# TrialValid full documentation > TrialValid holds the plan price on a card at sign-up, starts a free trial in your Stripe account and captures the hold just before the trial ends. Index: https://trialvalid.com/llms.txt --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/ Last updated: 2026-10-21 # TrialValid: card-backed free trials for Stripe sellers TrialValid holds the plan price on a card at sign-up, starts a free trial in your Stripe account and captures the hold just before the trial ends. TrialValid holds the plan price on a card at sign-up, starts a free trial in your Stripe account and captures the hold just before the trial ends. ## What it does - Holds the plan price on the buyer's card at sign-up. A card that cannot be held never starts a trial. - Starts a free-trial subscription in your own Stripe account, ending on the date the buyer was shown. - Captures the hold two hours before the trial ends, then credits the customer balance so the first invoice nets to zero and the buyer is charged once. - Keeps a time-stamped record of what the buyer was shown, and sends a reminder before the first charge. - Money stays in your Stripe account, and the plan price is the whole cost. ## Where to go next - [Product overview](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) ## Questions ### What does TrialValid do? It puts a hold on the buyer's card for the plan price when they sign up, starts a free-trial subscription in your Stripe account, and captures the hold shortly before the trial ends. A card that cannot be held never starts a trial. ### Whose Stripe account does the money go to? Yours. You connect your own Stripe account. Money always sits there, and the plan price is the whole cost of TrialValid. ### What does TrialValid cost? Starter is $29 a month for accounts with $0 up to $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, and it starts with a 14-day trial for $1. Larger accounts pay $95 to $1,995 a month and begin with a booked onboarding call. ### How do I get started? Starter begins online with a 14-day trial for $1. Growth and larger plans begin with a booked onboarding call, where we set up your first trial page with you. ### What happens if the buyer cancels? Before the card is confirmed, the hold is released. While the hold is open, the subscription is canceled and the hold released. After the capture and before the trial ends, the subscription is canceled, the capture refunded and the credit reversed. After the trial ends, you refund the invoice in Stripe. ### Does TrialValid store card numbers? No. The card is collected by Stripe Elements and Stripe.js on the hosted page. TrialValid stores ids and metadata that Stripe returns, not card data. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Documentation](https://trialvalid.com/docs.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product Last updated: 2026-10-19 # How card-backed free trials work Hold the plan price on the card at sign-up, run the trial in your Stripe account and capture before it ends, so every trial starts with a card that can pay. Hold the card first. Then let the trial run. - [Get started](https://trialvalid.com/signup) - [Read the lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) 1. Hold the plan price 2. Confirm the card covers it 3. Start the trial on that card 4. Capture before the trial ends ## Trial abuse shows up at sign-up. So the check happens there. A trial that starts with an unverified card can end with nothing to charge. TrialValid places the hold before the trial starts, then keeps the hold, the reminder and the capture on one schedule. ## Product pages ### Card holds for free trials How TrialValid holds the plan price at sign-up, starts the trial, captures before it ends, and what happens when a step fails. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) ### Trial pages and variants Hosted trial pages with a price from your Stripe price, one to 90 trial days, and variants that split traffic evenly. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) ### Attribution and analytics First-touch campaign data on every signup, plus visits, signups, conversions and revenue per page variant. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) ### Alerts and statement descriptors Slack alerts for high-value trials, failed captures, lost holds and disputes, and card statement descriptors derived from your brand. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) ### Trial reminders and records Every buyer gets a reminder before the first charge, and every trial keeps a time-stamped record of what the buyer was shown, ready if a charge is questioned. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) ### AI page variants for trial signup A model writes new versions of your trial page, traffic splits evenly between the ones you switch on, and you promote the winner. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) ### High-value trial alerts in Slack Set a plan price threshold and get a Slack message when a trial at or above it starts, plus alerts for failed captures, lost holds and disputes. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) ### Custom card statement descriptors TrialValid builds a card statement suffix of up to 10 characters from your brand, or checks one you set against the 5 to 22 character rules. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) ### Dispute readiness for free trials Every trial keeps a record of what the buyer saw, flags a dispute on the trial and alerts you; a calculator shows what disputes cost. [Learn more](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) ## Related - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [AI page variants for trial signup](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) - [High-value trial alerts in Slack](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) - [Custom card statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Card holds for free trials How TrialValid holds the plan price at sign-up, starts the trial, captures before it ends, and what happens when a step fails. ## Hold first, trial second When a buyer signs up, TrialValid creates a Stripe customer and an uncaptured PaymentIntent for the plan price, card only. The trial starts only after Stripe reports that the card can cover the price. A card that cannot be held never starts a trial. ## A trial that ends on the date the buyer saw Once the hold is confirmed, TrialValid creates a free-trial subscription on the same saved card. The trial ends on the date the buyer was shown, and no payment is attempted at sign-up. ## Capture two hours before the trial ends A capture job reads the PaymentIntent from Stripe first, because an earlier run may already have captured it. It then captures with an idempotency key per attempt. It tries up to 11 times, 10 minutes apart, which fits inside the two-hour lead. After Stripe confirms the capture, TrialValid writes a negative customer-balance transaction for the same amount. When Stripe issues the first invoice at trial end, the credit pays it, so the buyer is charged once. ## Rules that protect the buyer - A capture never runs inside the last 5 minutes of the trial, because Stripe charges the first invoice then and a capture would collect twice. - Trials longer than about 7 days need the hold renewed. TrialValid places a fresh merchant-initiated hold before the old one lapses. A renewal that needs buyer authentication counts as failed. - If a hold cannot be renewed, the trial is marked as lost and you get an alert. The same setting as for a failed capture decides the subscription (below). - Every Stripe write carries an idempotency key built from the trial and the action, so a retried job cannot double-charge. ## What you decide when a capture fails If every capture attempt fails, the hold is released and you get an alert. You decide what happens to the subscription: by default it is left to Stripe, which charges the saved card on the first invoice and keeps retrying under your own billing settings, which may recover the payment; or you can switch to canceling it. The choice applies to a lapsed or unrenewable hold too. If the capture window is missed, the subscription is never canceled, because the card did nothing wrong. ## Related - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial pages and variants Hosted trial pages with a price from your Stripe price, one to 90 trial days, and variants that split traffic evenly. ## One page per plan A trial page takes its price from one of your Stripe prices and a trial length from 1 to 90 days. Each page has variants, and each variant has a headline, bullet points, a button label and an accent color. Pages can be published and archived. ## Variants that split traffic evenly Traffic is split evenly between the active variants. A visitor sees the same variant on every visit. When one variant is ahead on your own measured results, you promote it. ## Drafts written by a model, published by you A model can draft a new variant from a description of your product. The output is checked against a schema and is never published automatically. You review it and decide. ## Custom domains Pages can be served from your own domain through the Vercel domains API. ## Related - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Attribution and analytics First-touch campaign data on every signup, plus visits, signups, conversions and revenue per page variant. ## First touch, kept with the signup TrialValid records the first-touch UTM parameters, the referrer, and the `gclid` and `fbclid` click ids for each visitor, and attaches them to the signup. ## Numbers per variant For each page variant you can read visits, signups, conversions and revenue. You can also record your own custom events against a visitor. ## Related - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Alerts and statement descriptors Slack alerts for high-value trials, failed captures, lost holds and disputes, and card statement descriptors derived from your brand. ## Slack alerts you control You add a Slack incoming-webhook URL. TrialValid posts a message when a trial at or above a threshold you set starts, when a capture fails, when a hold is lost and when a dispute is opened. Only `https://hooks.slack.com/services/...` URLs are accepted, and the URL is stored as a secret and shown masked. ## Statement descriptors that people recognize The card statement suffix is derived from your brand, up to 10 characters. A descriptor you set yourself must be 5 to 22 Latin characters with at least one letter and none of `< > \ ' " *`. Stripe may overwrite part of the text on trial-end charges, so the first characters matter most. ## Related - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial reminders and records Every buyer gets a reminder before the first charge, and every trial keeps a time-stamped record of what the buyer was shown, ready if a charge is questioned. ## A record for every trial Before the hold is placed, TrialValid builds the message the buyer sees: the amount, the trial end date, the charge date and how to cancel. It stores that message with the time and the version of your terms, so you can show exactly what the buyer was told. ## A reminder before the first charge Buyers who are reminded cancel when they want to, instead of disputing the charge. For trials longer than 7 days, the reminder email goes out 7 days before the end. For trials of 7 days or fewer, it goes out at the start. Both state the amount, the charge date and how to cancel. ## Related - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization Last updated: 2026-10-21 # AI page variants for trial signup A model writes new versions of your trial page, traffic splits evenly between the ones you switch on, and you promote the winner. ## How it works 1. You describe your product in a few sentences, with an optional angle such as "speed" or "price". 2. A model writes a new variant for the trial page: headline, sub-headline, up to 6 bullet points, a button label and an accent color. It is also shown your current page, so the new version reads as an alternative. 3. The answer is checked against the page schema and its length limits. An answer that does not fit is refused, not repaired, and nothing is saved. 4. The variant is saved inactive. You read it, turn it on or edit it, and from then on traffic splits evenly between your active variants. When one is ahead on your own numbers, you promote it. ## Why it works Writing a second and third version of a trial page is slow, so most pages never get tested. A model turns that into a minute of reading. You stay the editor: nothing the model writes reaches a visitor until you switch it on. The split is fair. A visitor is assigned to a variant by a hash of their visitor id, so they see the same version on every visit and the active variants get an even share. Results per variant (visits, signups, conversions, revenue) come from [attribution](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md). ## Traditional approach versus this | | Writing and testing by hand | With AI page variants | | --- | --- | --- | | Writing a new version | You write it, or brief a copywriter | The model writes it from your product description | | Going live | You publish it yourself | You switch it on after reading it | | Splitting traffic | Set up in a separate testing tool | Even split between active variants, built in | | Picking the winner | Read results in another tool | Promote a variant from your own page results | | What the copy may claim | Whatever the writer chooses | The model is told not to invent statistics, testimonials or ratings | ## Controls - Nothing is published automatically. A new variant starts inactive. - You choose which variants are active, and a retired variant can be switched back on. - Promoting a variant sends all traffic to it and retires the others. - Your product description is limited to 10 to 2,000 characters and the optional angle to 300. - A page with an archived status cannot get new variants. ### Does AI publish changes to my trial page? No. Every variant the model writes is saved inactive. You read it, edit it if you want, and turn it on yourself. ### How is traffic split? Evenly between the active variants. A visitor keeps the same variant on every visit, because the assignment comes from a hash of their visitor id. ### What happens when I promote a winner? All traffic goes to the promoted variant and the other variants are retired. You can switch a retired variant back on later. ### Do you promise more signups? No. TrialValid makes no promise about how much a variant will change your signups or conversions. You judge each variant on your own visits, signups and revenue. ### What does the model write? A headline, a sub-headline, up to 6 bullet points, a button label and an accent color, within fixed length limits. It is told to state your trial length and price exactly and to leave out invented statistics, customer counts and ratings. ### Can I still write variants myself? Yes. Variants you write by hand sit beside the model-written ones and are split the same way. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [High-value trial alerts in Slack](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) - [Custom card statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts Last updated: 2026-10-19 # High-value trial alerts in Slack Set a plan price threshold and get a Slack message when a trial at or above it starts, plus alerts for failed captures, lost holds and disputes. ## How it works 1. You paste a Slack incoming-webhook URL into your settings. Only `https://hooks.slack.com/services/...` addresses are accepted, and the stored URL is shown masked. 2. You set a high-value threshold as an amount. With no threshold set, no high-value alerts are sent. 3. When a buyer signs up and the card hold is confirmed, TrialValid compares the plan price with your threshold. At or above it, one Slack message is posted for that trial. 4. The same webhook carries three more alerts: a capture that failed on every attempt, a hold that was lost, and a dispute that was opened. ## Why it works Your biggest trials are the ones worth a personal look, and the problems around money are the ones you want to hear about the same day. A Slack message reaches you where you already work, so there is no dashboard to check. An alert is sent once per trial and per event. A retried job cannot post the same high-value message twice. ## Traditional approach versus this | | Checking by hand | With Slack alerts | | --- | --- | --- | | Spotting a large trial | Scan the Stripe dashboard | A message when the trial starts | | Learning a capture failed | Find out when revenue looks low | A message after the last attempt fails | | Learning a hold was lost | Find out when the charge does not arrive | A message when the hold cannot be renewed | | Learning of a dispute | Read the notice email | A message with the amount and the buyer | ## Controls - You choose the threshold and can clear it to turn high-value alerts off. - You supply and can replace the Slack webhook URL. TrialValid posts nothing anywhere else. - The webhook URL is stored as a secret and shown masked. - Each trial triggers at most one high-value alert. ### What triggers a high-value alert? A trial whose plan price is at or above your threshold, once its card hold is confirmed. Each trial alerts at most once. ### Which other events post to Slack? A capture that failed on every attempt, a hold that was lost, and a dispute that was opened. ### What happens if I set no threshold? High-value alerts stay off. The capture, hold and dispute alerts are separate and still go to the same webhook. ### Which Slack addresses can I use? Incoming-webhook URLs that start with `https://hooks.slack.com/services/`. Any other address is rejected. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [AI page variants for trial signup](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) - [Custom card statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Custom card statement descriptors TrialValid builds a card statement suffix of up to 10 characters from your brand, or checks one you set against the 5 to 22 character rules. ## How it works 1. TrialValid takes your brand name and keeps only capital letters A to Z and digits 0 to 9, up to 10 characters. 2. The suffix is sent to Stripe, which joins it to your account prefix as `PREFIX* SUFFIX` on the card statement. 3. If you set a full descriptor yourself, it is checked first: 5 to 22 characters, Latin letters, digits, spaces and punctuation, at least one letter, and none of `< > \ ' " *`. 4. A descriptor that breaks a rule is refused with a message that names the rule, before it reaches Stripe. ## Why it works A buyer who does not recognize a line on their statement is the buyer who asks the bank about it. A descriptor built from your brand name is one they recognize. Card statements show the prefix on your Stripe account, then `* `, then the suffix, inside 22 characters in total. The prefix is 2 to 10 characters, so a suffix of up to 10 fits with any prefix. If a brand name has no letter in it, the suffix falls back to `TRIAL`. Stripe may replace everything after the 10th character with `* TRIAL OVER` on charges made at the end of a trial, so put what matters most first. ## Traditional approach versus this | | Setting it by hand | With TrialValid | | --- | --- | --- | | Choosing the text | Guess what the rules allow | Built from your brand name by a fixed rule | | Catching a bad value | An error from Stripe, or a rejected change | A clear message before anything is sent | | Length limit | Look it up in Stripe documentation | Checked for you: suffix up to 10, full descriptor 5 to 22 | | Brand with no letters | Fails or shows digits only | Falls back to a safe suffix | ## Controls - You can set your own descriptor instead of the one built from your brand. - The rules are enforced as Stripe states them: 5 to 22 characters, at least one letter, no `< > \ ' " *`. - Card payments use the suffix form, so the suffix never exceeds 10 characters. ### How long can a statement suffix be? Up to 10 characters. That leaves room for any Stripe account prefix, which is 2 to 10 characters, inside the 22 character total. ### What are the rules for a full descriptor? Between 5 and 22 characters, Latin characters only, at least one letter, and none of `< > \ ' " *`. ### Why does the end of my descriptor change on some charges? Stripe may overwrite what follows the 10th character with `* TRIAL OVER` on charges made when a trial ends. Keep the part buyers recognize in the first 10 characters. ### What if my brand name has no letters? The suffix falls back to `TRIAL`, because a descriptor needs at least one letter. ### Are lowercase letters kept? The suffix built from your brand is uppercase. A descriptor you set yourself may use any printable Latin characters that pass the rules. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [AI page variants for trial signup](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) - [High-value trial alerts in Slack](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Dispute readiness for free trials Every trial keeps a record of what the buyer saw, flags a dispute on the trial and alerts you; a calculator shows what disputes cost. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Disputes a month | 20 | | Average payment | 100 | | Dispute fee | 15 | | Disputes you expect to avoid | 0 | | Monthly plan fee | 0 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Cost per dispute | $115 | | Dispute cost per month | $2,300 | | Dispute cost per year | $27,600 | Working: 1. Each lost dispute costs the $100 payment plus the $15 dispute fee, which is $115. 2. 20 disputes a month times $115 is $2,300 a month. 3. Over 12 months that is $2,300 times 12, which is $27,600. 4. Enter the number of disputes you expect to avoid to see a saving. It is your own assumption: no prevention rate is claimed. ## Reading the calculator The monthly cost is the number of disputes times the payment amount plus the dispute fee, because a lost dispute costs you the payment and the fee. The dispute fee in the calculator is the one Stripe lists: $15.00 per dispute (checked 18 Oct 2026, [source](https://stripe.com/pricing)). Stripe lists its own fee on its pricing page, so check it there before you plan around it. The "disputes you expect to avoid" field is your own assumption and starts at zero, so the saving shown is only as good as the number you enter. ## How it works 1. Before the card hold is placed, TrialValid builds the text the buyer sees: the amount, the trial end date, the charge date and how to cancel. 2. It stores that exact text with the time, the IP address, the user agent and the version of your terms, as the record for that trial. 3. When Stripe reports that a charge was disputed, TrialValid finds the trial it belongs to and sets a dispute flag on it, once. 4. It posts a dispute-opened alert to your Slack webhook with the amount and the buyer, and you read the stored record for that trial to answer the dispute. ## Why it works A dispute about a trial usually comes down to what the buyer was told and when. A stored record of the exact words, the time and the terms version gives you that answer without searching old emails. The dispute flag and the alert mean you hear about it the same day and can see which trial it was. Disputes have response deadlines, so speed matters; see [Stripe's dispute documentation](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes) for the current windows. ## Traditional approach versus this | | Collecting it after the dispute | With dispute readiness | | --- | --- | --- | | What the buyer saw | Rebuild it from screenshots and old page versions | The exact text, stored when the trial starts | | When it was shown | Estimate from logs | Time, IP address, user agent and terms version on the record | | Knowing a dispute exists | Notice email or the Stripe dashboard | A flag on the trial and a Slack alert | | Estimating the cost | A spreadsheet | The dispute cost calculator above | ## Controls - The record is written only from your own trials. TrialValid compares nothing with other sellers. - The record is stored with each trial. You decide what to submit in the Stripe dispute flow. - Dispute alerts go to the Slack webhook you set in [alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md). - The dispute flag is set once per trial, so a repeated Stripe event does not raise a second alert. ### What does TrialValid store for each trial? The exact message the buyer saw before signing up, with the time, the IP address, the user agent and the version of your terms. ### What happens when a buyer disputes a charge? The trial gets a dispute flag and you get a dispute-opened alert in Slack with the amount and the buyer. ### Does TrialValid submit evidence to Stripe for me? No. You read the stored record for the trial and add what you need in Stripe's own dispute flow. ### Does TrialValid stop disputes from happening? It makes no such claim. It keeps the record you need to answer a dispute and tells you quickly when one starts. ### Where does the dispute fee in the calculator come from? It is read from a dated record of the fee Stripe lists on its US pricing page: $15.00 per dispute, checked 18 Oct 2026. ### Does it use data from other sellers? No. Each record and flag comes from your own trials only. