 AUD → 100%, so about 1:1
Research Process (iOS only):
There are some tools that make it easier to see app SKUs for other countries, but I haven’t found a great one to substitute for manual research.
You’ll need to download the apps you want to check,
go to the app store, press the little person icon in the upper right, tap on your name.
From there you’ll be able to change your country.
You won’t have access to your subscriptions, but they’ll remain once you switch back to your original country.
Here is the Google sheet with all my pricing research. Feel free to copy and edit.
Pricing data for: Calm, Strava, MyFitnessPal, Duolingo, Impulse, Babbel, BetterSleep, Headway, and Spotify
Countries: US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico
There are a few gaps, but 90% of the apps have multiple price points listed for
Other ways to find price sensitivity and willingness to pay:
A fast and dirty way to figure out pricing is to map to larger competitors, but what if you want more detailed pricing methods?
The Van Westendorp Pricing Sensitivity Meter is a standard set of questions you can use to understand optimal price points. Read more about how to implement that here from Survey Monkey.
At what price would you consider the product to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it? (This tells you a price point that is too expensive for this customer.)
At what price would you consider the product to be priced so low that you would feel the quality couldn’t be very good? (This tells you a price point that is too cheap for this customer.)
At what price would you consider the product starting to get expensive, so that it is not out of the question, but you would have to give some thought to buying it? (This tells you a high end of the range of acceptable prices for this customer.)
At what price would you consider the product to be a bargain—a great buy for the money? (This gives you a low end of the range of acceptable prices for this customer.)
That should only be one data point though. Surveys will always have some level of bias. If you a have high enough volume of purchases, you can launch A/B price tests, even better. Tools like RevenueCat or Superwall make this easier for your mobile app. There are tons of other options.
RevenueCat price testing blog post (it’s solid).
Before lowering prices you want to be very careful not to erode the perceived value of your product. It should be mainly used for markets with lower purchasing power
Formerly ProfitWell, now part of Paddle, is an amazing resource for pricing. Read more here about how to make sure you’re preserving product value. If you want to learn more about subscription pricing strategies google, “Patrick Campbell”, (founder of ProfitWell) and read/watch anything and everything he’s put out.
Trying to figure out what country to try to expand to first? Check out RevenueCat’s internationalization expansion guide here.
Want to do the opposite and raise prices for your subscription app? Growth Croissant has a solid guide here.