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [AI page variants for trial signup](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) - [High-value trial alerts in Slack](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) - [Custom card statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/require-credit-card-for-free-trial Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Should a free trial require a credit card? Asking for a card cuts signups but changes who is left; ChartMogul puts card-required trials at 30% to paid against an 8% median for all. ## The short answer Ask for a card when you can afford fewer signups in exchange for a smaller, more committed group. Skip it when learning fast from many users matters more than the first payment. The only published numbers we cite are ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products: trials that require a credit card converted at 30%, and the median free-to-paid rate across all the products was 8%. Those two figures describe different groups of products, so they show a gap, not what a card would do to your own page. ## The three ways to run a trial | | Card required | No card | Verify the card, charge later | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What the visitor does | Enters a card to start | Enters an email and starts | Enters a card; the plan price is held, not taken | | Signups | Fewer, because of the extra step | More, because there is no payment step | Same step as card required | | Who finishes signup | People who accept a charge date | Anyone, including people only browsing | People whose card can cover the price | | At the end of the trial | The card is charged | The buyer has to add a card first | The held amount is captured shortly before the end | | Published benchmark | 30% to paid (ChartMogul, 18 Oct 2026) | Not quoted here; the all-product median is 8% | Not quoted here | | Abuse exposure | Lower, because every signup carries a card | Higher; Stripe warns that spammers can create fake customers and subscriptions | Lower, since a card without room for the price stops before any trial begins | | What you must handle | Reminders before the first charge, and refunds | A way to collect a card at the end | Hold lifetimes, captures and their failures | ## The objection, answered with arithmetic The usual worry is "a card form will scare people away". That is true, and it can still be the better trade. Take 1,000 trial starts a month with no card at the 8% median. That is 80 paying customers, and at an example price of $49 a month the trial-to-paid calculator shows $3,920 of MRR. Now ask a different question: how many signups could a card form cost before you end up with fewer customers? At 30%, you need 267 trial starts to land the same 80 paying customers (30.0% to paid, $3,920 of MRR). So the card form has to remove more than 733 of every 1,000 signups, or 73.3%, before it loses on customers. Put the other way round: if the card cohort reached 30.0% on the same 1,000 starts, that would be 300 paying accounts, 220 more, worth $10,780 a month. > Read this as a break-even, not a forecast. The two benchmark rates come from different groups of products, and signup volume often falls when you add a card step. Measure both on your own page: starts, and paid, per variant. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) does the sums. ## What a card changes besides conversion - Who signs up. A card form filters out casual visitors, so your trial users are closer to people who intend to buy. That helps your numbers and your support queue, and it hurts raw signup counts. - What you measure. A conversion rate on a card cohort and one on a no-card cohort are not the same measurement. Keep them apart in your reports. - What you owe the buyer. A card on file means a future charge. The charge date, the amount and how to cancel should be visible before the card is entered. - What can break. A card can fail at the first charge, and a hold can lapse. Both are covered below and in [how trial holds work](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md). ## Setting it up in Stripe Stripe's documentation says that when you create a subscription with a trial period you do not need to add a payment method. It also says that if the trial ends with no payment method, you choose what happens through the missing payment method setting: the default creates an invoice, and if that invoice cannot be paid the subscription moves to past due; the alternatives are to cancel the subscription or to pause it. Pick the one that matches the trial you run. If you take the card up front, the first charge happens when the trial ends, and a Stripe event fires before that moment (the Dashboard default is 3 days) so you can send your own reminder. Stripe sends its own hosted reminder emails 7 days before a trial ends. Both pages were read on 19 Oct 2026. A third option sits between the first two. Stripe documents placing a hold on a card: the funds are reserved and captured later. Stripe states that an online card payment is typically on hold for 7 days, after which the hold is released if it was not captured. TrialValid builds this pattern for trials, with the hold renewed when a trial runs longer than a hold lasts; the mechanics are in [card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) and the [trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md). ## Decision checklist 1. Write down what a signup is worth to you. If most of the value is in the buyer who pays, a card filter is attractive. If the value is in usage data from many users, it is not. 2. Check your cost per trial user. If each free user costs real compute or support, a card form pays for itself sooner. 3. Estimate how many signups you can lose before a card cohort wins. The arithmetic above gives the break-even for your own price and rates. 4. Decide the end-of-trial behavior in Stripe before launch: create an invoice, cancel or pause for trials without a card; reminders and a visible charge date for trials with one. 5. Show the amount, the charge date and the cancel route next to the card field. 6. Run both versions against each other on your own traffic for long enough to see paid conversions, not only signups, and compare customers per 100 visitors rather than rates alone. ### Does asking for a card raise trial-to-paid conversion? ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products reports 30% to paid for trials that require a credit card, against a median of 8% across all products. The populations differ, so treat it as a gap to investigate on your own page, not a promised lift. ### How many signups can I lose before a card is not worth it? At the two benchmark rates, a card cohort matches 80 paying accounts from 1,000 no-card starts with 267 starts, so you can lose about 73.3% of signups. Enter your own numbers in the trial conversion rate calculator. ### Can I take a card without charging it? Yes. A hold reserves the plan price on the card and captures it later. Stripe documents holds and states that online card holds typically last 7 days, so a longer trial needs the hold renewed. ### What if the trial ends and the buyer never added a card? In Stripe the missing payment method setting decides: create an invoice (the default, and the subscription becomes past due if it cannot be paid), cancel, or pause the subscription. ### Do I have to remind buyers before the first charge? Stripe fires an event ahead of the trial end, 3 days before by default in the Dashboard, so you can send your own reminder, and it sends hosted reminder emails 7 days before. Clear reminders also reduce surprised buyers and disputes. ### Is a card a fraud check? No. A card gives abuse a cost and gives you a way to charge. It does not tell you whether the card is stolen. See the guide on free trial abuse prevention. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/stripe-trial-conversion Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Stripe trial conversion: four leaks, five fixes Where a Stripe free trial loses revenue (no card, a failed first charge, a forgotten trial, no reminder) and five steps to close each leak. ## The short answer A Stripe trial loses money in four places: the trial starts with no usable payment method, the card fails at the first charge, the buyer forgets they started a trial, or nobody reminds them before it ends. Each has a different fix, and you can measure all four with your own counts. ## Four places a trial leaks revenue | Leak | What happens in Stripe | What closes it | | --- | --- | --- | | No payment method | A trial can start without one; at the end Stripe creates an invoice that may go unpaid, or cancels or pauses, depending on your setting | Collect the card at signup, or collect it at a clear moment before the end | | The first charge fails | Stripe attempts the invoice when the trial ends; if it fails, retries follow your billing settings | Verify the card up front, and keep retries and reminders switched on | | A forgotten trial | The buyer sees a charge they did not expect | Show the date and amount at signup and repeat them in the reminder | | No reminder | Nothing arrives before the end unless you send it | Use the pre-end event and send your own message | ## What Stripe documents about each leak - No payment method. Stripe's trial documentation states that a subscription with a trial period does not need a payment method, and that the missing payment method setting at the end of the trial can create an invoice (the default; the subscription becomes past due if it cannot be paid), cancel the subscription, or pause it. Stripe also warns that starting trials with no card can let spammers create many fake customers and subscriptions (read 19 Oct 2026). - A failed first charge. Stripe's Smart Retries documentation recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks (read 18 Oct 2026), and the Billing page states an average recovery rate of 55% for businesses using Stripe Billing (read 18 Oct 2026). Those are Stripe's own figures about its own product, not a promise about your account. - Reminders. Stripe sends an event before a trial ends, 3 days ahead by default in the Dashboard, which you use to send your own email, and it sends hosted reminder emails 7 days ahead (read 19 Oct 2026). If the trial is shorter than the configured interval, the event fires immediately. ## Worked example: what a few points are worth The trial conversion rate calculator starts with 400 trials started, 60 that paid, and an example price of $49 a month. That is 15.0% to paid and $2,940 of MRR. Adding 5 points takes the rate to 20.0%: 80 paying accounts, which is 20 more, $980 a month and $11,760 over 12 months. 33.3% on the same trial base is a different figure from "5 points", and the difference matters when you report it. For the failed first charge, the failed payment recovery calculator starts with $50,000 of MRR, 5% of renewal value failing on the first try, 40% recovered today, and compares that with 55%, the average Stripe states for Stripe Billing. It computes $18,000 lost a year today and $4,500 saved a year at the comparison rate. The failure rate and today's recovery rate are the calculator's example inputs; replace them with yours. ## Five steps to improve it 1. Measure first. Count trials started and trials that paid for the same start cohort, then compute the rate. Do not mix cohorts, or paid can look bigger than started. 2. Decide the card moment. Either collect it at signup or at a defined point before the end, and set the missing payment method behavior in Stripe to match. 3. Verify the card before the trial starts when you can. A card that fails after a week of free use is a lost customer and a wasted trial; a card checked at signup fails early, while the buyer is still on your page. [Card holds](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) do this for the plan price. 4. Send two messages: one at signup that states the trial end date, the amount and how to cancel, and one before the end, driven by the pre-end event. 5. Keep recovery on for the first charge: Smart Retries on, a clear failed-payment email, and a way for the buyer to update the card without contacting you. ## Decision checklist - Do you know your trial-to-paid rate for the last full cohort, as paid divided by started? - Is the end-of-trial behavior for a missing payment method set deliberately, rather than left on the default? - Does the buyer see the charge date and the amount before they start? - Is there a reminder before the end that you send, not only Stripe? - Are retries on, and does the buyer have a self-serve way to fix a failed card? - Do you get a message when a capture or a hold fails, so someone looks the same day? [Alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) cover that. > For context, ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products reports a median free-to-paid rate of 8% and 30% for trials that require a credit card (read 18 Oct 2026). Compare your rate with these only as a rough orientation; products and prices differ. For fraud checks on cards, see [the Stripe Radar comparison](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar.md). ### Which trial-to-paid rate is solid for a Stripe trial? ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products reports a median of 8% free-to-paid and 30% for trials that require a credit card. Your rate depends on price, audience and how you start the trial. ### What happens if a Stripe trial ends with no payment method? It follows the missing payment method setting: the default creates an invoice (the subscription becomes past due if it cannot be paid), or you can cancel or pause the subscription. ### When does Stripe warn me that a trial is about to end? Stripe sends an event before the end, 3 days before by default in the Dashboard, and hosted reminder emails 7 days before. Use the event to send your own reminder. ### What are Smart Retries? Stripe's automatic retry logic for failed invoices. Its documentation recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks. ### How much of a failed first charge does Stripe recover? Stripe states an average recovery rate of 55% for businesses using Stripe Billing. That is Stripe's figure for its own product, so use your own recovery rate in the calculator. ### Does TrialValid change my Stripe subscription settings? TrialValid places a hold at signup, creates the free-trial subscription on the saved card and captures before the end, then credits the first invoice. How each step and failure is handled is in the trial lifecycle documentation. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) - [Stripe Radar vs TrialValid: pricing and fit](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/free-trial-abuse-prevention Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Free trial abuse prevention: methods compared What trial abuse costs, how card holds, verification, limits and review compare, and why a card deters abuse without detecting fraud. ## The short answer Trial abuse is people using free access they never intend to pay for, often with many accounts. You cannot stop it entirely. You can make each fake signup cost more than it gives, and a card hold does that. A hold deters. It does not detect: it tells you the card can cover the plan price, not whether the card or the person behind it is genuine. ## What abuse costs - Direct cost. Every free account uses compute, storage, email and sometimes paid third-party calls. - Distorted numbers. Throwaway signups sit in the denominator of your trial-to-paid rate and hide how well real prospects convert. - Support time. Abusive accounts still open tickets. - Disputes. A card that was used without its owner knowing eventually produces a dispute, with its fee and its lost payment. Stripe's own trial documentation names the risk: starting a free trial without a payment method lets potential customers try a product faster, but it can also allow spammers to create lots of fake customers, usage and subscriptions. Stripe recommends balancing an easy path for real customers against a hard one for spam bots, for example by requiring a user account and a captcha before the trial starts (read 19 Oct 2026). ## Methods compared | Method | What it stops | What it does not stop | Cost to real users | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Email confirmation | Typos and some bots | Anyone with many inboxes | One extra step | | Captcha | Simple automated signups | People, and some determined bots | A puzzle at signup | | Card hold at signup | Free-riding with disposable identities, because each signup needs a working card that can cover the price | A real card used by the wrong person; stolen cards | Fewer signups, because of the card step | | Card on file, charge at the end | Casual abuse | The same as a hold, and it does not confirm funds early | Fewer signups | | Usage limits during the trial | Heavy consumption of costly resources | Many accounts, each under the limit | Real users meet the limit too | | Manual review of large trials | The expensive cases | Anything you never look at | Your time | ## What a card hold deters, and what it does not A hold reserves the plan price on the card. Stripe documents the mechanism and states that online card holds typically last 7 days (read 19 Oct 2026). For trial abuse that matters in two ways. A signup needs a working card with enough available funds, which is hard to produce in bulk. And the buyer sees the amount, so a signup is a visible commitment, not a throwaway email. It does not detect fraud. A stolen card can pass a hold, and a genuine card can be held by someone who will later dispute the charge. Fraud scoring is a separate job from deterrence, and a hold neither replaces nor includes it. Treat the hold as the first gate, and keep a record for the disputes that still arrive; see [dispute readiness](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md). TrialValid's trial holds create an uncaptured payment for the plan price at signup and start the trial only when the card can cover it. A card that cannot be held never starts a trial. Details and failure handling: [card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) and the [trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md). If you want a fraud score on cards as well, [the Stripe Radar comparison](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar.md) describes where the tools fit. ## Worked example: abuse hides your real rate Take the calculator's starting numbers: 400 trials started and 60 that paid at $49 a month. That reads as 15.0% to paid, with $2,940 of MRR. Now suppose 100 of those 400 starts were throwaway accounts that never could have paid. The real cohort is 300, the same 60 paying accounts are 20.0% of it, and the MRR is unchanged at $2,940. The money did not move; the measured rate did. A page you judge on the diluted rate looks weaker than it is, and a test between two variants becomes noisier. The cost side of a card that was used without its owner is the dispute calculator's: 20 disputes a month at an average payment of $100 plus Stripe's US dispute fee of $15.00 per dispute (read 18 Oct 2026) is $115 each, $2,300 a month and $27,600 a year. The dispute count is the calculator's example input, not a rate we claim; use your own. ## Decision checklist 1. List what a free account costs you per week: compute, storage, third-party calls and support. If it is near zero, abuse matters less than conversion. 2. Put a cost on signup that fits your product: a card hold, a verified card on file, or an email plus captcha for products where a card is too much. 3. Cap what a trial can consume. Limit the expensive resources, not the whole product. 4. Look at large trials by hand. A threshold on plan price, with a message to the team, is a cheap review queue; [alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) support it. 5. Keep the record of what each buyer was shown and when, so a dispute can be answered from stored text, not from memory. 6. Report your trial-to-paid rate on real starts, and say how you define a real start. ### Does a card hold prevent free trial abuse? It deters it. Each signup needs a card that can cover the plan price, which makes bulk fake accounts costly. It does not prove the card or the person is genuine. ### Is a card hold the same as fraud detection? No. A hold checks that the card can cover an amount. Fraud detection scores the risk of a payment. They are different jobs and a trial can need both. ### How long does a card hold last? Stripe documents holds and states that an online card payment is typically on hold for 7 days. A longer trial needs the hold renewed, which TrialValid handles and records. ### What does Stripe say about trials without a card? That they let real customers start faster but can also let spammers create many fake customers, usage and subscriptions, and that you should balance the two, for example with a user account and a captcha. ### How does abuse change my conversion rate? Throwaway signups sit in the denominator. In the example above, 100 of 400 starts being throwaway moves the same 60 paying accounts from 15.0% to 20.0%. ### What if a buyer disputes the first charge? The trial is flagged, you are alerted, and the text the buyer saw is stored with the time and terms version so you can answer from a record. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) - [Stripe Radar vs TrialValid: pricing and fit](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works Last updated: 2026-10-22 # How TrialValid works Email us, approve Stripe, pick a price and trial length, and we publish your page. TrialValid holds the card, starts the trial and captures before it ends. ## Four setup steps 1. Email hello@trialvalid.com. Send your Stripe plan, your trial length and your current sign-up numbers, and we set up your account. 2. Approve the Stripe connection. We send you a Stripe Connect link and you approve it on Stripe. TrialValid reads your active subscriptions to work out your plan, and you can revoke access whenever you like. 3. Choose a price and a trial length. Pick a Stripe price and a trial from 1 to 90 days. Write a headline, bullet points and a button label, or let a model suggest a variant that you review. 4. We publish your trial page. Traffic splits evenly between your active variants, and each buyer keeps seeing the same one. ## What happens behind the scenes 1. The buyer reads the terms. The page builds the exact authorization text: the amount, the trial end date, the charge date and how to cancel. It is stored with the time, IP address, user agent and terms version. 2. The card is held. At sign-up TrialValid creates a Stripe customer and an uncaptured PaymentIntent for the plan price, card only. If the amount, trial length or billing period on the page changed since the buyer loaded it, the sign-up is refused before Stripe is touched. 3. The trial starts. Once Stripe confirms that the card can cover the price, TrialValid creates a free-trial subscription on the same card, ending on the date the buyer was shown. No payment is attempted. 4. A reminder goes out. For trials longer than 7 days the email is sent 7 days before the end. For shorter trials it is sent at the start. Both state the amount, the charge date and how to cancel. 5. The hold is captured 2 hours before the end. The job reads the PaymentIntent from Stripe first, then captures with up to 11 attempts, 10 minutes apart. It never captures in the last 5 minutes, because Stripe charges the first invoice then. 6. The first invoice nets to zero. After Stripe confirms the capture, TrialValid credits the customer balance by the captured amount. The first invoice is paid by that credit, so the buyer is charged once. 7. Long trials renew the hold. A hold lasts about 7 days. When the capture falls later, TrialValid places a fresh hold before the old one lapses and releases the old one after the new one is in place. ## What the buyer sees - A page with your price, your trial length and your headline. - Plain authorization text that states what is held, that nothing is charged today, when the trial ends and when the charge happens. - A card field from Stripe Elements. The card number goes to Stripe, not to TrialValid. - A reminder email before the first charge. - A cancel path: cancelling before the trial ends releases the hold, or refunds the capture if it has already happened. ## Roll it out in stages This is guidance, not a setting. Moving new sign-ups to the card-backed page in stages lets you read the numbers at each step before you commit all your traffic. Plan on seven or more weeks in total. | Stage | Share of new sign-ups on the card-backed page | What to read before moving on | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | 20 percent | Sign-ups and conversions per variant, and any failed-capture alerts | | 2 | 25 percent | The same numbers, and how the trial reminder lands with buyers | | 3 | 50 percent | Revenue per variant and your support inbox | | 4 | 100 percent | The full picture against your old sign-up flow | ## Your money stays in your Stripe account - Every hold, capture and refund happens in your own Stripe account. TrialValid never touches the money and takes no per-transaction fee. - TrialValid keeps no copy of your customers, charges, invoices or disputes. It reads your active subscriptions to work out your plan and stores the ids and metadata Stripe returns for each trial. - Disconnecting Stripe ends TrialValid's access. Held trials are marked as lost and you get a summary alert. ## Questions ### Do I have to change my Stripe setup? No. TrialValid works with the Stripe price and the Stripe account you already use. It adds the hold and the trial subscription, and your own billing settings still apply to the first invoice. ### What if a buyer never finishes entering a card? The hold is cancelled 24 hours after it was created and the trial is marked as abandoned. No subscription is left running. ### Can I stop the rollout at a stage? Yes. The stages are guidance. You decide how much of your traffic sees the page, and you can archive a page at any time. ## Related - [Start a TrialValid trial](https://trialvalid.com/trial.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Documentation](https://trialvalid.com/docs.md) - [Security at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/integrations Last updated: 2026-10-19 # TrialValid integrations The tools TrialValid connects to: Stripe Connect, Slack incoming webhooks, email for trial reminders, Vercel domains and a model for page variants. ## Stripe Stripe is the one integration every seller needs. You connect your own account with Stripe Connect OAuth, and every hold, subscription, capture, refund and balance credit is made in that account. - Scope. TrialValid asks for the `read_write` scope: it reads your prices and active subscriptions and writes holds, trial subscriptions, captures, refunds and balance credits. - Starting the connection. The start link is single use and lasts 5 minutes. Opening it shows a confirmation page that names the TrialValid account being connected and spends nothing. The page cannot be shown inside another site's frame. - Revoking. Disconnect from the TrialValid API, or revoke the connection in your Stripe account. TrialValid receives Stripe's deauthorization event and stops. One Stripe account belongs to one TrialValid account. - Events. Stripe sends events to a webhook endpoint that checks each signature. Each event is processed once, even if Stripe delivers it again. ## Slack You add a Slack incoming webhook and TrialValid posts to it. Only `https://hooks.slack.com/services/...` addresses are accepted. The address is stored as a secret and shown masked. - A trial at or above a value threshold you set has started. - A capture failed. - A hold was lost. - A dispute was opened. ## Email The trial reminder is sent through the mail adapter, from TrialValid, with your address as the reply-to. It states the amount, the charge date and how to cancel. ## Custom domains Trial pages can run on your own hostname through the Vercel domains API. You publish a DNS TXT record at `_trialvalid-challenge.` to prove you control the name. A claim that is never proven reserves nothing and lapses after 72 hours. ## Page variants from a model A model can write a new page variant from a description of your product. The output is checked against a schema, stored as an inactive variant that no buyer sees, and goes live only when you activate it. | Integration | What it does | What you control | | --- | --- | --- | | Stripe Connect | Holds, trial subscriptions, captures, refunds, credits | You connect and revoke access | | Slack incoming webhook | Alerts for high-value trials, failed captures, lost holds and disputes | You supply the webhook and the value threshold | | Email | Trial reminder before the first charge | Your address is the reply-to | | Vercel domains | Trial pages on your own hostname | You prove control with a DNS record | | Model gateway | Page variants | You review and activate every variant | Missing a tool you need? Write to hello@trialvalid.com. ## Related - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [Security at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Documentation](https://trialvalid.com/docs.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/security Last updated: 2026-10-28 # Security at TrialValid How TrialValid handles your Stripe connection, the events Stripe sends, the charges it makes and your keys. How TrialValid handles your Stripe connection, the events Stripe sends, the charges it makes and your keys. ## Your Stripe connection - You connect through Stripe Connect OAuth and can revoke the connection at any time, from TrialValid or from Stripe. - A connection link works once, for a short time, and only in the browser that started it, so a copied link cannot connect another account. - Before anything is spent, a confirmation page names the account being connected. ## Events from Stripe - An event is acted on only once it is confirmed to come from Stripe. - An event Stripe sends again does not run twice. - An event that cannot be handled yet is tried again later. ## Charges - A step that is tried again cannot charge twice. - TrialValid reads the current state of your Stripe account before it charges. - A balance is credited only after Stripe reports the capture, and no capture is made in the last 5 minutes of a trial. - A trial changes state only in the ways its rules allow. ## Keys - Seller API keys carry the `tv_live_` prefix, and TrialValid keeps a fingerprint of each key, not the key itself. - The API does not return a secret, and a Slack webhook address is shown masked. ## Card data Card numbers are entered in Stripe's own card form and do not reach TrialValid. TrialValid stores the ids and details that Stripe returns. ## Custom domains and alerts - A custom hostname is accepted only after a DNS TXT record proves you control it. A claim that is never proven reserves nothing. - A Slack webhook is accepted only if it is an `https://hooks.slack.com/services/...` address. ## Report a problem If you find a security problem, write to hello@trialvalid.com. ## Related - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [TrialValid integrations](https://trialvalid.com/integrations.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Documentation](https://trialvalid.com/docs.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion The value of lifting your trial conversion: at the defaults, 25 more customers is $2,475 extra MRR a month. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Free trials per month | 500 | | Average monthly price per customer | 99 | | Current trial-to-paid rate | 12 | | Your what-if rate | 17 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Paying customers now | 60 | | Paying customers at your what-if rate | 85 | | Extra customers | 25 | | Current MRR | $5,940 | | Extra MRR | $2,475 | | Extra ARR | $29,700 | | Plan fee per month (launch price) | $29 | | Return on the plan fee | 8,534% | | Extra ARR after the plan fee | $29,352 | Working: 1. Paying customers now: 12.0% of 500 trials is 60 subscribers. 2. Paying customers at 17.0%: 85 subscribers, a difference of 25. 3. Extra MRR: 25 subscribers at $99 is $2,475 a month. 4. Extra ARR: 12 months of $2,475 is $29,700. 5. Plan fee: your current MRR of $5,940 falls in a band priced at $29 a month at launch, $348 a year. 6. Return on the fee: $29,700 divided by $348 is 8,534%, and $29,352 stays after the fee. ## How the ROI is worked out The calculator asks what a higher share of trials turning into paying customers is worth. It takes your monthly free trials, your average monthly price and your current trial to paid rate, then compares paying customers today with paying customers at a what-if rate that you choose. The gap is multiplied by your price to get extra monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and by 12 to get extra annual recurring revenue (ARR). The what-if rate is a scenario you set. It starts at your current rate plus five points, and nothing on this page forecasts that you will reach it. Use it to ask "if we got there, what would that be worth", then compare the answer with the cost of the work needed to get there. ### The formula in words Paying customers are trials times the rate. Extra customers are the paying customers at the what-if rate minus the paying customers now. Extra MRR is extra customers times price. Extra ARR is twelve times extra MRR. The fee is the TrialValid plan price for the band your current MRR falls in, and the return on the fee is extra ARR divided by twelve times that monthly fee. ### The formula in symbols ```text T = trials per month P = price per customer per month r0 = current rate r1 = what-if rate (capped at 100%) C0 = round(T * r0) C1 = round(T * r1) extra MRR = (C1 - C0) * P extra ARR = 12 * extra MRR current MRR = C0 * P fee = plan price for the band holding current MRR return on fee = extra ARR / (12 * fee) net ARR = extra ARR - 12 * fee ``` ## Worked examples Both examples below are produced by the same function as the tool above. The first uses the default inputs, a small account. The second is a larger account whose MRR falls into a paid band, so the plan fee and the return on it show up. | Step | Small account (defaults) | Mid-size account | Larger account | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free trials per month | 500 | 800 | 2,000 | | Average monthly price | $99 | $150 | $300 | | Current rate, then what-if rate | 12.0% to 17.0% | 10.0% to 15.0% | 9.0% to 12.0% | | Paying customers now | 60 | 80 | 180 | | Paying customers at the what-if rate | 85 | 120 | 240 | | Extra MRR | $2,475 | $6,000 | $18,000 | | Extra ARR | $29,700 | $72,000 | $216,000 | | Current MRR | $5,940 | $12,000 | $54,000 | | Plan fee per month | $29 | $95 | $295 | | Return on the plan fee | 8,534% | 6,316% | 6,102% | | Extra ARR after the plan fee | $29,352 | $70,860 | $212,460 | In the mid-size case, 40 extra customers at $150 add $6,000 a month. The current MRR of $12,000 falls in a band priced at $95 a month, so the extra ARR of $72,000 is 6,316% of the yearly fee. ## Extra ARR by price and points gained The table holds the trial count at 500 a month and the current rate at 12 percent, then varies the price and the points added. Each cell is the extra ARR the calculator returns for that scenario. | Monthly price | +1 point | +2 points | +5 points | +10 points | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $29 | $1,740 | $3,480 | $8,700 | $17,400 | | $99 | $5,940 | $11,880 | $29,700 | $59,400 | | $299 | $17,940 | $35,880 | $89,700 | $179,400 | ## Plan fee bands used in the return The fee in the calculator is the TrialValid plan price for the band that holds your current MRR. The bands and prices come from the same plan catalog that drives the pricing page. See [pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) for what each plan includes. | Connected MRR band | Monthly fee | Yearly fee | | --- | --- | --- | | $0 up to $10,000 | $29 | $348 | | $10,000 up to $50,000 | $95 | $1,140 | | $50,000 up to $150,000 | $295 | $3,540 | | $150,000 up to $250,000 | $595 | $7,140 | | $250,000 up to $1,000,000 | $995 | $11,940 | | $1,000,000 and above | $1,995 | $23,940 | ## Edge cases - A what-if rate below your current rate gives a negative result and no error. At the default inputs, a what-if rate of 9% shows -15 extra customers and -$1,485 of extra MRR, which tells you what a slide of three points would cost. - A what-if rate above 100% is capped at 100%. Entering 140% shows 500 paying customers from 500 trials, and the working steps say that the rate was capped. - Zero trials or a zero price shows an empty state asking for the missing number. The calculator never divides by zero. - Below $10,000 of current MRR the fee is the $29 entry band, so the return on the fee is a real percentage at every MRR. - A current rate above 100% is rejected with a message, because a trial cannot convert more than once. - Customer counts are rounded half up to whole customers before the price is applied, so tiny changes in rate can move the result by exactly one customer. ## Questions people ask ### What does the ROI calculator measure? It measures the value of a higher trial to paid rate, not the cost of reaching it. At the default inputs, moving from 12.0% to 17.0% on 500 trials a month adds 25 subscribers, $2,475 of MRR and $29,700 of ARR. ### Is the what-if rate a forecast? No. It is a scenario you choose, and the calculator does not predict that you will reach it. Pick a rate you think a specific change could plausibly reach, then use the result to decide whether that change is worth building. ### How is the plan fee chosen? The fee is the monthly price of the TrialValid plan whose connected MRR band holds your current MRR. With $12,000 of current MRR in the mid-size example the monthly fee is $95, or $1,140 a year. Prices are launch prices. ### Why do small rate changes move the result in steps? Customers are whole people, so the calculator rounds half up. In the mid-size example, 10.0% of 800 trials is 80 subscribers and 15.0% is 120, a gap of 40. ### Does the calculator include churn? No. It values the extra customers as monthly revenue and annualizes by multiplying by 12, which assumes they all stay for the year. To see how losses change the picture, use the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) and the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). ### What number should I use for my current rate? Use paid divided by started for one start cohort whose trials have all ended. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) works that out and prices each extra point, for example 15.0% of trials paying out of 400 started. ## Related tools Start with the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) to get an honest current rate, then use the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) to see how extra customers flow into ending MRR. The [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) shows what survives a year, and [pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) lists every plan band. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial Conversion Rate Calculator Divide paid trials by trials started: 60 of 400 is 15.0%. Then see what extra points are worth in MRR and ARR. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Trials started | 400 | | Trials that paid | 60 | | Monthly price | 49 | | Extra points to try | 5 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Trial-to-paid rate | 15.0% | | MRR from these trials | $2,940 | | Target rate | 20.0% | | Paying customers at the target | 80 | | Extra customers | 20 | | Extra MRR | $980 | | Extra ARR | $11,760 | | Growth in paying customers | 33.3% | Working: 1. Rate: 60 paid out of 400 started is 15.0%. 2. MRR from these trials: 60 subscribers at $49 is $2,940 a month. 3. Target rate: 15.0% plus 5 points is 20.0%. 4. Customers at the target: 20.0% of 400 trials is 80, which is 20 more than today. 5. Extra MRR: 20 extra customers at $49 is $980 a month, and $11,760 over 12 months. ## How the conversion rate is calculated The trial conversion rate is the share of trials in one start cohort that went on to pay: paid trials over started trials, times 100. The calculator then asks a second question: what would a few more points of that rate be worth in customers, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and annual recurring revenue (ARR)? ### The formula in words The rate is trials that paid divided by trials started. The target rate is the rate plus the points you want to test, capped at 100. Customers at the target are trials started times the target rate, rounded half up. Extra customers are those minus today's paying customers. Extra MRR is extra customers times the monthly price, and extra ARR is twelve times that. ### The formula in symbols ```text S = trials started D = trials that paid P = monthly price k = extra points rate = D / S * 100 target = min(rate + k, 100) customers at target = round(S * target / 100) extra = customers at target - D extra MRR = extra * P extra ARR = 12 * extra MRR ``` ## Worked examples Each column below is the calculator run on a different set of inputs. The first column is the default input set: 400 trials started, 60 paid and a $49 monthly price. | Result | Default inputs | Low price, high volume | High price, low volume | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Trials started, paid, price | 400, 60, $49 | 1,200, 96, $29 | 250, 10, $400 | | Points tested | +5 | +3 | +10 | | Trial to paid rate | 15.0% | 8.0% | 4.0% | | MRR from these trials | $2,940 | $2,784 | $4,000 | | Target rate | 20.0% | 11.0% | 14.0% | | Paying customers at the target | 80 | 132 | 35 | | Extra customers | 20 | 36 | 25 | | Extra MRR | $980 | $1,044 | $10,000 | | Extra ARR | $11,760 | $12,528 | $120,000 | | Growth in paying customers | 33.3% | 37.5% | 250.0% | ## What each extra point is worth at the default inputs | Points added | Target rate | Extra customers | Extra MRR | Extra ARR | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +1 point | 16.0% | 4 | $196 | $2,352 | | +2 points | 17.0% | 8 | $392 | $4,704 | | +5 points | 20.0% | 20 | $980 | $11,760 | | +10 points | 25.0% | 40 | $1,960 | $23,520 | The same five points are worth different amounts at different prices, because the extra customers (20 here) are multiplied by the price. | Monthly price | MRR from these trials | Extra MRR at +5 points | Extra ARR at +5 points | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $10 | $600 | $200 | $2,400 | | $49 | $2,940 | $980 | $11,760 | | $199 | $11,940 | $3,980 | $47,760 | ## Percentage points are not percent growth Going from 15.0% up to 20.0% gains five percentage points. In customers it is 33.3% growth, because 20 extra customers join 60 today. The same five points on a smaller base is a larger jump: with 10 paid out of 250, the rate goes from 4.0% to 9.0% and paying customers grow by 130.0%. ## How to count the inputs - Count trials by start cohort, such as everyone who started in one week or one month. - Wait until every trial in the cohort has ended before you calculate. A trial still running cannot have paid yet and would pull the rate down. - Define "paid" as the first successful charge after the trial, not a card on file and not a signup. - Compare like with like. A cohort that required a card at signup and a cohort that did not are different groups and need separate rates. ## Published reference points Published studies give a loose reference. ChartMogul's conversion report puts the median free to paid rate across 200 products at 8%, and the rate for trials that require a credit card at 30%, in a January 2026 study. We read that page on 18 Oct 2026. These figures describe a sample of products and depend on how each trial is set up, so treat them as context for your own cohorts and not as a target. Your own rate, 15.0% at the defaults, is the number to improve against. ## Edge cases - Paid greater than started is invalid. Entering 500 paid on 400 started returns a message that the trials must come from the same cohort (status: invalid). - Started equal to zero is the empty state. The calculator asks for the number of trials and shows no rate (status: empty). - Zero paid is allowed. The rate is 0.0%, and growth in paying customers reads "Not defined" because there is no base to grow from. - The target rate is capped at 100. With 90 paid out of 100 and 30 points added, the target is 100.0%, and extra customers are 10. - Fractions of a point are accepted. The customer count at the target is rounded half up to a whole customer. ## Questions people ask ### How do I calculate trial conversion rate? Take the paid trials over the started trials of one cohort. 60 paid out of 400 started is 15.0%. ### What is the difference between percentage points and percent? Points are the arithmetic gap between two rates, such as the move from 15.0% to 20.0%, which is a gap of 5. Percent growth compares customers: 20 extra on 60 is 33.3%. ### Should I count trials that are still running? No. Wait until every trial in the cohort has ended, otherwise unfinished trials count as losses and the rate looks lower than it is. ### What counts as a paid trial? The first successful charge after the trial. A card on file, an invoice that failed or a signup does not count, because none of them is revenue. ### What is a good trial conversion rate? It depends on the product and on whether the trial asks for a card. ChartMogul's January 2026 study reports a 8% median free to paid rate across 200 products and 30% for trials that require a card (read 18 Oct 2026). Compare your own cohorts over time before comparing with anyone else. ### How much is one extra point worth? At the default inputs one point adds 4 subscribers, bringing $196 in MRR and $2,352 in ARR. Change the price and the figure scales with it. ### Does the calculator account for churn? No. It values extra customers as revenue today. Use the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) to see how many of them are still there after a year. ## Related tools Use the [ROI calculator](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) to compare the value of a higher rate with a plan fee, the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) to see how new customers move ending MRR, and the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) for the trials that fail at the first charge. See the [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) for definitions. ## Sources - [Median free-to-paid conversion rate across 200 products](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 18 Oct 2026. ChartMogul, The Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026), January 2026 study of 200 products. ## Related - [ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Churn Rate Calculator Divide customers lost by customers at the start: 15 of 500 is 3.0% a month, 30.6% a year compounded. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Period measured | One month | | Customers at the start | 500 | | Customers lost | 15 | | MRR at the start | 50000 | | MRR lost to cancellations | 1500 | | MRR lost to downgrades | 500 | | Expansion MRR | 2500 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Customer churn, this period | 3.0% | | Customer churn, annualized | 30.6% | | Gross MRR churn, this period | 4.0% | | Gross MRR churn, annualized | 38.7% | | Net MRR churn, this period | -1.0% | | Net MRR churn, annualized | -12.7% | | Net revenue retention (NRR), this period | 101.0% | | Net revenue retention (NRR), annualized | 112.7% | | Gross revenue retention (GRR), this period | 96.0% | | Gross revenue retention (GRR), annualized | 61.3% | Working: 1. Customer churn: 15 lost out of 500 at the start is 3.0% per month. 2. Annualized: 1 minus (1 minus 3.0%) to the power of 12 is 30.6%, not 36.0%. 3. Gross MRR churn: $1,500 cancelled plus $500 downgraded, over $50,000 at the start, is 4.0% per month, or 38.7% a year. 4. Net MRR churn: subtract $2,500 of expansion and the figure becomes -1.0% per month, negative because expansion is larger than the MRR you lost. 5. NRR is 1 minus net churn: 101.0% per month, 112.7% over a year. GRR is 1 minus gross churn: 96.0% per month, 61.3% over a year. ## How the churn figures are worked out Churn measures what you lose from the customers and revenue you started a period with. The calculator reports five measures: customer churn, gross MRR churn, net MRR churn, net revenue retention (NRR) and gross revenue retention (GRR). Each is shown for the period you entered and annualized, so a month, a quarter and a year can be compared on one footing. The base is whoever was already paying when the period opened. Someone who signed up midway and left before it closed is not in that base, so counting them would overstate churn. ### The formulas in words - Take the customers who left during the period and divide by the headcount you began the period with. - Gross MRR churn is cancelled MRR plus downgraded MRR, divided by MRR at the start. Expansion is left out. - Net MRR churn is cancelled plus downgraded minus expansion, divided by MRR at the start. It drops below zero when upgrades outweigh the losses. - NRR is 1 minus net MRR churn. GRR is 1 minus gross MRR churn. - Annualizing compounds the rate over 12 months. It never multiplies by 12. ### The formulas in symbols ```text customer churn = lost / start gross MRR churn = (cancelled + downgraded) / start MRR net MRR churn = (cancelled + downgraded - expansion) / start MRR NRR = 1 - net MRR churn GRR = 1 - gross MRR churn monthly equivalent of a period rate p over m months: 1 - (1 - p)^(1/m) annual churn = 1 - (1 - monthly)^12 annual NRR = NRR_monthly^12 ``` ## Worked examples The table runs the calculator on three inputs: the monthly defaults, a quarter and a year. A quarterly or yearly figure is converted to its monthly equivalent before it is annualized, which is why the annual numbers for the quarter and the year are not simply the period figure times four or times one. | Result | Monthly (defaults) | Quarterly example | Yearly example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Customers at the start, lost | 500, 15 | 800, 40 | 300, 60 | | Customer churn, this period | 3.0% | 5.0% | 20.0% | | Customer churn, annualized | 30.6% | 18.5% | 20.0% | | Gross MRR churn, this period | 4.0% | 5.0% | 20.0% | | Gross MRR churn, annualized | 38.7% | 18.5% | 20.0% | | Net MRR churn, this period | -1.0% | 3.8% | 13.3% | | Net MRR churn, annualized | -12.7% | 14.2% | 13.3% | | NRR, this period | 101.0% | 96.3% | 86.7% | | NRR, annualized | 112.7% | 85.8% | 86.7% | | GRR, this period | 96.0% | 95.0% | 80.0% | | GRR, annualized | 61.3% | 81.5% | 80.0% | At the defaults, 15 of 500 subscribers is 3.0% a month. Compounded over a year that is 30.6%, not 36%. The difference matters: each month you lose a share of a base that is already smaller. ## Monthly churn against what is left after a year This table starts with 100 subscribers and applies a steady monthly churn for 12 months. The last column shows the wrong shortcut of multiplying the monthly rate by 12, which overstates annual churn more and more as churn rises. | Monthly churn | Customers left of 100 after 12 months | Annual churn (compounded) | Wrong: monthly times 12 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1% | 88.6% | 11.4% | 12% | | 2% | 78.5% | 21.5% | 24% | | 3% | 69.4% | 30.6% | 36% | | 5% | 54.0% | 46.0% | 60% | | 10% | 28.2% | 71.8% | 120% | ## Edge cases - Customers lost greater than customers at the start is invalid. Entering 600 lost from 500 returns an explanation and no figures (status: invalid). - Customers at the start equal to zero is the empty state (status: empty). - Negative net churn is allowed and explained. With expansion of $9,000 against $2,000 of losses at the defaults, net MRR churn is -14.0% and NRR is 114.0%. - Leaving the MRR fields blank gives customer churn only, with 2 result rows and a step that says the revenue figures are not shown. - A period churn of 100% annualizes to 100%. Losing all 500 subscribers returns 100.0%. - Cancellations plus downgrades larger than the starting MRR is invalid, because you cannot lose more MRR than you started with. ## Questions people ask ### How do I calculate churn rate? Take the number who left and divide it by the number you began with. 15 lost out of 500 is 3.0%. ### Why not multiply monthly churn by 12 for annual churn? Because each month's losses come from a base that is already smaller. 3.0% a month compounds to 30.6% a year, while times 12 would give 36.0%. ### How do gross and net MRR churn differ? Gross MRR churn counts only the revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades, 4.0% at the defaults. Net MRR churn subtracts expansion, so it reads -1.0%, which means existing customers grew revenue by more than they shrank it. ### Can churn be negative? Net MRR churn can be, when expansion is larger than cancellations plus downgrades. At the defaults NRR is 101.0% for the month, which is above 100%. ### What are NRR and GRR? Net revenue retention is the share of starting MRR you hold after expansion, 112.7% annualized at the defaults. Gross revenue retention ignores expansion and cannot exceed 100%, 61.3% annualized here. ### How does a quarterly or yearly period get annualized? The period rate is converted to its monthly equivalent, then compounded for 12 months. The quarterly example above turns 5.0% per quarter into 18.5% a year. ### Do customers who joined during the period count? No. Only customers present at the start of the period go in the denominator, and only losses from that group go in the numerator. Counting new customers in either place distorts the rate. ## Related tools Feed your monthly churn into the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) to see an average lifetime and LTV. The [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) shows how churned and expansion MRR move your ending MRR, and the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) covers the step before a customer exists. Definitions are in the [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md). ## Related - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Customer lifetime value calculator At $100 a month, 80% margin and 2.5% monthly churn, a customer is worth $3,200 in margin. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Average revenue per account, monthly (ARPA) | 100 | | Gross margin | 80 | | Monthly customer churn | 2.5 | | Customer acquisition cost (optional) | 800 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Monthly margin per account | $80 | | Average customer lifetime | 40 months | | Customer lifetime value (LTV) | $3,200 | | Lifetime revenue per customer | $4,000 | | LTV to CAC | 4.0 to 1 | | CAC payback | 10 months | Working: 1. Monthly margin: $100 times 80% is $80 a month. 2. Lifetime: 1 divided by 2.5% monthly churn is 40 months. 3. LTV: $80 divided by 2.5% is $3,200. Lifetime revenue, before costs, is $100 divided by 2.5%, which is $4,000. 4. LTV to CAC: $3,200 divided by $800 is 4.0 to 1. 5. CAC payback: $800 divided by $80 a month is 10 months. ## How the calculator works Customer lifetime value is the margin an average customer brings in before they leave. Take the revenue one account pays each month, keep only the share left after the direct cost of serving it, and divide by the share of customers who cancel each month. The inverse of monthly churn is the average lifetime in months, so a lower churn rate lengthens the lifetime and raises the value at the same time. In symbols: `margin per month = ARPA x gross margin`, `lifetime = 1 / churn`, `LTV = margin per month / churn`. Lifetime revenue before costs is `ARPA / churn`. With a customer acquisition cost, `LTV to CAC = LTV / CAC` and `payback = CAC / margin per month`. Money is held in cents and rounded half up at each step, so the figures match what you would get on paper. ## Worked examples A low priced plan: $49 a month at 85% margin leaves $41.65 a month. At 3% monthly churn a customer stays 33.3 months on average, which gives $1,388.33 of lifetime value against a $300 acquisition cost. | Step | Low priced plan | | --- | --- | | Monthly revenue per account | $49 | | Gross margin | 85% | | Monthly churn | 3% | | Acquisition cost | $300 | | Monthly margin per account | $41.65 | | Average customer lifetime | 33.3 months | | Customer lifetime value | $1,388.33 | | LTV to CAC | 4.6 to 1 | | CAC payback | 7.2 months | A higher priced plan sold to teams: $400 a month at 70% margin and 1.2% monthly churn gives $23,333.33 over 83.3 months. Spending $6,000 to win that customer returns 3.9 to 1 and pays back in 21.4 months. | Step | Team plan | | --- | --- | | Monthly revenue per account | $400 | | Gross margin | 70% | | Monthly churn | 1.2% | | Acquisition cost | $6,000 | | Monthly margin per account | $280 | | Average customer lifetime | 83.3 months | | Customer lifetime value | $23,333.33 | | LTV to CAC | 3.9 to 1 | | CAC payback | 21.4 months | A plan that does not pay back: $30 a month at 60% margin and 8% monthly churn has an average lifetime of 12.5 months, but covering a $400 acquisition cost takes 22.2 months. The ratio is 0.6 to 1. On average these customers leave before they repay what it cost to win them. ## Lifetime value at common churn rates The table keeps the other inputs at $100 a month and 80% margin and changes only monthly churn. Halving churn from 2.5% to 1.25% takes lifetime value from $3,200 to $6,400, because churn sits in the denominator. | Monthly churn | Average lifetime | Lifetime value (to the dollar) | | --- | --- | --- | | 1% | 100 months | $8,000 | | 2% | 50 months | $4,000 | | 2.5% | 40 months | $3,200 | | 3% | 33.3 months | $2,667 | | 5% | 20 months | $1,600 | | 10% | 10 months | $800 | ## Edge cases and how the tool treats them - Churn of 0% is refused. Churn of 0% means customers never leave, so their lifetime is unbounded and lifetime value has no end. Enter a churn above 0%. - Gross margin runs from 0 to 100. A margin of 0% gives a lifetime value of $0, and with an acquisition cost entered the tool reports that the cost never pays back. - Leave the acquisition cost blank and the tool hides the ratio and the payback, keeping the other four results (4 rows at the defaults instead of 6). - When payback is longer than the average lifetime, the working says so in plain words instead of showing a ratio that looks healthy. - Use monthly churn of customers, not of revenue. If expansion revenue offsets cancellations, the simple formula understates value, and a cohort view is the better tool. ### What does this calculator measure? Customer lifetime value, the margin an average customer contributes before cancelling. It is not loan to value, the mortgage ratio that shares the abbreviation LTV. At the defaults, $100 a month, 80% margin and 2.5% churn give $3,200. ### Why divide by churn? If 2.5% of customers cancel each month, the average customer lasts 1 / 0.025 months, which is 40 months. Multiplying that lifetime by the monthly margin of $80 gives the lifetime value. ### Should I use revenue or margin? Margin. Lifetime revenue at the defaults is $4,000, but $3,200 of that is left after the cost of serving the account. Comparing revenue with acquisition cost flatters the ratio. ### How is LTV to CAC read? It divides lifetime value by what it cost to win the customer. With a $800 acquisition cost the defaults give 4.0 to 1. A ratio below 1 to 1 means customers do not repay their cost on average. Compare it with your own history and cash position. ### What is CAC payback? The months of margin needed to recover the acquisition cost: $800 divided by $80 a month is 10 months at the defaults. A short payback frees cash to acquire the next customer sooner. ### What happens if churn is 0%? The tool asks for a churn above 0%. With no cancellations the average lifetime has no end, so a lifetime value cannot be stated. Use the churn of your slowest cohort, or a small number you can defend, and say which you chose. ### Does a card at sign-up change the inputs? It can change churn and the number of trials that become customers. Measure monthly churn on customers who reached their first payment, and keep trial sign-ups out of the churn denominator. The trial conversion calculator covers the step before the first payment. ## Related tools Churn is the input that moves lifetime value most, so start with the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) if you only have cancellation counts. The [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) shows how new, expansion and lost revenue add up each month, and the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) covers the step before the first payment. To price a better trial conversion in revenue, try the [ROI calculator](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md). The [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) defines every term used here. ## Related - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # MRR calculator Starting at $40,000, a month with $6,000 new and $2,000 expansion MRR ends at $46,000, an ARR of $552,000. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Starting MRR | 40000 | | New MRR | 6000 | | Expansion MRR | 2000 | | Contraction MRR | 800 | | Churned MRR | 1200 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Net new MRR | +$6,000 | | Ending MRR | $46,000 | | ARR | $552,000 | | Growth | 15.0% | | Quick ratio | 4.0 | Working: 1. Net new MRR is $6,000 new plus $2,000 expansion, minus $800 contraction and $1,200 churned, which is +$6,000. 2. Ending MRR is the $40,000 you started with plus $6,000, which is $46,000. 3. ARR is ending MRR times 12, which is $552,000. 4. Growth is net new +$6,000 divided by starting $40,000, which is 15.0%. 5. The quick ratio is gains of $8,000 divided by losses of $2,000, which is 4.0. ## How the calculator works Monthly recurring revenue moves for four reasons. New customers add to it, existing customers who upgrade or add seats add expansion, customers who downgrade subtract contraction, and customers who cancel subtract churned MRR. Enter the month's five figures and the tool nets them, adds the result to the starting balance, and reads off the ending MRR, the annual run rate, the growth rate and the quick ratio. In symbols: `net new = new + expansion - contraction - churned`, `ending = starting + net new`, `ARR = ending x 12`, `growth = net new / starting`, `quick ratio = (new + expansion) / (contraction + churned)`. Enter contraction and churned as positive amounts. The tool subtracts them for you. ## Worked examples A growing month: $25,000 of MRR at the start, $3,500 new, $900 of expansion, $400 of contraction and $1,100 churned. Net new MRR is +$2,900, so the month ends at $27,900, growth of 11.6% and a quick ratio of 2.9. | Line | Amount | | --- | --- | | Starting MRR | $25,000 | | New MRR | $3,500 | | Expansion MRR | $900 | | Contraction MRR | $400 | | Churned MRR | $1,100 | | Net new MRR | +$2,900 | | Ending MRR | $27,900 | | ARR | $334,800 | | Growth | 11.6% | | Quick ratio | 2.9 | A shrinking month: $80,000 at the start, with $3,000 of contraction and $6,500 churned outweighing $4,000 new and $1,500 expansion. Net new MRR is -$4,000, ending MRR is $76,000 and growth is -5.0%. A quick ratio under 1.0, here 0.6, means the month lost more than it gained. | Line | Amount | | --- | --- | | Starting MRR | $80,000 | | New MRR | $4,000 | | Expansion MRR | $1,500 | | Contraction MRR | $3,000 | | Churned MRR | $6,500 | | Net new MRR | -$4,000 | | Ending MRR | $76,000 | | ARR | $912,000 | | Growth | -5.0% | | Quick ratio | 0.6 | ## Turning plan prices into MRR MRR counts every customer at a monthly amount, so a plan billed less often is spread over the months it covers and rounded half up to the cent. The table shows common billing periods. Add the monthly equivalents of every active plan to get the starting MRR you enter above. | Billing period | Price charged | Months covered | Monthly MRR | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Monthly plan | $49 | 1 | $49 | | Quarterly plan | $150 | 3 | $50 | | Six month plan | $290 | 6 | $48.33 | | Annual plan | $1,200 | 12 | $100 | | Two year plan | $2,000 | 24 | $83.33 | ## Edge cases and how the tool treats them - With no contraction and no churn, losses are zero and the quick ratio cannot be divided. The tool shows "No losses, undefined" instead of a number, and the other results still work (ending MRR $48,000 at the defaults). - A starting MRR of zero hides growth, because there is nothing to grow from. At the defaults with a zero start the tool shows "Not defined" for growth and still reports ending MRR of $6,000. - Net new MRR can be negative. The shrinking example above ends at $76,000 and shows -$4,000 as net new. - If losses are larger than everything that was available, ending MRR would be below zero. The tool says so and asks you to check the contraction and churned figures. - One time charges are not MRR. Setup fees, one off services and usage that does not repeat stay out of all five fields. - A trial adds nothing to MRR until its first payment. Count a customer as new MRR in the month the first charge succeeds, not the month the trial starts. ### How do MRR and ARR differ? ARR is ending MRR times 12. At the defaults, $46,000 of MRR is $552,000 of ARR. Use MRR for month to month movement and ARR when you describe the size of the recurring base. ### What is net new MRR? New plus expansion minus contraction minus churned. At the defaults that is $6,000 + $2,000 - $800 - $1,200, which is +$6,000. ### How is growth measured? Net new MRR divided by starting MRR. The defaults give +$6,000 over $40,000, which is 15.0% for the month. The tool divides by the start, not the end, so the rate matches what you began with. ### What does the quick ratio tell me? It compares what you added with what you lost. The defaults add $8,000 and lose $2,000, a quick ratio of 4.0. Above 1.0 the base grew. Below 1.0 it shrank. ### Where do annual plans go? Spread the price over the months it covers. An annual plan at $1,200 counts $100 a month, and a $2,000 two year plan counts $83.33 a month. Cash arrives up front, but MRR is spread evenly. ### Do trials count as MRR? No. A trial contributes nothing until the first payment succeeds. With a card held at sign-up, the customer becomes new MRR when the first charge goes through. The trial conversion rate calculator shows how many trials reach that point. ### Should failed payments reduce MRR? Only once a customer is lost. A renewal that fails and is recovered never leaves MRR. A renewal that is not recovered becomes churned MRR. The failed payment recovery calculator estimates what that costs each year. ## Related tools MRR changes only through the five lines above, so the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) covers where new MRR starts and the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) covers where churned MRR comes from. The [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) prices the churn that comes from declined cards, and the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) turns monthly churn into the value of a customer. The [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) defines MRR, ARR and expansion MRR in full. ## Related - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Failed payment recovery calculator On $50,000 of MRR with 5% failing first try, recovering 40% loses $18,000 a year, and 55% recovery saves $4,500. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Monthly recurring revenue | 50000 | | Renewal value that fails on the first try | 5 | | Recovery rate today | 40 | | Recovery rate to compare | 55 | | Months a lost subscriber would have stayed | 1 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Failed renewals per month | $2,500 | | Recovered per month | $1,000 | | Lost per month | $1,500 | | Lost per year | $18,000 | | Saved per year at 55.0% recovery | $4,500 | | Saved per month | $375 | Working: 1. $50,000 of MRR times a 5.0% failed payment rate is $2,500 of renewals that fail on the first try each month. 2. At a 40.0% recovery rate you win back $1,000 of that, so $1,500 is not recovered. 3. Over 12 months that is $1,500 times 12, which is $18,000 lost. 4. At a 55.0% recovery rate you would win back $1,375, leaving $1,125 lost per month. 5. The difference is $375 a month, or $4,500 a year. ## How the calculator works Some renewals fail on the first attempt because of an expired card, a temporary decline or an insufficient balance. Enter your monthly recurring revenue, the share of renewal value that fails on the first try, the share you recover today and a second recovery rate to compare. The tool shows the revenue that fails each month, what you win back, what is lost, and what moving to the comparison rate would save over a year. In symbols: `failed = MRR x failure rate`, `recovered = failed x recovery rate`, `lost per month = (failed - recovered) x months`, `lost per year = lost per month x 12`, and `saved per year = failed x (comparison rate - today) x months x 12`. The optional months input counts how long a lost subscriber would have stayed. At the default of 1 only the missed renewal is counted, and a higher number multiplies the loss. ## Worked examples A small subscription business: $20,000 of MRR with 4% failing on the first try gives $800 of failed renewals a month. Recovering 30% wins back $240, so $560 is lost each month and $6,720 over a year. At 55% recovery the saving is $2,400 a year. | Line | Amount | | --- | --- | | Monthly recurring revenue | $20,000 | | Renewal value that fails first try | 4% | | Recovery rate today | 30% | | Recovery rate to compare | 55% | | Failed renewals per month | $800 | | Recovered per month | $240 | | Lost per month | $560 | | Lost per year | $6,720 | | Saved per year at the comparison rate | $2,400 | A larger base that counts the full cost of a lost subscriber: $120,000 of MRR, 7% failing, 50% recovered today and 70% as the comparison, where a lost subscriber would have stayed 6 months. Failed renewals are $8,400 a month, $302,400 is lost a year, and the comparison rate saves $120,960 a year. | Line | Amount | | --- | --- | | Monthly recurring revenue | $120,000 | | Renewal value that fails first try | 7% | | Recovery rate today | 50% | | Recovery rate to compare | 70% | | Failed renewals per month | $8,400 | | Recovered per month | $4,200 | | Lost per month | $25,200 | | Lost per year | $302,400 | | Saved per year at the comparison rate | $120,960 | ## What a year of failed payments costs at each recovery rate The table keeps the defaults of $50,000 MRR and 5% failing first try, and changes only today's recovery rate. Each step in recovery changes the loss, and the defaults show $18,000 lost at 40%. | Recovery rate | Recovered per month | Lost per month | Lost per year | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 20% | $500 | $2,000 | $24,000 | | 40% | $1,000 | $1,500 | $18,000 | | 55% | $1,375 | $1,125 | $13,500 | | 70% | $1,750 | $750 | $9,000 | | 85% | $2,125 | $375 | $4,500 | ## What Stripe publishes The comparison rate starts at 55%, the average failed payment recovery rate Stripe states on its Billing product page (read 18 Oct 2026). It is an average across businesses using that product, not a promise for yours, so replace it with your own number when you have one. Stripe's Smart Retries documentation recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks as its default retry setting (read 18 Oct 2026). Retry timing is one part of recovery, and card update emails and a clear billing page matter as well. ## Edge cases and how the tool treats them - A comparison rate below today's rate is allowed. With recovery today at 60% and the comparison at 40% the tool shows -$6,000 instead of an error, with a note that this is a loss. - Every rate runs from 0 to 100. At 100% recovery the loss is $0, and at 0% it is $30,000 a year on the defaults. - Months a lost subscriber would have stayed must be 1 or more. Setting it to 3 takes the yearly loss on the defaults from $18,000 to $54,000. - Failure rate is a share of renewal value, not of customers. If expensive plans fail more often than cheap ones, enter the value share. - Percentages of cents are rounded half up at each step, so the figures match a manual check. ### What counts as a failed payment here? A renewal that does not succeed on its first attempt. At the defaults, 5% of $50,000 of MRR is $2,500 a month. Many of those can still be recovered, which is what the recovery rate measures. ### What is a recovery rate? The share of failed renewals you win back through retries, card updates and reminders. At 40% the defaults recover $1,000 of $2,500 and lose $1,500 each month. ### Where does the starting comparison rate come from? It is Stripe's published average of 55% for businesses using Stripe Billing, read 18 Oct 2026 on stripe.com/billing. Treat it as context. Your own mix of cards, regions and plans decides what you can reach. ### Why is the saving smaller than the loss? The saving counts only the extra recovery between your rate and the comparison rate. On the defaults, moving from 40% to 55% saves $4,500 a year, while the loss at today's rate is $18,000 a year. ### What does the months input change? It multiplies each unrecovered renewal by the months that subscriber would have stayed. At 1 the base figures hold. At 3 the yearly loss on the defaults becomes $54,000 and the saving becomes $13,500. ### Does a card held at sign-up change failed payments? It can. A card that passed a hold at sign-up was able to cover the plan price on that day, so later failures often come from changes such as expiry or a lower balance. Measure your own failure rate for first renewals and later renewals separately, and enter the one you are modelling. ### Can I rely on the result as a forecast? It is a sum of the numbers you enter, not a prediction. Recovery depends on your customers, your retry schedule and the reasons cards fail. Use the tool to compare scenarios and to decide what is worth measuring next. ## Sources - [Average failed-payment recovery rate Stripe publishes for businesses using Stripe Billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 18 Oct 2026. - [Stripe Smart Retries recommended default](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 18 Oct 2026. ## Related tools Unrecovered renewals end as churn, so the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) shows the cancellation side and the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) shows how churned MRR reaches your monthly total. The [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) turns a higher retention rate into the value of a customer, and the [ROI calculator](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) prices a better trial to paid rate. The [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) covers payment recovery and involuntary churn. ## Related - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Price Increase Calculator A rise from $49 to $59 is +20.4% and pays off until 16.9% of customers leave. Test your own. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Set the change by | New price | | Current monthly price | 49 | | New monthly price | 59 | | Percent increase | 20 | | Customers today | 400 | | Share who leave because of it | 5 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Price change | +$10 a month | | Percent change | +20.4% | | MRR today | $19,600 | | Customers staying | 380 | | MRR after the change | $22,420 | | Net change in MRR | +$2,820 a month | | Change in ARR | +$33,840 | | Break-even loss | 16.9% | | Rise 20%, then cut 20% | $47.04 | Working: 1. The price moves from $49 to $59, a change of +$10. That is +20.4% of the old price ($10 divided by $49). 2. Today 400 subscribers at $49 make $19,600 a month. 3. If 5.0% leave, 380 subscribers stay (400 times 95.0%, rounded to a whole customer). 4. 380 subscribers at $59 make $22,420 a month, a net change of +$2,820 (+14.4%), or +$33,840 over a year. 5. Break-even: the extra revenue per customer covers the loss until 16.9% of customers leave (1 minus $49 divided by $59), which is 67 of your 400. 6. Percent changes do not undo each other: $49 raised 20% is $58.80, and cutting that by 20% leaves $47.04, 4.0% below $49. ## How the sum works Take the new price minus the old price and divide by the old price: that is the percent change. Multiply your customers by the old price for MRR today. Multiply the customers who stay by the new price for MRR after, and subtract to get the net change. Break-even is the share of customers you can lose before that net change reaches zero, and it equals 1 less the ratio of the old price to the new price. In symbols: change = (p1 - p0) / p0. MRR0 = n x p0. n1 = round(n x (1 - L)). MRR1 = n1 x p1. Net = MRR1 - MRR0. Break-even loss = 1 - p0 / p1. For a cut, break-even gain = p0 / p1 - 1. Here p0 is the old price, p1 the new price, n the customers today and L the share who leave. ## Worked examples Each example is run through the same function as the calculator above. The customer counts and shares are example numbers, not benchmarks. ### A rise from $49 to $59 on 400 subscribers This is the calculator's starting example: 380 of 400 subscribers stay when 5% leave. | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Price change | +$10 a month | | Percent change | +20.4% | | MRR today | $19,600 | | Customers staying | 380 | | MRR after the change | $22,420 | | Net change in MRR | +$2,820 a month | | Change in ARR | +$33,840 | | Break-even loss | 16.9% | ### A low-price plan going from $19 to $24 on 1,200 subscribers A small plan can take a large percent rise, so the break-even share is worth reading before you pick a number. Here 8% of customers leave. | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Price change | +$5 a month | | Percent change | +26.3% | | MRR today | $22,800 | | Customers staying | 1,104 | | MRR after the change | $26,496 | | Net change in MRR | +$3,696 a month | | Break-even loss | 20.8% | ### A cut from $99 to $79 on 150 subscribers A cut reverses the question. Instead of how many customers you can lose, it asks how many more you need. | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Price change | -$20 a month | | Percent change | -20.2% | | MRR today | $14,850 | | MRR after the change | $11,850 | | Net change in MRR | -$3,000 a month | | Break-even gain | 25.3% | ## MRR after a rise, by how many leave For 400 subscribers at $49, this table shows MRR after the change for each rise and each share who leave. MRR today is $19,600. | Rise | 0% leave | 5% leave | 10% leave | 20% leave | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 10% | $21,560 | $20,482 | $19,404 | $17,248 | | 20% | $23,520 | $22,344 | $21,168 | $18,816 | | 30% | $25,480 | $24,206 | $22,932 | $20,384 | ## How much room each rise gives you The break-even loss depends only on the size of the rise, not on the price or the customer count. The last column applies it to the starting customer count. | Rise | Break-even loss | Customers you can lose out of 400 | | --- | --- | --- | | 5% | 4.8% | 19 | | 10% | 9.1% | 36 | | 15% | 13.0% | 52 | | 20% | 16.7% | 66 | | 25% | 20.0% | 80 | | 30% | 23.1% | 92 | | 50% | 33.3% | 133 | | 100% | 50.0% | 200 | ## Edge cases - New price equal to the old price: the result reads "No change" and MRR stays where it is. - New price below the old price: the break-even becomes the customer gain you need, labeled as such. - Share who leave at 0%: the net change is the whole extra revenue, which is the best case and not a forecast. - Customers must be a whole number of at least 1. A price at or below zero, or a cut of 100% or more, shows an explanation instead of a result. - The percent mode applies the percent to the old price and rounds to the cent: a 20% rise on $49 is $58.80. ## Changing a price in Stripe - The amount of an existing price cannot be changed through the API. Make a new price at the new amount, move subscriptions onto it, then mark the old price inactive. - Archiving a price stops it being added to new invoices or subscriptions. Subscriptions that already use it stay active until they are cancelled. - A price you have used cannot be deleted, only archived. > Read from Stripe's product and price documentation on 19 Oct 2026. ## Questions ### How many customers can I lose before a price increase stops paying off? The break-even share is the old price over the new price, taken away from 1. Moving from $49 to $59 gives 16.9%, which is 67 of 400 subscribers. Past that point the extra revenue from those who stay no longer covers the revenue from those who leave. ### Why is the percent change not the same as the break-even share? A percent change divides the difference by the old price: +$10 a month divided by $49 is +20.4%. The 16.9% figure is something else, the share of customers you can lose before revenue falls, and it divides by the new price. The calculator shows both and labels each. ### Does raising a price by 20% and cutting it by 20% bring me back to where I started? No. Starting at $49, a 20% rise gives $58.80, and a 20% cut from there gives $47.04, which is 4.0% below $49. The second change applies to a larger number, so equal percentages in opposite directions never cancel. ### What happens to revenue if I cut my price instead? A cut has to be paid for with new customers. Taking a plan from $99 to $79 with 150 subscribers needs 38 more customers just to match today's MRR, a gain of 25.3%. The calculator switches to this view whenever the new price is below the old one. ### Does the share who leave apply to every customer equally? The calculator treats it as one share of the whole base, which is how most plans are first sized. In practice the people most sensitive to price leave first, so check the result at a higher share too. With a 20% rise, MRR after the change is $22,344 when 5% leave and $21,168 when 10% leave. ### How do I estimate the share who will leave? Start from your own history: how many customers cancelled in the weeks after your last price change or in a normal month. Then test a range. A small shop raising its plan from $19 to $24 across 1,200 subscribers has a break-even loss of 20.8%, so with 8% leaving the net change in MRR is +$3,696 a month. ### Can I edit the price of an existing Stripe subscription plan? Stripe does not let you change the amount of an existing price through the API. Its documentation advises making a fresh price at the new amount, moving subscribers onto it and marking the old price inactive. Archiving a price keeps subscriptions that use it active until they are cancelled. This was read on 19 Oct 2026 from Stripe's price documentation. ## Related tools A price change moves your recurring revenue, so check the result in the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) and watch the [churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) in the weeks after. The [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) shows what a customer who stays is worth over time, and the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) shows whether the new price covers your costs. Browse every metric in the [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md). ## Sources - [Stripe: create and manage products and prices](https://docs.stripe.com/products-prices/manage-prices), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/proration-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Proration calculator Moving a $49 plan up to $99 when 15 of the 30 days remain owes $25.00 now: $49.50 less a $24.50 credit. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Current period start | 2027-04-01 | | Next period start | 2027-05-01 | | Date of the change | 2027-04-16 | | Old price for the period | 49 | | New price for the period | 99 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Days in the period | 30 | | Days left, change day included | 15 | | Daily rate, old price | $1.63 | | Daily rate, new price | $3.30 | | Credit for the unused old plan | $24.50 | | Charge for the rest of the period on the new plan | $49.50 | | Due now | $25.00 | Working: 1. Days in the period: 30 days from the period start to the next period start. 2. Days left: 15 days from the change date, counting the change day itself, to the next period start. That is 50.0% of the period. 3. Credit for the unused old plan: $49.00 x 15 / 30 = $24.50, rounded half up to the cent. 4. Charge for the rest of the period on the new plan: $99.00 x 15 / 30 = $49.50, rounded half up to the cent. 5. Due now: $49.50 - $24.50 = $25.00. ## How the proration works A billing period has a number of days. When the price changes part-way through, the customer has already paid for the old plan for the whole period, so the unused share of that payment becomes a credit. The new plan is then charged for the same unused share. What is due now is the charge minus the credit. In symbols: ```text D = next period start - period start (days in the period) L = next period start - change date (days left, change day included) credit = old price x L / D rounded half up to the cent charge = new price x L / D rounded half up to the cent due now = charge - credit ``` The credit and the charge are each rounded to the cent first and then subtracted, so the displayed credit, charge and total always add up. ## Worked examples ### An upgrade half way through the month A customer on $49 moves to $99 on 16 Apr 2027, in a period that runs 1 Apr 2027 to 1 May 2027. | Step | Value | | --- | --- | | Old price | $49 | | New price | $99 | | Days in the period | 30 | | Days left, change day included | 15 | | Credit for the unused old plan | $24.50 | | Charge for the rest of the period on the new plan | $49.50 | | Due now | $25.00 | ### A downgrade on the same date The same dates with the prices reversed produce a credit owed instead of an amount due: $25.00. | Step | Value | | --- | --- | | Old price | $99 | | New price | $49 | | Days in the period | 30 | | Days left, change day included | 15 | | Credit for the unused old plan | $49.50 | | Charge for the rest of the period on the new plan | $24.50 | | Credit owed to the customer | $25.00 | ### The example from the Stripe documentation Stripe's prorations page describes a move from $10 to $20 halfway through the period. The calculator reproduces it with the same two prices and a change date at the halfway point. | Step | Value | | --- | --- | | Old price | $10 | | New price | $20 | | Days in the period | 30 | | Days left, change day included | 15 | | Credit for the unused old plan | $5.00 | | Charge for the rest of the period on the new plan | $10.00 | | Due now | $5.00 | ### The same change in months of different length A change on the 16th from $49 to $99, in four different months. The calendar supplies the day counts. | Month | Days left | Credit | Charge | Due now | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | February 2027 (28 days) | 13 | $22.75 | $45.96 | $23.21 | | February 2028 (29 days, leap year) | 14 | $23.66 | $47.79 | $24.13 | | April 2027 (30 days) | 15 | $24.50 | $49.50 | $25.00 | | May 2027 (31 days) | 16 | $25.29 | $51.10 | $25.81 | ## Reference table: what a day costs The cost of the same $99 plan changes with the length of the period. This table gives the price of one day and of ten days. | Length of the period | Cost of one day of a $99 plan | Cost of ten days | | --- | --- | --- | | 28 days | $3.54 | $35.36 | | 29 days | $3.41 | $34.14 | | 30 days | $3.30 | $33.00 | | 31 days | $3.19 | $31.94 | ## What the Stripe documentation says - Stripe's default is to prorate to the exact second, and it can use day, hour, week or month steps instead. This calculator counts whole days, so a figure here can differ from a to-the-second invoice. At noon on 16 Apr 2027 the default example comes to $24.17 due now to the second, against $25.00 by whole days. - The parameter that controls what happens on a change is `proration_behavior`. The documentation shows the values `create_prorations`, `always_invoice` and `none`: `always_invoice` calculates the proration and immediately generates an invoice, and `none` turns prorations off for that request. - Stripe does not refund a negative proration on its own, and does not bill a positive one at once, but you can do either by hand. > Read from [Stripe's prorations page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/prorations) on 19 Oct 2026. Stripe can change its documentation, so check the page before building a billing rule on it. ## Edge cases - A change date at or before the period start, or on or after the next period start, is invalid: there is no time left to prorate, or no time already used. - A period of zero days, or a next period that starts before the current one, is invalid because there is no daily rate to divide by. - Dates that do not exist, such as 30 February, are refused with an explanation. - Leap years and months of 28 to 31 days follow the real calendar. - Prices cannot be negative. A price of zero on either side is allowed, which covers moving from or to a free plan. - Rounding happens at the credit and at the charge, each to the cent, before the subtraction. ## Questions ### How is a proration calculated? Take the old price times the days left over the days in the period for the credit, and the new price times the same fraction for the charge, then subtract. With $49 moving to $99 on 16 Apr 2027, 15 of 30 days remain, so the credit is $24.50, the charge is $49.50 and $25.00 is due now. ### What happens when a customer moves to a cheaper plan? The result turns around. Moving $99 down to $49 on the same date gives a credit of $49.50 against a charge of $24.50, so $25.00 is owed to the customer. Stripe's documentation says a negative proration is not refunded automatically, so a refund is a separate step you take. ### Does the change day count? In this calculator, yes. Days left run from the change date, counting that day, up to the start of the next period, so a change on 16 Apr 2027 leaves 15 days. A change at the very start of the period, or on or after the next period start, is refused because there is nothing to prorate. ### Why can my invoice differ from this calculator by a few cents or more? Stripe's documentation says it prorates to the second by default, while this calculator counts whole days. A change made at noon on 16 Apr 2027 has 14.5 days left to the second, which gives a credit of $23.68, a charge of $47.85 and $24.17 due now, against $25.00 for the whole-day count. The size of the gap depends on the time of day of the change. ### Do leap years and short months change the answer? They change the daily rate but not the share of the period that remains. A change on the 16th leaves 13 days in February 2027 (28 days), 14 in February 2028 (29 days, leap year) and 16 in May 2027 (31 days), and the dollar amounts follow from each. The calculator uses real calendar days, so you only enter the dates. ### Does this reproduce the example in Stripe documentation? Stripe's documentation describes a customer who moves from a $10 monthly plan to a $20 plan halfway through the period, with a credit of $5, a debit of $10 and $5 billed. Entering those two prices with a change date halfway through a 30 day period gives a credit of $5.00, a charge of $10.00 and $5.00 due now, the same three figures. ## Related tools The [price increase calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) shows what a new price does to revenue and churn, the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) counts the expansion and contraction that plan changes create, and the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) shows what is left after the cost of delivery. The [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) measures what happens to customers after a change, and the [metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) defines the terms. ## Sources - Stripe documentation, prorations: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/prorations](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/prorations). Read on 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Price Increase Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Gross margin calculator Gross margin is profit over revenue. $50,000 of revenue on $10,000 of cost is a margin of 80.0% and a markup of 400.0%. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Revenue for the period | 50000 | | How do you want to enter costs? | As separate cost lines | | Total cost of revenue (one-total mode) | 10000 | | Hosting and infrastructure | 4000 | | Payment fees | 1600 | | Customer support | 3000 | | Software inside the product | 1400 | | Target gross margin | 85 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Cost of revenue | $10,000 | | Gross profit | $40,000 | | Gross margin | 80.0% | | Markup on cost | 400.0% | | Revenue needed for target margin | $66,667 | Working: 1. Cost of revenue: $4,000 + $1,600 + $3,000 + $1,400 = $10,000. 2. Gross profit: $50,000 - $10,000 = $40,000. 3. Gross margin is profit over revenue: $40,000 / $50,000 = 80.0%. 4. Markup is profit over cost: $40,000 / $10,000 = 400.0%. 5. Revenue for a margin of 85.0% on $10,000 of cost: $10,000 / (1 - 0.85) = $66,667. 6. That is $16,667 more than the $50,000 you have, so the same costs would need that much extra revenue (or lower costs) to reach the target. ## How the calculator works Add up the costs of delivering what you sold, subtract them from revenue to get gross profit, and divide by revenue for the margin. Divide the same profit by cost instead and you get the markup. For a revenue target, divide cost by one minus the margin you want. In symbols: ```text gross profit = revenue - cost margin = gross profit / revenue markup = gross profit / cost revenue needed for margin m = cost / (1 - m) markup to margin: margin = markup / (1 + markup) ``` ## Worked examples ### A subscription business with four cost lines Revenue is $50,000 for the month. The payment line is 500 payments of $100 at 2.9% + $0.30, which comes to $1,600. | Measure | Value | | --- | --- | | Revenue | $50,000 | | Hosting and infrastructure | $4,000 | | Payment fees | $1,600 | | Customer support | $3,000 | | Software inside the product | $1,400 | | Cost of revenue | $10,000 | | Gross profit | $40,000 | | Gross margin | 80.0% | | Markup on cost | 400.0% | | Revenue needed for target margin | $66,667 | The business keeps 80.0% of each revenue dollar. To reach a margin of 85% on these costs it would need $66,667 of revenue. ### One total instead of lines With $20,000 of revenue and one cost figure of $14,000, the margin is 30.0% and the markup is 42.9%. A 70% margin on the same cost would need $46,667 of revenue. | Measure | Value | | --- | --- | | Revenue | $20,000 | | Cost entered as one total | $14,000 | | Cost of revenue | $14,000 | | Gross profit | $6,000 | | Gross margin | 30.0% | | Markup on cost | 42.9% | | Revenue needed for target margin | $46,667 | ### A month where costs exceed revenue Revenue of $8,000 against $9,600 of cost leaves -$1,600 of gross profit, a margin of -20.0%. A negative margin is a valid result, and the revenue-needed figure shows what a 60% margin would take on those costs: $24,000. ## Reference tables ### Markup against margin A markup always looks bigger than the margin it produces. The table converts the common markups. | Markup on cost | Gross margin | | --- | --- | | 25% | 20.0% | | 50% | 33.3% | | 100% | 50.0% | | 200% | 66.7% | | 300% | 75.0% | | 400% | 80.0% | ### The price a $20 unit cost needs Price is cost divided by one minus the margin, so each step up in margin asks for a much larger price. | Target margin | Price for a $20 cost | | --- | --- | | 50% | $40 | | 60% | $50 | | 70% | $66.67 | | 80% | $100 | | 90% | $200 | ### The Stripe fee as a share of the plan price Stripe's US domestic card rate is 2.9% + $0.30 (read 19 Oct 2026). The fixed part weighs most on small plans, so cheap plans lose a larger share of the price to payment fees. | Plan price | Stripe fee on one payment | Fee as a share of the price | | --- | --- | --- | | $10 | $0.59 | 5.9% | | $29 | $1.14 | 3.9% | | $49 | $1.72 | 3.5% | | $99 | $3.17 | 3.2% | | $299 | $8.97 | 3.0% | ## Edge cases - Zero cost makes the markup undefined, because profit cannot be divided by nothing. The calculator says so and still shows the margin, which is 100.0%. - Zero or blank revenue shows a prompt instead of a margin, because a margin needs revenue to divide by. - A negative margin is allowed and explained, not rejected. - A target margin of 100% or more is refused, and a blank target skips the revenue-needed result. - The revenue-needed figure is rounded to whole dollars, with the exact cents in the note beside it. - Blank cost lines count as zero. The one-total mode uses the single figure and ignores the lines. ## Questions ### How do gross margin and markup differ? Margin is profit as a share of revenue, and markup is profit as a share of cost. The same sale gives two different percentages. With the starting figures, $40,000 of profit on $50,000 of revenue is a margin of 80.0% and, over $10,000 of cost, a markup of 400.0%. A markup of 25% is only a margin of 20.0%, so do not read one as the other. ### Which costs belong in the cost of revenue for a subscription product? Everything it costs to serve the product to customers who pay: hosting, payment fees, support and any software built into the product. The starting figures use $4,000, $1,600, $3,000 and $1,400 for those four lines, which add up to $10,000. Sales and marketing, research and general overhead sit below gross profit, not in it. ### Are payment fees part of gross margin? Yes, they are a cost of taking the revenue. The starting payment line is 500 payments of $100 at Stripe's US domestic card rate of 2.9% + $0.30, which is $3.20 a payment and $1,600 in total. Use the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) to work out the fee on your own payment size. ### How much revenue do I need to reach a target margin on the same costs? Divide the cost of revenue by one minus the target margin. $10,000 of cost with a target of 85% needs $66,667 of revenue. Raising revenue and cutting cost both move the margin, and the calculator shows the revenue figure for any target below 100%. ### Can gross margin be negative? Yes. When serving customers costs more than they pay, gross profit is negative and the margin is too. With $8,000 of revenue and $9,600 of cost, gross profit is -$1,600 and the margin is -20.0%. The calculator accepts this and says so rather than showing an error. ### Why is a 100% target margin not allowed? A margin of 100% would need a price with no cost behind it, and the formula divides by one minus the target, which is zero at 100%. Any real cost, even $0.01, keeps the margin below 100%, so enter a target between 0% and 99.9%. ### How is gross margin different from net margin? Gross margin stops after the costs of delivering the product. Net margin also removes operating costs such as sales, marketing and overhead, so it is always lower than or equal to gross margin. This calculator covers the gross figure only, so a gross margin of 80.0% says nothing yet about what is left after those costs. ## Related tools The [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) works out the payment line. The [price increase calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) shows what a higher price does to revenue, the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) tracks the revenue side, and the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) turns a margin into value per customer. The [metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) defines each term. ## Sources - Stripe pricing, domestic card rate: [https://stripe.com/pricing](https://stripe.com/pricing). Read on 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [Price Increase Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Stripe Fee Calculator (US) Stripe takes $3.20 on a $100 US card payment at 2.9% + $0.30. Enter your amount to see the fee, or the charge that leaves a target. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | What do you want to know? | The fee on a charge | | Amount | 100 | | Percent rate | 2.9 | | Fixed fee per payment | 0.3 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | $3.20 | | You keep | $96.80 | | Effective rate | 3.20% | | Charge to keep this amount | $103.30 | Working: 1. $100.00 x 2.9% = $2.90, rounded to the cent. 2. $2.90 + $0.30 fixed = $3.20 fee. 3. $100.00 - $3.20 = $96.80 kept, an effective rate of 3.20%. 4. To keep $100.00, charge $103.30: ($100.00 + $0.30) / (1 - 0.029) solved to the cent, with the fee of $3.30 rounded the way the processor rounds it. 5. Adding the fee to the price instead ($103.20) would leave $99.91, which is $0.09 short, because the fee is also charged on the added amount. ## How it works Stripe's US price for a domestic card is a percentage of the payment plus a fixed amount. The calculator multiplies the payment by the percent, rounds to the cent, adds the fixed part, and subtracts the total from the payment to show what you keep. Switch the mode to start from the amount you want to keep and the calculator finds the charge that leaves it. In symbols: fee = round(a x r) + f, and keep = a - fee, where a is the payment, r the percent rate as a fraction and f the fixed fee. To keep a target t, the charge c must satisfy c - fee(c) >= t. The closed form is c = (t + f) / (1 - r), solved to the whole cent because the fee is rounded. ## Worked examples ### The fee on a $100 payment | Step | Result | | --- | --- | | $100.00 x 2.9% | $2.90 | | Plus the fixed $0.30 | $3.20 | | You keep | $96.80 | | Effective rate | 3.20% | ### The charge that leaves $100 | Step | Result | | --- | --- | | Charge needed | $103.30 | | Fee on that charge | $3.30 | | Effective rate on that charge | 3.19% | | Adding the fee to the price ($103.20) leaves | $99.91 | ### A monthly plan at $49 for 400 subscribers (example numbers) | Item | Per month | | --- | --- | | Card fee on one $49 payment | $1.72 | | Card fees on 400 payments | $688.00 | | Stripe Billing at 0.7% of $19,600 | $137.20 | | Both together | $825.20 | | Share of monthly volume | 4.21% | ## The fee on common payment sizes | Payment | Fee | You keep | Share taken | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $10 | $0.59 | $9.41 | 5.90% | | $50 | $1.75 | $48.25 | 3.50% | | $100 | $3.20 | $96.80 | 3.20% | | $500 | $14.80 | $485.20 | 2.96% | | $1,000 | $29.30 | $970.70 | 2.93% | ## The charge that leaves a target | You want to keep | Charge | Fee on the charge | | --- | --- | --- | | $10 | $10.61 | $0.61 | | $50 | $51.80 | $1.80 | | $100 | $103.30 | $3.30 | | $500 | $515.24 | $15.24 | | $1,000 | $1,030.17 | $30.17 | Each charge is the smallest whole-cent amount that leaves the target after Stripe's rounded fee, so the last row can differ by a cent from a spreadsheet that skips the rounding. ## Add-ons and other fees on the pricing page | Item | As listed | On $100 | | --- | --- | --- | | International card | +1.5% | +$1.50 | | Currency conversion | +1% | +$1.00 | | Manually entered card | +0.5% | +$0.50 | | Dispute received | $15.00 per dispute | $15.00 | | Instant payout | 1.5%, $0.50 minimum | $1.50 on a $100 payout, $0.50 on a $20 payout | | ACH Direct Debit | 0.8%, $5 cap | $0.80 on $100, $5.00 on $1,000 | | Stripe Billing, pay as you go | 0.7% of Billing volume | $0.70 | Stripe states that it charges no setup fees or monthly fees for payments. Read 19 Oct 2026. ### Stacking the add-ons | Payment type | Rate | Fee on $100 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Domestic card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $96.80 | | Manually entered card | 3.4% + $0.30 | $3.70 | $96.30 | | International card | 4.4% + $0.30 | $4.70 | $95.30 | | International card with currency conversion | 5.4% + $0.30 | $5.70 | $94.30 | ## Stripe next to PayPal and Square The headline online rate of each processor on a $100 payment, read from the three fee data files on this site. Open the [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) or the [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) for the full tables. | Processor | Method | Rate | Fee | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Stripe | Domestic card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $96.80 | | PayPal | PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $3.98 | $96.02 | | PayPal | Standard card payment | 2.99% + $0.49 | $3.48 | $96.52 | | Square | Online, Free plan | 3.3% + $0.30 | $3.60 | $96.40 | | Square | In person, Free plan | 2.6% + $0.15 | $2.75 | $97.25 | ## Edge cases - An amount of zero or a blank field shows a prompt, not a result. - A percent rate of 100 or more is invalid: no charge could leave anything. - In the target mode, a target at or below the fixed fee is invalid, and the message says so. - The rate and fixed fee are editable, so you can enter a negotiated rate or a plan with different pricing. - Fees on refunds, payouts in other currencies and Connect accounts are not modelled. Check the pricing page for those. ## Questions ### How much does Stripe charge on a $100 card payment in the US? A domestic card is listed at 2.9% + $0.30, so a $100 payment costs $3.20 and you keep $96.80. That is an effective rate of 3.20%, because the fixed part is the same on every payment. ### Why do small payments cost a bigger share? The fixed $0.30 does not shrink with the amount. On $10 the fee is $0.59, or 5.90%. On $1,000 it is $29.30, or 2.93%. Low-priced plans and one-off small charges feel this most. ### How do I charge a customer so I keep exactly $100? Charge $103.30. The fee on that charge is $3.30, which leaves $100. Piling the $3.20 on top of the price instead gives a $103.20 charge that leaves $99.91, $0.09 short, because the fee is also taken on the added amount. ### What do international cards and currency conversion add? The pricing page lists 1.5% more for international cards and 1% more when currency conversion is required. Stacked on the domestic rate, an international card costs 4.4% + $0.30, which is $4.70 on $100. With conversion as well it is 5.4% + $0.30, or $5.70. ### What does a dispute cost? Stripe lists a dispute received fee of $15.00 for each dispute. On a $100 payment that is 15% of the payment and applies to every dispute, whatever the amount. Put it next to the cost of the goods or service to see the whole loss. ### Is Stripe Billing a separate charge on top of card fees? Stripe Billing adds 0.7% of the volume it handles, on the pay-as-you-go tier and on top of payment processing. With 400 subscribers paying $49 a month, card fees come to $688.00 a month and Billing to $137.20, so the two together take $825.20 of $19,600. ### Does Stripe round each fee itself? Fees are worked out payment by payment in whole cents, so the fee on ten $10 payments, $5.90, is not the fee on one $100 payment, $3.20. The calculator rounds half up to the cent on each payment you enter, as the fee engine on this site does everywhere. For a grossed-up charge, it finds the smallest whole-cent charge that leaves your target. ## Related tools Once you know the fee, put it into your margin with the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) and see what a failed card costs with the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md). A change in price moves the fee too, so test it in the [price increase calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md). ## Sources - [Stripe pricing](https://stripe.com/pricing): card rates, add-ons, dispute fee, instant payouts and ACH, read 19 Oct 2026. - [Stripe Billing pricing](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing): the pay as you go rate, read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) - [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Price Increase Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # PayPal fee calculator A $100 PayPal Checkout sale costs $3.98 in fees and leaves $96.02. Charge $104.12 to keep the full $100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the buyer pays | PayPal Checkout | | Buyer location | United States | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | $3.98 | | You keep | $96.02 | | Effective rate | 3.98% | | Charge to keep this amount | $104.12 | Working: 1. PayPal Checkout is 3.49% + $0.49. 2. $100.00 x 3.49% = $3.49, rounded to the cent. 3. $3.49 + $0.49 fixed = $3.98 fee. 4. $100.00 - $3.98 = $96.02 kept, an effective rate of 3.98%. 5. To keep $100.00, charge $104.12: ($100.00 + $0.49) / (1 - 0.0349) solved to the cent, with a fee of $4.12. 6. The currency conversion spread PayPal applies when it converts between currencies is not included. ## How the PayPal fee is worked out PayPal takes a percentage of the payment and adds a fixed amount per payment. The percentage depends on how the buyer pays. When the buyer is registered in a different market from you, PayPal adds a further percentage on top. The fee is rounded to the cent, and you receive the payment less that fee. In symbols, with the amount as A, the percentage as p and the fixed fee as f: ```text fee = round(A x p) + f keep = A - fee charge needed to keep T = smallest C where C - fee(C) >= T ~ (T + f) / (1 - p) ``` The percentage for PayPal Checkout is 3.49% and the fixed fee is $0.49. Choose another payment type above to swap in its own pair of numbers. ## Three worked examples ### A $100 Checkout sale from a buyer in the US | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $100.00 | | How the buyer pays | PayPal Checkout | | Buyer location | In the US | | Fee | $3.98 | | You keep | $96.02 | | Effective rate | 3.98% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $104.12 | ### A $45 card payment from a buyer outside the US | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $45.00 | | How the buyer pays | Standard card payments | | Buyer location | Outside the US | | Fee | $2.51 | | You keep | $42.49 | | Effective rate | 5.58% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $47.63 | ### An $8 sale on micropayments pricing | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $8.00 | | How the buyer pays | Micropayments | | Buyer location | In the US | | Fee | $0.49 | | You keep | $7.51 | | Effective rate | 6.13% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $8.51 | ## Fee by payment type The table lists the US rate for each payment type, then the fee it produces on three payment sizes, with the buyer in the US. | Payment type | Rate | Fee on $10 | Fee on $100 | Fee on $500 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $0.84 | $3.98 | $17.94 | | Guest Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $0.84 | $3.98 | $17.94 | | Pay with Venmo | 3.49% + $0.49 | $0.84 | $3.98 | $17.94 | | Standard card payments | 2.99% + $0.49 | $0.79 | $3.48 | $15.44 | | Advanced card payments | 2.89% + $0.29 | $0.58 | $3.18 | $14.74 | | Pay Later | 4.99% + $0.49 | $0.99 | $5.48 | $25.44 | | Send or receive money for goods and services | 2.99% | $0.30 | $2.99 | $14.95 | | Micropayments | 4.99% + $0.09 | $0.59 | $5.08 | $25.04 | An international buyer adds 1.5% to each percentage. The PayPal Checkout fee on $100 moves from $3.98 to $5.48. ## The share you lose falls as the price rises | Payment | Checkout fee | Share of the payment | Micropayments fee | Share of the payment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $5.00 | $0.66 | 13.20% | $0.34 | 6.80% | | $10.00 | $0.84 | 8.40% | $0.59 | 5.90% | | $25.00 | $1.36 | 5.44% | $1.34 | 5.36% | | $50.00 | $2.24 | 4.48% | $2.59 | 5.18% | | $100.00 | $3.98 | 3.98% | $5.08 | 5.08% | | $500.00 | $17.94 | 3.59% | $25.04 | 5.01% | ## The micropayments crossover Micropayments pricing has a higher percentage and a much smaller fixed fee, so it wins on small payments and loses on larger ones. Setting 4.99% of A plus $0.09 equal to 3.49% of A plus $0.49 and solving for A gives $0.40 divided by 0.015, which is about $26.67. | Payment | Micropayments fee | Checkout fee | Cheaper | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $10.00 | $0.59 | $0.84 | Micropayments | | $20.00 | $1.09 | $1.19 | Micropayments | | $26.67 | $1.42 | $1.42 | Equal | | $30.00 | $1.59 | $1.54 | Checkout | | $50.00 | $2.59 | $2.24 | Checkout | The micropayments rate is available by application, so the crossover only matters once PayPal has approved it for your account. ## PayPal next to Stripe and Square on $100 | Processor | Payment type | Rate | Fee | You keep | Effective rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Stripe | Domestic card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $96.80 | 3.20% | | PayPal | PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $3.98 | $96.02 | 3.98% | | PayPal | Standard card payment | 2.99% + $0.49 | $3.48 | $96.52 | 3.48% | | Square | Online, Free plan | 3.3% + $0.30 | $3.60 | $96.40 | 3.60% | | Square | In person, Free plan | 2.6% + $0.15 | $2.75 | $97.25 | 2.75% | These are standard online and card rates for US accounts. Volume pricing, negotiated rates and add-ons are not included. ## Edge cases - A payment so small that the fee reaches the payment itself is flagged as invalid, because nothing would be left. A $0.40 Checkout sale, for instance, would owe $0.50. - Goods and services payments have no fixed fee, so they are the cheapest standard type on very small payments. - The fee is rounded to the cent on each payment, so a total over many sales can differ by a few cents from a single sum done at the end. - Currency conversion spread, chargeback and dispute fees, and withdrawal fees are separate PayPal charges and are not in this fee. ## Questions ### How much does PayPal charge on a $100 sale? For a US buyer paying through PayPal Checkout the fee is $3.98 (3.49% + $0.49), so you keep $96.02. That is an effective rate of 3.98%, a little above the headline 3.49% because of the fixed part. ### What should I charge to keep a full $100? Charge $104.12. The fee is taken from the whole charge, including the part you added to cover it, so tacking the $3.98 onto $100 would leave you short. The calculator solves for the smallest charge that nets $100. ### What does a buyer outside the US cost me? PayPal adds 1.5% to the percentage for international commercial transactions. On the same $100 Checkout sale the fee becomes $5.48 (4.99% + $0.49), and you keep $94.52. ### When do micropayments beat the standard rate? Below about $26.67. Micropayments pricing is 4.99% + $0.09 and Checkout is 3.49% + $0.49, and the two cost the same at $26.67. Under that amount micropayments is cheaper, above it Checkout is. PayPal offers the lower-value pricing by application, so check that you qualify before you plan around it. ### Why does a small sale lose a bigger share to fees? The fixed $0.49 is paid on every payment. On a $5 Checkout sale the fee is $0.66, which is 13.20% of the sale. On $500 it is $17.94, or 3.59%. ### How does PayPal compare with Stripe and Square on $100? At each processor's standard online card rate, a $100 payment costs $3.20 on Stripe (2.9% + $0.30), $3.98 on PayPal Checkout and $3.60 on Square online on the Free plan (3.3% + $0.30). The comparison table on this page reads all three from the same dated rate files. ### Does the fee include currency conversion? No. When PayPal converts a payment from one currency to another it applies a conversion spread that is not part of the percentage and fixed fee used here, so a sale in a foreign currency can cost more than this tool shows. ### Where do these rates come from? They are read from PayPal's merchant fees page for US accounts, which was labelled last updated 1 Oct 2026 when it was read on 19 Oct 2026. The rate file keeps the address, the read date and who read it, and every number on this page is generated from that file. ## Related tools Compare the same payment on [Stripe](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) and [Square](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md), see what the fees do to margin with the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md), or check what a month of sales brings in with the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). The [pricing page](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) shows what TrialValid costs. ## Sources - [PayPal merchant fees, US](https://www.paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees): read 19 Oct 2026. The page was labelled last updated 1 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Square fee calculator A $100 online Square sale on the Free plan costs $3.60 and leaves $96.40. See in person, ACH and plan costs, and when a paid plan breaks even. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | Square plan | Free | | How the customer pays | Online or invoice, card | | Card issuer country | United States | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | $3.60 | | You keep | $96.40 | | Effective rate | 3.60% | | Charge to keep this amount | $103.72 | Working: 1. Online or invoice, card on the Free plan is 3.3% + $0.30. 2. $100.00 x 3.3% = $3.30, rounded to the cent. 3. $3.30 + $0.30 fixed = $3.60 before any minimum or cap. 4. The fee is $3.60. 5. $100.00 - $3.60 = $96.40 kept, an effective rate of 3.60%. 6. To keep $100.00, charge $103.72, which carries a fee of $3.72. ## How the Square fee is worked out Square charges a percentage of each payment plus a small fixed amount, and the pair depends on two choices: how the customer pays and which plan you are on. In-person card payments carry the lowest percentage. Online payments and card-on-file payments cost more. Bank transfers use a flat 1% with a floor and, on some plans, a ceiling. In symbols, with the amount as A, the percentage as p, the fixed fee as f, the minimum as m and the cap as c: ```text fee = min(c, max(m, round(A x p) + f)) keep = A - fee break-even volume = plan fee / (rate on Free - rate on plan) ``` Most rows have no minimum or cap, so the fee is just the percentage plus the fixed amount. The bank transfer rows are the ones that use m and c. ## Four worked examples ### A $100 online sale on the Free plan | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $100.00 | | How the customer pays | Online or invoice, card | | Plan | Free | | Fee | $3.60 | | You keep | $96.40 | | Effective rate | 3.60% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $103.72 | ### A $30 tap payment on the Premium plan | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $30.00 | | How the customer pays | In person (tap, dip or swipe) | | Plan | Premium | | Fee | $0.87 | | You keep | $29.13 | | Effective rate | 2.90% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $30.89 | ### A $50 invoice paid by ACH on the Free plan | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $50.00 | | How the customer pays | ACH bank transfer on an invoice | | Plan | Free | | Fee | $1.00 | | You keep | $49.00 | | Effective rate | 2.00% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $51.00 | ### A $2,000 invoice paid by ACH on the Plus plan | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment | $2,000.00 | | How the customer pays | ACH bank transfer on an invoice | | Plan | Plus | | Fee | $10.00 | | You keep | $1,990.00 | | Effective rate | 0.50% | | Charge to keep the full amount | $2,010.00 | ## Rates by payment type and plan | Payment type | Free | Plus | Premium | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | In person (tap, dip or swipe) | 2.6% + $0.15 | 2.5% + $0.15 | 2.4% + $0.15 | | Online or invoice, card | 3.3% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | | Online API, card | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | | Card on file or manual entry | 3.5% + $0.15 | 3.5% + $0.15 | 3.5% + $0.15 | | Afterpay | 6% + $0.30 | 6% + $0.30 | 6% + $0.30 | | ACH bank transfer on an invoice | 1%, $1 minimum | 1%, $1 minimum, $10 cap | 1%, $1 minimum, $10 cap | | ACH bank transfer through the API | 1%, $1 minimum, $5 cap | 1%, $1 minimum, $5 cap | 1%, $1 minimum, $5 cap | ## Fee on a $100 payment by type and plan | Payment type | Free | Plus | Premium | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | In person (tap, dip or swipe) | $2.75 | $2.65 | $2.55 | | Online or invoice, card | $3.60 | $3.20 | $3.20 | | Online API, card | $3.20 | $3.20 | $3.20 | | Card on file or manual entry | $3.65 | $3.65 | $3.65 | | Afterpay | $6.30 | $6.30 | $6.30 | | ACH bank transfer on an invoice | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | | ACH bank transfer through the API | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | Cards issued outside the US add 1.5% on the card rows. The online fee on Free moves from $3.60 to $5.10. ## When a paid plan pays for itself A paid plan has a monthly fee for each location. It earns that back only when the rate it saves, applied to a month of sales, adds up to more than the fee. Plus costs $49 and Premium costs $149. The volumes below are per location per month, using plan fee divided by the points saved. | Compared | Payment type | Monthly fee | Points saved | Break-even monthly volume | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Plus against Free | Online | $49 | 0.4 | $12,250 | | Premium against Free | Online | $149 | 0.4 | $37,250 | | Plus against Free | In person | $49 | 0.1 | $49,000 | | Premium against Free | In person | $149 | 0.2 | $74,500 | | Premium against Plus | In person | $100 | 0.1 | $100,000 | | Premium against Plus | Online | $100 | 0 | No volume | Plans also add features that have nothing to do with card fees, so a business can reasonably pay for a plan below these volumes. The table answers only the question of fees. ## Bank transfers: the minimum and the cap | Payment | ACH on an invoice, Free | ACH on an invoice, Plus or Premium | ACH through the API | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $20.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | | $100.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 | | $500.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | | $1,000.00 | $10.00 | $10.00 | $5.00 | | $2,000.00 | $20.00 | $10.00 | $5.00 | | $5,000.00 | $50.00 | $10.00 | $5.00 | ## Square next to Stripe and PayPal on $100 | Processor | Payment type | Rate | Fee | You keep | Effective rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Stripe | Domestic card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $96.80 | 3.20% | | PayPal | PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $3.98 | $96.02 | 3.98% | | PayPal | Standard card payment | 2.99% + $0.49 | $3.48 | $96.52 | 3.48% | | Square | Online, Free plan | 3.3% + $0.30 | $3.60 | $96.40 | 3.60% | | Square | In person, Free plan | 2.6% + $0.15 | $2.75 | $97.25 | 2.75% | These are the standard US rates for each processor. Hardware, software add-ons, instant transfers and negotiated pricing are not included. ## Edge cases - The ACH minimum means a small invoice can cost a large share. On $50.00 the $1 minimum is 2% of the payment, double the headline 1%. - Plans with a cap stop charging a percentage once the cap is reached, so the largest invoices cost a flat amount. - Afterpay and bank transfers are not cards, so the extra percentage for foreign cards is left off them here. - A fee as large as the payment is flagged as invalid, because nothing would be left to receive. ## Questions ### How much does Square charge on a $100 online sale? On the Free plan an online or invoice card payment is 3.3% + $0.30, so $100 costs $3.60 and you keep $96.40, an effective rate of 3.60%. On Plus or Premium the rate is 2.9% + $0.30, so the same sale costs $3.20. ### What should I charge to keep a full $100 on Square? On the Free plan, online, charge $103.72. Square deducts its fee from the full charge, so a price of $100 plus the $3.60 fee would still leave you slightly short. The calculator finds the smallest charge that nets $100 to the cent. ### When does the Plus plan pay for itself? Plus charges $49 a month for each location and lowers the online rate by 0.4 points. Divide the fee by the saving and the plan breaks even at $12,250 of online sales a month per location, or $49,000 of in-person sales a month, since the in-person saving is smaller. ### Does Premium ever beat Plus on card fees? Not online, where both charge 2.9% + $0.30. In person Premium saves one tenth of a point over Plus, so the extra $100 a month is only recovered above $100,000 of in-person sales a month per location. Premium also adds features that are not fees, which can be the real reason to choose it. ### How are ACH payments charged? ACH on an invoice is 1%, $1 minimum on Free, with a $10 cap on Plus and Premium. ACH through the API is 1%, $1 minimum, $5 cap. A $50.00 invoice pays $1.00, which is the minimum and not 1%, while a $2,000.00 invoice pays $20.00 on Free and $10.00 on Plus. ### What does a card issued outside the US cost? Square adds 1.5% to card payments when the card was issued outside the United States. The $100 online sale on Free then costs $5.10 and leaves $94.90. The extra percentage does not apply to ACH or Afterpay in this calculator. ### How does Square compare with Stripe and PayPal on $100? At standard rates a $100 online payment costs $3.60 on Square Free, $3.20 on Stripe (2.9% + $0.30) and $3.98 on PayPal Checkout (3.49% + $0.49). In person on Square Free it is $2.75. All three come from the same dated rate files. ### Where do these rates come from? They are read from Square's US pricing page, which was read on 19 Oct 2026. The rate file stores the address, the read date and who read it, and each figure on this page is generated from that file. ## Related tools Run the same payment through [Stripe](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) and [PayPal](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md), see the effect on profit with the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md), or total your recurring sales with the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). The [pricing page](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) covers what TrialValid costs. ## Sources - [Square pricing, US](https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing): read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Stripe fee calculator for the UK On a £100 standard UK card payment Stripe takes £1.70 and you keep £98.30. Charge £101.73 to receive the full £100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | Payment method | Standard UK card (1.5% + £0.20) | | Currency conversion (adds 2%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | £1.70 | | You keep | £98.30 | | Charge to keep the full amount | £101.73 | | Share lost to the fee | 1.7% | Working: 1. Standard UK card is 1.5% + £0.20. 2. The percentage part: 1.5% of £100.00 is £1.50, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: £1.50 + £0.20 = £1.70. 4. The fee is £1.70, so you keep £100.00 - £1.70 = £98.30. 5. To keep the full £100.00, charge £101.73: the fee on that is £1.73, which leaves £100.00. ## How Stripe prices a UK payment Stripe's UK price list charges a percentage of the payment plus a fixed amount in pence. A standard UK card is 1.5% + £0.20, so on £100 the percentage part is £1.50 and the fixed part is £0.20, a fee of £1.70. The tool above repeats that sum for any amount and shows the balance that arrives. In words: take the rate of the payment, round it to the nearest penny, then add the fixed amount. In symbols: f = round(a × r) + c, and what you keep is k = a − f, with a the payment, r the rate and c the fixed amount. Going the other way means finding the smallest charge g that leaves your target after its own fee. To receive £100 on a standard card that charge is £101.73. Simply tacking the £1.70 onto the price does not work, because that bigger charge has a bigger fee: £1.73 on £101.70 leaves £99.97. ## Why small payments cost more in pounds The percentage grows with the payment, but the £0.20 part is the same on every charge. That makes small tickets the expensive ones in relative terms. The table runs a standard UK card across eight sizes. | Payment | Fee | You keep | Share lost to the fee | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | £1.00 | £0.22 | £0.78 | 22.0% | | £2.50 | £0.24 | £2.26 | 9.6% | | £5.00 | £0.28 | £4.72 | 5.6% | | £10.00 | £0.35 | £9.65 | 3.5% | | £20.00 | £0.50 | £19.50 | 2.5% | | £50.00 | £0.95 | £49.05 | 1.9% | | £100.00 | £1.70 | £98.30 | 1.7% | | £500.00 | £7.70 | £492.30 | 1.5% | ## Fee by payment method The same £100 payment lands very differently depending on how it is paid. Premium UK cards cost £3.00, Klarna starts at £5.34, and Bacs Direct Debit costs £1.00. Klarna is listed as a starting price, so treat that row as a floor. | Payment method | Rate | Fee on £100 | You keep | Charge to keep £100 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Standard UK card | 1.5% + £0.20 | £1.70 | £98.30 | £101.73 | | Premium UK card | 2.8% + £0.20 | £3.00 | £97.00 | £103.09 | | European Economic Area card | 2.5% + £0.20 | £2.70 | £97.30 | £102.77 | | International card | 3.15% + £0.20 | £3.35 | £96.65 | £103.46 | | Klarna (starting at) | 4.99% + £0.35 | £5.34 | £94.66 | £105.62 | | Bacs Direct Debit | 1%, minimum £0.20, cap £4.00 | £1.00 | £99.00 | £101.01 | ## Bacs Direct Debit: the minimum and the cap Bacs is the one UK method on Stripe's list priced as a share with limits at both ends: 1%, minimum £0.20, cap £4.00. Any payment up to £20.49 pays the £0.20 minimum, and any payment from £399.80 up pays the £4.00 cap. | Payment | Bacs fee | Standard UK card fee | Kept back by choosing Bacs | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | £20.00 | £0.20 | £0.50 | £0.30 | | £50.00 | £0.50 | £0.95 | £0.45 | | £100.00 | £1.00 | £1.70 | £0.70 | | £250.00 | £2.50 | £3.95 | £1.45 | | £400.00 | £4.00 | £6.20 | £2.20 | | £1,000.00 | £4.00 | £15.20 | £11.20 | | £5,000.00 | £4.00 | £75.20 | £71.20 | A made up example for a subscription business: 150 subscribers paying £35 a month cost £109.50 in fees on standard UK cards and £52.50 on Bacs, a monthly difference of £57.00. A payment of £20 on Bacs still pays £0.20, because the minimum applies. ## Cards from outside the UK and currency conversion Cards issued in the European Economic Area and elsewhere sit on separate lines of the price list, and a 2% conversion charge applies on top when the currency has to change. The two together add up quickly, as the table shows for a £100 payment. | Case | Rate applied | Fee on £100 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Standard UK card | 1.5% + £0.20 | £1.70 | £98.30 | | Premium UK card | 2.8% + £0.20 | £3.00 | £97.00 | | EEA card | 2.5% + £0.20 | £2.70 | £97.30 | | EEA card with conversion | 4.5% + £0.20 | £4.70 | £95.30 | | International card | 3.15% + £0.20 | £3.35 | £96.65 | | International card with conversion | 5.15% + £0.20 | £5.35 | £94.65 | ## Charging so a round sum reaches you If you price so that a fixed amount arrives, the charge has to rise by the fee and by the fee on the fee. This table solves it for a standard UK card. | You want to receive | Charge the customer | Fee on that charge | | --- | --- | --- | | £10.00 | £10.36 | £0.36 | | £25.00 | £25.58 | £0.58 | | £50.00 | £50.96 | £0.96 | | £100.00 | £101.73 | £1.73 | | £500.00 | £507.82 | £7.82 | | £1,000.00 | £1,015.43 | £15.43 | ## Disputes Stripe's UK price list adds a dispute received fee of £20.00 for each dispute, separate from the original payment fee. It is a flat amount, so it weighs most on small orders: 80% of a £25 payment but 2% of a £1,000 one. ## Notes and edge cases - Amounts are worked in pence. A payment that rounds to zero pence is rejected with a message instead of a result. - Add-ons only apply where the price list applies them: currency conversion is tied to EEA and international cards, so ticking it on a UK card changes nothing and the steps say so. - Network fees can apply in rare cases on top of dispute fees, which the tool cannot predict. - The tool covers Stripe's published UK card, Klarna and Bacs lines. It leaves out add-on products priced separately, such as Billing or Radar. - For a US-dollar comparison use the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md). ## Frequently asked questions ### How much of a £100 standard UK card payment does Stripe keep? £1.70, so £98.30 reaches you. That is 1.5% of the payment (£1.50) plus the fixed £0.20, a share of 1.7%. ### Why is a £10 payment so much more expensive in percentage terms? The fixed £0.20 does not shrink with the payment. On £10 the fee is £0.35, which is 3.5% of the payment. On £1 it is £0.22, a share of 22.0%. ### How much does currency conversion add? Stripe's UK price list adds 2% when conversion is needed on EEA and international cards. An EEA card on £100 costs £2.70 without it and £4.70 with it. An international card goes from £3.35 to £5.35. ### At what size does the Bacs Direct Debit cap start to apply? The fee is 1% of the payment, so it reaches the £4.00 cap at £399.80. Above that the fee stays flat: £4.00 on £1,000, against £15.20 for a standard card. ### How do I receive a full £50 after Stripe fees on a UK card? Charge £50.96. The fee on that charge is £0.96, which leaves exactly £50. Charging £50 plus the fee on £50 would fall a penny or two short. ### What happens to the fee when a customer disputes a payment? Stripe's UK page lists a dispute received fee of £20.00 for each dispute. On a £100 payment that is 20% on top of the amount at stake. ### How is the fee rounded? The percentage part is rounded half up to the penny first, then the fixed £0.20 is added. A £10.50 payment, for example, has a percentage part of £0.16. ### When were these rates read? They were read from Stripe's UK pricing page on 19 Oct 2026. Prices on that page can change, so confirm anything large against it before you rely on it. ## Other Stripe fee calculators Working in another market? The same tool is built for [Canada](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md) and [Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md), and the [United States version](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) uses dollars. The [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) turns a fee into a margin on each sale. ## Sources - Stripe's UK pricing page: [stripe.com/gb/pricing](https://stripe.com/gb/pricing), read 19 Oct 2026. Every rate, minimum, cap and fee on this page comes from that read. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Stripe fee calculator for Canada Stripe's fee on a CA$100 Canadian card payment is CA$3.20, leaving CA$96.80. Charge CA$103.30 to receive the whole CA$100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | Payment method | Domestic card (2.9% + CA$0.30) | | Card issued outside Canada (adds 0.8%) | No | | Manually entered card (adds 0.5%) | No | | Currency conversion (adds 2%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | CA$3.20 | | You keep | CA$96.80 | | Charge to keep the full amount | CA$103.30 | | Share lost to the fee | 3.2% | Working: 1. Domestic card is 2.9% + CA$0.30. 2. The percentage part: 2.9% of CA$100.00 is CA$2.90, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: CA$2.90 + CA$0.30 = CA$3.20. 4. The fee is CA$3.20, so you keep CA$100.00 - CA$3.20 = CA$96.80. 5. To keep the full CA$100.00, charge CA$103.30: the fee on that is CA$3.30, which leaves CA$100.00. ## The Canadian card fee in one line Stripe charges Canadian businesses 2.9% + CA$0.30 on a domestic card. Run CA$100 through it and the percentage part comes to CA$2.90, the fixed part is CA$0.30, and the fee is CA$3.20. What reaches your bank is CA$96.80. Written out: fee equals amount times rate (rounded to the cent) plus the fixed charge, and net equals amount minus fee. As a formula, f = round(a × r) + c and n = a − f. The percentage can rise through add-ons, which is where Canada differs most from the US page. ## Add-ons stack on the card line Three percentage add-ons sit on the domestic card line: 0.8% for cards from outside Canada, 0.5% for manually entered cards and 2% when currency conversion is needed. They add together. With all three the rate is 6.2% plus the fixed CA$0.30, and a CA$100 payment costs CA$6.50. | Case | Rate applied | Fee on CA$100 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Domestic card | 2.9% + CA$0.30 | CA$3.20 | CA$96.80 | | Manually entered card | 3.4% + CA$0.30 | CA$3.70 | CA$96.30 | | Card from outside Canada | 3.7% + CA$0.30 | CA$4.00 | CA$96.00 | | Card with currency conversion | 4.9% + CA$0.30 | CA$5.20 | CA$94.80 | | Outside card, converted | 5.7% + CA$0.30 | CA$6.00 | CA$94.00 | | All three add-ons | 6.2% + CA$0.30 | CA$6.50 | CA$93.50 | ## Selling to US customers A US cardholder paying in Canadian dollars is a card from outside Canada: CA$4.00 on CA$100, which is 3.7% plus the fixed amount. If the payment is in another currency and Stripe has to convert it, the 2% conversion charge lands on top and the same payment costs CA$6.00. Quoting US buyers a Canadian-dollar price avoids that extra CA$2.00 per CA$100. ## Small payments in Canadian dollars The flat CA$0.30 is a different share of every charge. Here is the domestic card across a range of sizes, including a CA$5 charge where the fee takes 9.0%. | Payment | Fee | You keep | Share lost to the fee | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA$2.00 | CA$0.36 | CA$1.64 | 18.0% | | CA$5.00 | CA$0.45 | CA$4.55 | 9.0% | | CA$10.00 | CA$0.59 | CA$9.41 | 5.9% | | CA$15.00 | CA$0.74 | CA$14.26 | 4.9% | | CA$30.00 | CA$1.17 | CA$28.83 | 3.9% | | CA$60.00 | CA$2.04 | CA$57.96 | 3.4% | | CA$120.00 | CA$3.78 | CA$116.22 | 3.2% | | CA$600.00 | CA$17.70 | CA$582.30 | 3.0% | ## Comparing payment methods on one amount Klarna is listed from 5.99% + CA$0.30, which works out to CA$6.29 on CA$100. Pre-authorised debit costs CA$1.40 on the same amount. Because Klarna is listed as a starting price, read its row as the lowest case. | Payment method | Rate | Fee on CA$100 | You keep | Charge to keep CA$100 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Domestic card | 2.9% + CA$0.30 | CA$3.20 | CA$96.80 | CA$103.30 | | Klarna (starting at) | 5.99% + CA$0.30 | CA$6.29 | CA$93.71 | CA$106.69 | | Pre-authorised debit (PAD) | 1% + CA$0.40, cap CA$5.00 | CA$1.40 | CA$98.60 | CA$101.41 | ## Pre-authorised debit and its cap Debits are priced at 1% + CA$0.40, cap CA$5.00. The cap is reached at CA$459.80, so a larger debit costs the same CA$5.00. For a made up shop that takes 80 orders of CA$60 a month, card fees total CA$163.20 and debit fees total CA$80.00. Failed or disputed debits are charged CA$5.00 each, which narrows that gap when failures are common. | Payment | Debit fee | Domestic card fee | Difference | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA$30.00 | CA$0.70 | CA$1.17 | CA$0.47 | | CA$100.00 | CA$1.40 | CA$3.20 | CA$1.80 | | CA$250.00 | CA$2.90 | CA$7.55 | CA$4.65 | | CA$460.00 | CA$5.00 | CA$13.64 | CA$8.64 | | CA$1,000.00 | CA$5.00 | CA$29.30 | CA$24.30 | | CA$5,000.00 | CA$5.00 | CA$145.30 | CA$140.30 | ## Pricing so the full amount arrives Passing the fee on to the customer means solving for the charge, not tacking the fee onto the price. For a domestic card the answers are below. | You want to receive | Charge the customer | Fee on that charge | | --- | --- | --- | | CA$10.00 | CA$10.61 | CA$0.61 | | CA$25.00 | CA$26.06 | CA$1.06 | | CA$50.00 | CA$51.80 | CA$1.80 | | CA$100.00 | CA$103.30 | CA$3.30 | | CA$250.00 | CA$257.78 | CA$7.78 | | CA$1,000.00 | CA$1,030.17 | CA$30.17 | ## Edge cases - Keyed-in and conversion add-ons are ticked separately in the tool, and each applies only to the card line: a manually entered card on CA$100 costs CA$3.70, a converted one CA$5.20, and an outside card CA$4.00. - A card dispute carries a CA$15.00 dispute received fee for each dispute. - Instant bank verification and some other pre-authorised debit extras are priced separately and are not part of this tool. - Amounts are worked in cents, half up. A payment that rounds to zero cents is refused with a message. - The US page, with dollars, is the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md). ## Common questions about Stripe fees in Canada ### How much of a CA$100 card payment does Stripe keep in Canada? CA$3.20. The rate is 2.9% of the payment (CA$2.90) plus CA$0.30, so CA$96.80 is left, a share of 3.2% lost to the fee. ### What is the most a single card payment can cost in percentage terms? Stacking all three percentage add-ons on the card line (cards from outside Canada, manually entered cards and currency conversion) gives 6.2% + CA$0.30. On CA$100 that is CA$6.50, leaving CA$93.50. ### What does a US customer cost compared with a Canadian one? A US card charged in Canadian dollars adds 0.8%: CA$4.00 on CA$100, compared with CA$3.20 for a domestic card. If the payment is converted as well, the fee becomes CA$6.00. ### Where does the pre-authorised debit cap bite? Pre-authorised debit costs 1% + CA$0.40, cap CA$5.00, so the fee reaches its cap at CA$459.80. A CA$1,000 debit then costs CA$5.00, while the same amount on a domestic card costs CA$29.30. ### What extra applies when a debit fails or is disputed? Stripe's Canadian page lists CA$5.00 for failures and disputes on pre-authorised debits. A card dispute carries a separate CA$15.00 dispute received fee. ### What price lets CA$250 arrive in full? Charge CA$257.78 on a domestic card. The fee on that charge is CA$7.78, which leaves CA$250 after Stripe has taken its share. ### Why does a CA$5 sale lose so much more than a CA$120 sale? Because of the flat CA$0.30. On CA$5 the fee is CA$0.45 (9.0%), on CA$10 it is CA$0.59 (5.9%) and on CA$120 it is CA$3.78 (3.2%). ### Which date are these Canadian rates from? Stripe's Canadian pricing page was read on 19 Oct 2026. Rates change from time to time, so check the page for a large decision. ## Stripe calculators for other countries The [United Kingdom page](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk.md) works in pounds with a Bacs minimum and cap, the [Australia page](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md) includes GST, and the [United States page](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) starts from dollars. To see what a fee does to a sale, open the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md). ## Sources - Stripe's Canadian pricing page: [stripe.com/en-ca/pricing](https://stripe.com/en-ca/pricing), read 19 Oct 2026. Every rate, minimum, cap and fee on this page comes from that read. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Stripe fee calculator for Australia Stripe's fee on an A$100 Australian card payment is A$1.95 with GST included, so you keep A$98.05. Charge A$101.98 to receive A$100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | Payment method | Australian card (1.65% + A$0.30) | | Currency conversion (adds 2%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | A$1.95 | | You keep | A$98.05 | | Charge to keep the full amount | A$101.98 | | Share lost to the fee | 2.0% | Working: 1. Australian card is 1.65% + A$0.30. 2. The percentage part: 1.65% of A$100.00 is A$1.65, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: A$1.65 + A$0.30 = A$1.95. 4. The fee is A$1.95, so you keep A$100.00 - A$1.95 = A$98.05. 5. Stripe states its Australian card and PayTo fees include GST, so the fee shown is the whole amount taken. 6. To keep the full A$100.00, charge A$101.98: the fee on that is A$1.98, which leaves A$100.00. ## What Stripe charges in Australia A local Australian card costs 1.65% + A$0.30, and Stripe states that the figure includes GST. Take A$100: the percentage part is A$1.65, the fixed part A$0.30, and the total taken is A$1.95. Your balance receives A$98.05. As a sentence, the fee is the rate times the payment, rounded to the nearest cent, plus the fixed amount. As algebra, f = round(a × r) + c and what you keep is a − f. GST is already inside both parts, so there is no separate tax line to work out. ## Local cards, international cards and conversion International cards are priced at 3.5% + A$0.30, which is A$3.80 on A$100. When the currency has to be converted, a further 2% applies and the rate becomes 5.5%: A$5.80 on the same payment. Conversion applies to the international line only, so a local card never carries it. | Case | Rate applied | Fee on A$100 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Australian card | 1.65% + A$0.30 | A$1.95 | A$98.05 | | International card | 3.5% + A$0.30 | A$3.80 | A$96.20 | | International card, converted | 5.5% + A$0.30 | A$5.80 | A$94.20 | | Zip | 5.49% + A$0.30 | A$5.79 | A$94.21 | | PayTo or BECS | 1% + A$0.30, cap A$3.50 | A$1.30 | A$98.70 | > Stripe's Australian page carries a note that lower international card pricing starts on 1 Apr 2027. Until that date the rate in the tool is the one on the page today, and this page will follow the price list when it changes. ## Small sales in Australian dollars Thirty cents is a small amount on a large sale and a big one on a small sale. The table walks the local card from A$2 to A$500 so you can see where the share settles near the headline rate. | Payment | Fee | You keep | Share lost to the fee | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$2.00 | A$0.33 | A$1.67 | 16.5% | | A$5.00 | A$0.38 | A$4.62 | 7.6% | | A$10.00 | A$0.47 | A$9.53 | 4.7% | | A$20.00 | A$0.63 | A$19.37 | 3.2% | | A$40.00 | A$0.96 | A$39.04 | 2.4% | | A$100.00 | A$1.95 | A$98.05 | 2.0% | | A$250.00 | A$4.43 | A$245.57 | 1.8% | | A$500.00 | A$8.55 | A$491.45 | 1.7% | ## PayTo and BECS: pricing with a cap Bank payments cost 1% + A$0.30, cap A$3.50. The cap starts to apply at A$319.80, so everything above that costs a flat A$3.50. A made up trade business that invoices 40 jobs of A$450 in a month pays A$309.20 in fees on local cards and A$140.00 over PayTo or BECS, a monthly gap of A$169.20. | Payment | PayTo or BECS fee | Local card fee | Left in your pocket with a bank payment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$50.00 | A$0.80 | A$1.13 | A$0.33 | | A$100.00 | A$1.30 | A$1.95 | A$0.65 | | A$320.00 | A$3.50 | A$5.58 | A$2.08 | | A$450.00 | A$3.50 | A$7.73 | A$4.23 | | A$1,000.00 | A$3.50 | A$16.80 | A$13.30 | | A$2,000.00 | A$3.50 | A$33.30 | A$29.80 | On A$2,000 the local card fee is A$33.30 and a bank payment costs A$3.50. Buy now pay later through Zip costs A$5.79 on A$100. ## Setting a price that nets a round figure The charge that leaves a chosen amount is found by solving the sum backwards, because the fee grows with the charge. The table gives the charge for a local card. | You want to receive | Charge the customer | Fee on that charge | | --- | --- | --- | | A$10.00 | A$10.47 | A$0.47 | | A$25.00 | A$25.72 | A$0.72 | | A$50.00 | A$51.14 | A$1.14 | | A$150.00 | A$152.82 | A$2.82 | | A$500.00 | A$508.69 | A$8.69 | | A$1,000.00 | A$1,017.08 | A$17.08 | ## Things to keep in mind - Disputes: Stripe lists a dispute received fee of A$25.00 for each dispute, which is 50% of a A$50 payment. - Amounts are worked in cents with half cents rounded up, and a result that would be zero is refused with a message. - Network fees can apply in rare cases and are not predictable from the price list. - Billing, Radar and other products priced separately by Stripe are not part of this tool. - Prices for the United States, in dollars, are on the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md). ## Questions about Stripe fees in Australia ### What does Stripe charge on an A$100 Australian card payment? A$1.95 in total, GST included. That is 1.65% of the payment (A$1.65) plus A$0.30. You keep A$98.05, and 2.0% of the sale goes to the fee. ### Is GST added on top of the fee shown? No. Stripe's Australian page states that its card, Zip and PayTo fees include GST, so A$1.95 on A$100 is the whole amount taken. There is nothing to add afterwards. ### What does an international card cost compared with a local one? A$3.80 compared with A$1.95 on A$100, because the rate is 3.5% rather than 1.65%. Stripe's page notes lower international card pricing from 1 Apr 2027, and this tool uses the rate in force today. ### How much does conversion add to an international card? 2% more, giving 5.5% + A$0.30. On A$100 that is A$5.80, which leaves A$94.20. ### When does the PayTo and BECS cap apply? Both are 1% + A$0.30, cap A$3.50. The A$3.50 cap is reached at A$319.80, so a A$1,000 payment costs A$3.50 on PayTo and A$16.80 on a local card. ### What should I charge to receive A$150 after fees? Charge A$152.82 on a local card; the fee on that is A$2.82, and what remains is A$150. ### Why do very small sales cost so much? The fixed A$0.30 stays put. On A$5 the fee is A$0.38, which is 7.6%; on A$20 it is A$0.63, or 3.2%. ### How old are these rates? The Australian pricing page was read on 19 Oct 2026. The dispute received fee shown there is A$25.00. ## More Stripe calculators Compare with the [UK calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk.md) or the [Canada calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md), or start from the [United States page](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md). The [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) shows how a fee changes the margin on a sale. ## Sources - Stripe's Australian pricing page: [stripe.com/au/pricing](https://stripe.com/au/pricing), read 19 Oct 2026. Every rate, minimum, cap and fee on this page comes from that read. ## Related - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk Last updated: 2026-10-19 # PayPal fee calculator for the UK A £100 UK sale at PayPal's standard rate costs £3.20 and leaves £96.80. Work out your own fee by payment type and buyer. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the buyer pays | All other commercial transactions (2.9% + £0.30) | | Buyer location | Buyer in the UK, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man | | Currency conversion (3% above the base rate) (adds 3%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | £3.20 | | You keep | £96.80 | | Charge to keep the full amount | £103.30 | | Share lost to the fee | 3.2% | Working: 1. All other commercial transactions is 2.9% + £0.30. 2. The percentage part: 2.9% of £100.00 is £2.90, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: £2.90 + £0.30 = £3.20. 4. The fee is £3.20, so you keep £100.00 - £3.20 = £96.80. 5. To keep the full £100.00, charge £103.30: the fee on that is £3.30, which leaves £100.00. ## How the UK fee is worked out A UK seller on PayPal pays a share of each payment plus a fixed amount in pence. On the standard rate that is 2.9% + £0.30, so a £100 payment loses £3.20 and leaves £96.80. The calculator rounds the share to the nearest penny first, then adds the fixed fee. In symbols: ```text fee = round(amount x rate) + fixed keep = amount - fee charge to keep a target T = the smallest c where c - fee(c) >= T ``` ## What each payment type costs on £50 | Payment type | Rate | Fee on £50 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | All other commercial transactions | 2.9% + £0.30 | £1.75 | £48.25 | | Card payment without a PayPal account | 1.2% + £0.30 | £0.90 | £49.10 | | QR code payment, £10.01 and above | 1.5% + £0.10 | £0.85 | £49.15 | | QR code payment, £10.00 and below | 2% + £0.05 | £1.05 | £48.95 | | Buy now pay later (excludes PayPal Credit) | 3.9% + £0.30 | £2.25 | £47.75 | | Advanced credit and debit card payments (blended pricing) | 1.2% + £0.30 | £0.90 | £49.10 | | Micropayments, domestic | 5% + £0.05 | £2.55 | £47.45 | | Micropayments, international | 6% + £0.05 | £3.05 | £46.95 | ## Why small UK payments lose a bigger share The £0.30 fixed fee does not shrink with the sale. On a £1 sale the standard fee is £0.33, or 33.0% of the sale; on £250 it falls to 3.0%. | Payment | Standard fee | Share lost | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | £1.00 | £0.33 | 33.0% | £0.67 | | £2.00 | £0.36 | 18.0% | £1.64 | | £5.00 | £0.45 | 9.0% | £4.55 | | £10.00 | £0.59 | 5.9% | £9.41 | | £25.00 | £1.03 | 4.1% | £23.97 | | £50.00 | £1.75 | 3.5% | £48.25 | | £100.00 | £3.20 | 3.2% | £96.80 | | £250.00 | £7.55 | 3.0% | £242.45 | ## QR code payments and the £10 line QR code sales have their own two rates, so the amount decides which one applies. The table sets each QR payment beside the standard rate on the same amount. | Payment | QR rate applied | QR fee | Standard fee | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | £5.00 | 2% + £0.05 | £0.15 | £0.45 | | £10.00 | 2% + £0.05 | £0.25 | £0.59 | | £10.01 | 1.5% + £0.10 | £0.25 | £0.59 | | £20.00 | 1.5% + £0.10 | £0.40 | £0.88 | | £50.00 | 1.5% + £0.10 | £0.85 | £1.75 | ## Buyers outside the UK The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (Guernsey, Jersey, Man) are treated as domestic. An EEA buyer adds 1.29% to the percentage, and any other buyer adds 1.99%. The fixed fee stays at £0.30. | Buyer location | Percentage | Fee on £100 | You keep | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | UK, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man | 2.9% | £3.20 | £96.80 | | EEA | 4.19% | £4.49 | £95.51 | | Any other market | 4.89% | £5.19 | £94.81 | ## The tiered rate plan PayPal offers a tiered plan on request. The rate for a month follows the eligible commercial volume received in the month before, so a seller moves down a band as the shop grows. The fixed fee is unchanged. | Previous month volume | Percentage | Fee on £100 | Fee on £1,000 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Up to £4,000 | 2.9% | £3.20 | £29.30 | | £4,000 to £8,000 | 2.4% | £2.70 | £24.30 | | More than £8,000 | 2.1% | £2.40 | £21.30 | ## Micropayments for very small sales The micropayments rate (5% + £0.05) suits sales near the low end. It costs less than the standard rate up to £12.09 and more from £12.10. PayPal sets it by application, and once approved it covers every commercial payment received. ## Three worked UK examples | Case | Fee | You keep | Charge to keep the full amount | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | £250 from a buyer in the EEA, standard rate | £10.78 | £239.22 | £261.25 | | £8 QR code payment | £0.21 | £7.79 | £8.21 | | £40 sale on the micropayments rate | £2.05 | £37.95 | £42.16 | The first line shows the EEA surcharge: on £250 the fee is £10.78. The last line shows why micropayments stop paying off, since £40 is above the £12.10 crossover and the fee is £2.05 where the standard rate would take £1.46. ## Edge cases worth knowing - Card chargebacks outside a PayPal account carry a settlement fee of £14.00 on top of the sale being reversed. - The international surcharge does not apply to the micropayments rows, which have their own international rate of 6%. - American Express cards on the advanced card product have a separate rate that this tool does not model. - Rates apply to PayPal accounts registered in the UK, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man. Other markets have their own tables, for example the [PayPal fees for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) and [PayPal fees for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md) pages. ## Questions ### How much does PayPal take from a £100 payment in the UK? On the standard commercial rate of 2.9% + £0.30, PayPal takes £3.20 and you keep £96.80. An EEA buyer adds 1.29% and takes the fee to £4.49; a buyer elsewhere adds 1.99% and takes it to £5.19. ### Why does a £10 QR code payment cost a different rate from £10.01? PayPal prices QR code payments in two bands. At £10.00 and below the rate is 2% + £0.05; from £10.01 it is 1.5% + £0.10. On £10.00 the fee is £0.25, and on £10.01 it is £0.25. ### What should I charge so I keep a full £100 after the fee? On the default settings, charge £103.30. The fee comes off the charge, not off your target, so the calculator searches for the smallest charge whose net is still £100.00 instead of adding £3.20 to the price. ### Is the micropayments rate cheaper for small sales? Up to £12.09 it is. Micropayments cost 5% + £0.05, against 2.9% + £0.30 on the standard rate, so the fixed fee is lower and the percentage is higher. At £12.10 the micropayment fee is £0.66 against £0.65. The rate is by application and then covers every commercial payment you receive. ### How does the tiered rate plan change the fee? It is optional and on request. The percentage is set by the previous calendar month's eligible volume: 2.9%, then 2.4%, then 2.1% as volume rises. On a £100 payment the fee is £3.20, then £2.70, then £2.40 across those bands. The calculator uses the standard rate, so use the table for the tiers. ### What happens if I convert the payment into another currency? PayPal states a conversion rate of 3% on top of the base exchange rate when a business balance is converted. Switching the conversion option on for a £100 standard payment lifts the percentage to 5.9% and the fee to £6.20. ## Related tools Compare against the [US PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md), or see [PayPal fees for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) and [PayPal fees for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md). If you process with Stripe or Square instead, the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) and [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) run the same sums. ## Sources - [PayPal merchant fees, United Kingdom](https://www.paypal.com/uk/business/paypal-business-fees): read on 19 Oct 2026. PayPal prints "Last Updated: 1 October 2026" on the page. ## Related - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada Last updated: 2026-10-19 # PayPal fee calculator for Canada PayPal takes CA$3.20 from a CA$100 Canadian sale at the commercial rate and you keep CA$96.80. Check any amount and buyer location. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the buyer pays | Commercial transactions (2.9% + CA$0.30) | | Buyer location | Buyer in Canada | | Converting a payment in another currency (adds 4%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | CA$3.20 | | You keep | CA$96.80 | | Charge to keep the full amount | CA$103.30 | | Share lost to the fee | 3.2% | Working: 1. Commercial transactions is 2.9% + CA$0.30. 2. The percentage part: 2.9% of CA$100.00 is CA$2.90, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: CA$2.90 + CA$0.30 = CA$3.20. 4. The fee is CA$3.20, so you keep CA$100.00 - CA$3.20 = CA$96.80. 5. To keep the full CA$100.00, charge CA$103.30: the fee on that is CA$3.30, which leaves CA$100.00. ## How a Canadian PayPal fee adds up PayPal charges a Canadian seller a percentage of the sale and a fixed amount in cents. For an ordinary commercial payment that is 2.9% + CA$0.30. A CA$100 sale therefore costs CA$3.20; the tool rounds the percentage part to the nearest cent, adds the fixed fee, and shows what is left. The formula, written out: ```text fee = round(amount x (rate + buyer surcharge + conversion)) + fixed net = amount - fee target = smallest charge c with c - fee(c) >= goal ``` ## The buyer country changes the rate PayPal groups Canada's international buyers into two: the United States at +0.8% and every other country at +1%. The surcharge applies to commercial, QR code and advanced card payments. Here is the same CA$100 sale with each surcharge. | Payment type | Canadian buyer | US buyer | Other country | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Commercial transactions | CA$3.20 | CA$4.00 | CA$4.20 | | QR code payment, CA$10.01 and above | CA$2.00 | CA$2.80 | CA$3.00 | | Advanced credit and debit card payments | CA$3.00 | CA$3.80 | CA$4.00 | ## Fee for each payment type on CA$40 and CA$400 | Payment type | Rate | Fee on CA$40 | Fee on CA$400 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Commercial transactions | 2.9% + CA$0.30 | CA$1.46 | CA$11.90 | | PayPal Pay Later options | 4.9% + CA$0.30 | CA$2.26 | CA$19.90 | | QR code payment, CA$10.01 and above | 1.9% + CA$0.10 | CA$0.86 | CA$7.70 | | QR code payment, CA$10.00 and below | 2.4% + CA$0.05 | CA$1.01 | CA$9.65 | | Advanced credit and debit card payments | 2.7% + CA$0.30 | CA$1.38 | CA$11.10 | | Micropayments, Canada and US | 5% + CA$0.05 | CA$2.05 | CA$20.05 | | Micropayments, other international | 6% + CA$0.05 | CA$2.45 | CA$24.05 | ## The cost of small orders in Canadian dollars A flat CA$0.30 is a large slice of a CA$3 order and a rounding error on CA$400. The commercial rate and the micropayments rate are shown side by side because the second was built for exactly this range. | Sale | Commercial fee | Share lost | Micropayments fee | Share lost | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA$3.00 | CA$0.39 | 13.0% | CA$0.20 | 6.7% | | CA$8.00 | CA$0.53 | 6.6% | CA$0.45 | 5.6% | | CA$15.00 | CA$0.74 | 4.9% | CA$0.80 | 5.3% | | CA$40.00 | CA$1.46 | 3.7% | CA$2.05 | 5.1% | | CA$100.00 | CA$3.20 | 3.2% | CA$5.05 | 5.1% | | CA$400.00 | CA$11.90 | 3.0% | CA$20.05 | 5.0% | The two lines cross at CA$12.10: below it micropayments are cheaper, from there the commercial rate wins. ## QR code sales split at CA$10 Two QR bands apply: 2.4% + CA$0.05 at CA$10.00 and below, and 1.9% + CA$0.10 from CA$10.01. On CA$10.00 the fee is CA$0.29; on CA$10.01 it is CA$0.29, so the edge itself barely moves the fee and the lower percentage pays off on larger sales. ## Three Canadian worked examples | Case | Fee | You keep | Charge to keep the full amount | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA$1,200 advanced card payment from a US buyer | CA$42.30 | CA$1,157.70 | CA$1,243.83 | | CA$65 order paid with Pay Later | CA$3.49 | CA$61.51 | CA$68.66 | | CA$20 QR payment from an overseas buyer, converted | CA$1.48 | CA$18.52 | CA$21.59 | The last case stacks three parts: the QR rate of 1.9%, the overseas surcharge of 1% and the conversion rate of 4%, which together make 6.9% plus CA$0.10. ## Limits of this tool - Pay Later has no surcharge row on PayPal's Canadian table, so the buyer location option leaves it out and the tool says so in its steps. - American Express card payments have their own advanced card rate, which is not modelled here. - Donations, charity rates, payouts and withdrawals use different tables from the ones in this tool. - Looking at another market? See the [PayPal fees for UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) and [PayPal fees for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md) pages. ## Questions ### What does PayPal keep from a CA$100 sale in Canada? With a Canadian buyer on the commercial rate of 2.9% + CA$0.30, PayPal keeps CA$3.20 and you receive CA$96.80. To end up with the whole CA$100 you would charge CA$103.30. ### How much more does a customer in the United States cost me? A US buyer adds 0.8% to the percentage. On CA$100 at the commercial rate the fee becomes CA$4.00 instead of CA$3.20. A buyer in any other country adds 1% and the fee is CA$4.20. ### Is the advanced card product cheaper than the commercial rate? The percentage is lower, 2.7% against 2.9%, and the fixed fee is the same CA$0.30. On CA$100 the advanced card fee is CA$3.00 against CA$3.20. It is a separate product you apply for, and American Express cards are priced differently, so the tool leaves them out. ### When do micropayments beat the standard rate in Canada? The micropayments rate of 5% + CA$0.05 wins on small sales. It is cheaper up to CA$12.09, and from CA$12.10 the commercial rate of 2.9% + CA$0.30 is cheaper. PayPal sets it by application, for Canada and US payments at 5%. ### What does Pay Later cost on a CA$65 order? Pay Later is 4.9% + CA$0.30, so a CA$65 order loses CA$3.49 and you keep CA$61.51. The same order on the commercial rate costs CA$2.19. ### How is a currency conversion priced? PayPal sets a conversion floor of 4% when a payment arrives in another currency. Turning the option on for a CA$100 commercial payment raises the percentage to 6.9% and the fee to CA$7.20. ### What is the fee when a buyer disputes a card payment? For card chargebacks that do not pass through a PayPal account or guest checkout, PayPal assesses a settlement fee of CA$20.00. It is charged in addition to the loss of the sale. ## Related tools The [US PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) covers the American table, and [PayPal fees for UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) and [PayPal fees for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md) show the other markets. To weigh other processors, try the [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) or the [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md). ## Sources - [PayPal merchant fees, Canada](https://www.paypal.com/ca/business/paypal-business-fees): read on 19 Oct 2026. PayPal prints "Last Updated: 13 October 2026" on the page. ## Related - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia Last updated: 2026-10-19 # PayPal fee calculator for Australia An A$100 Australian sale at PayPal's commercial rate costs A$3.20 and leaves A$96.80. Compare QR, card and overseas buyers. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the buyer pays | Commercial transactions (2.9% + A$0.30) | | Buyer location | Buyer in Australia | | Currency conversion (3% above the base rate) (adds 3%) | No | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Fee | A$3.20 | | You keep | A$96.80 | | Charge to keep the full amount | A$103.30 | | Share lost to the fee | 3.2% | Working: 1. Commercial transactions is 2.9% + A$0.30. 2. The percentage part: 2.9% of A$100.00 is A$2.90, rounded half up to the smallest unit. 3. Add the fixed fee: A$2.90 + A$0.30 = A$3.20. 4. The fee is A$3.20, so you keep A$100.00 - A$3.20 = A$96.80. 5. To keep the full A$100.00, charge A$103.30: the fee on that is A$3.30, which leaves A$100.00. ## The Australian fee in one sentence Commercial payments to an Australian PayPal account pay 2.9% + A$0.30, so A$100 becomes A$96.80 after A$3.20. Other payment types change the percentage or drop the fixed fee, and the tool lets you choose between them. How each step is calculated: ```text percentage part = round(amount x (rate + surcharges)) fee = percentage part + fixed keep = amount - fee ``` PayPal notes that for Australian customers the Combined Financial Services Guide and Product Disclosure Statement prevails if it differs from the fee page this tool reads, so treat the result as an estimate and check the guide for your own agreement. ## Every Australian rate on A$25 and A$250 | Payment type | Rate | Fee on A$25 | Fee on A$250 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Commercial transactions | 2.9% + A$0.30 | A$1.03 | A$7.55 | | QR code payment | 1.2% | A$0.30 | A$3.00 | | Advanced credit and debit card payments | 1.5% + A$0.30 | A$0.68 | A$4.05 | | Micropayments, domestic | 5% + A$0.05 | A$1.30 | A$12.55 | | Micropayments, international | 6% + A$0.05 | A$1.55 | A$15.05 | ## QR code payments have no fixed fee At 1.2% flat, the QR rate costs the same share on every sale, so it is the one row here where a small sale is not penalised. The commercial row, which carries A$0.30, is the one that hurts small sales most. | Sale | QR fee | QR share | Commercial fee | Commercial share | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$2.00 | A$0.02 | 1.0% | A$0.36 | 18.0% | | A$6.00 | A$0.07 | 1.2% | A$0.47 | 7.8% | | A$12.00 | A$0.14 | 1.2% | A$0.65 | 5.4% | | A$30.00 | A$0.36 | 1.2% | A$1.17 | 3.9% | | A$75.00 | A$0.90 | 1.2% | A$2.48 | 3.3% | | A$200.00 | A$2.40 | 1.2% | A$6.10 | 3.1% | ## Overseas buyers and the card surcharge Australia has two surcharges. Commercial and QR payments add 1%; advanced card payments add 2.1%. Seeing them on A$500 shows the gap. | Payment type | Local buyer | Overseas buyer | Extra cost | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Commercial transactions | A$14.80 | A$19.80 | A$5.00 | | QR code payment | A$6.00 | A$11.00 | A$5.00 | | Advanced credit and debit card payments | A$7.80 | A$18.30 | A$10.50 | ## What a month of sales costs Take a month of identical A$100 payments. The totals below add the fee on every payment, which shows how the fixed A$0.30 adds up as order counts rise. | Payments in the month | Commercial total | Advanced card total | QR total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 60 | A$192.00 | A$108.00 | A$72.00 | | 150 | A$480.00 | A$270.00 | A$180.00 | | 600 | A$1,920.00 | A$1,080.00 | A$720.00 | | 2500 | A$8,000.00 | A$4,500.00 | A$3,000.00 | ## Micropayments against commercial With 5% + A$0.05, micropayments break even with the commercial rate near A$12.10. They are cheaper below it and dearer above, and PayPal sets them by application. ## Three Australian worked examples | Case | Fee | You keep | Charge to keep the full amount | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$75 QR code payment | A$0.90 | A$74.10 | A$75.91 | | A$900 advanced card sale to an overseas buyer | A$32.70 | A$867.30 | A$933.92 | | A$35 commercial sale, overseas buyer, converted | A$2.72 | A$32.28 | A$37.92 | The final line adds up as 2.9% plus 1% plus 3%, a percentage of 6.9%, with A$0.30 on top. ## Cases the calculator does not cover - Virtual Terminal, Website Payments Pro, donations, charity rates and payouts sit in other PayPal tables. - The higher conversion rate PayPal applies to some currency conversions is not a separate option; the tool offers the 3% rate. - Compare other markets with the [PayPal fees for UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) and [PayPal fees for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) pages. ## Questions ### What is the PayPal fee on an A$100 sale in Australia? On the commercial rate of 2.9% + A$0.30 the fee is A$3.20 and you keep A$96.80. Charge A$103.30 if you want the full A$100 to land after the fee. ### Why is the QR code rate so much lower? PayPal lists QR code payments at 1.2% with no fixed fee, against 2.9% + A$0.30 for commercial payments. On A$75 that is A$0.90 instead of A$2.48, which is 1.2% of the sale instead of 3.3%. ### How much extra does an overseas buyer add? Commercial and QR code payments from outside Australia add 1% to the percentage, so an A$100 commercial sale rises from A$3.20 to A$4.20. Advanced card payments add a larger 2.1%, which takes an A$100 card sale from A$1.80 to A$3.90. ### Is the advanced card product worth it? For local buyers it is the cheapest card route in the table: 1.5% + A$0.30 against 2.9% + A$0.30. A A$900 domestic sale costs A$13.80 on it and A$26.40 on the commercial rate. The gap narrows for overseas cards, where the surcharge of 2.1% puts it at A$32.70, only A$2.70 less than the commercial rate with its smaller surcharge. ### Where do micropayments fit in? They cost 5% + A$0.05 and are set by application. That beats the commercial rate for sales up to A$12.09; from A$12.10 the commercial rate is cheaper. An A$6 sale loses A$0.35 on micropayments and A$0.47 on the commercial rate. ### How much is the currency conversion? PayPal sets one conversion rate for most cases and a higher one for some, for example when a buyer pays in a currency different from the listing's. The tool uses 3% for converting what you receive, which takes an A$100 commercial sale to A$6.20. ### What does a card chargeback cost? The chargeback fee on PayPal's Australian page is A$15.00. On an A$100 sale that is 15.0% added to the sale you lose. ## Related tools The [US PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) shows the American table; [PayPal fees for UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) and [PayPal fees for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) cover the other two countries. The [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) and [Square's](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) run the same sums for those processors. ## Sources - [PayPal merchant fees, Australia](https://www.paypal.com/au/business/paypal-business-fees): read on 19 Oct 2026. PayPal prints "Last Updated: 13 October 2026" on the page. ## Related - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md) - [PayPal fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/canada Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Square fee calculator for Canada On a CA$100 online sale Square takes CA$3.10 in Canada and you keep CA$96.90. Charge CA$103.19 to receive the full CA$100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the customer pays | Online store, checkout, API or online invoice | | Card issuer | Card issued in Canada | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Square fee | CA$3.10 | | You keep | CA$96.90 | | Effective rate | 3.10% | | Rate applied | 2.8% + CA$0.30 | | Charge to keep CA$100.00 | CA$103.19 | Working: 1. Payment: CA$100.00 paid as "Online store, checkout, API or online invoice". 2. Rate: 2.8% + CA$0.30. 3. Percentage part: CA$100.00 x 2.8% = CA$2.80 (rounded to the nearest minor unit). 4. Fixed part: CA$0.30, so the fee is CA$3.10. 5. You keep CA$100.00 - CA$3.10 = CA$96.90. 6. To keep CA$100.00 after the fee, charge CA$103.19: the fee on that is CA$3.19. ## How Square prices a sale in Canada Square's Canadian list has four ways a customer can pay on card plus Afterpay. Credit in person is 2.5%, debit in person is 0.75% + CA$0.07, an online or invoice sale is 2.8% + CA$0.30, and a keyed in sale is 3.3% + CA$0.15. Choose the line that matches how the money arrives and the tool does the arithmetic. The formula in words: multiply the sale by the rate, round to the cent, add any fixed amount, and subtract the total from the sale. In symbols, f = round(a × r) + c and k = a − f. Nothing here is estimated: the same function drives the tool, the tables below and the sentences you are reading. ## Every payment line on one sale Here is a CA$100 sale on each line. In person debit is the cheapest at CA$0.82; credit costs CA$2.50, online CA$3.10, keyed in CA$3.45 and Afterpay CA$6.30. | How the customer pays | Rate | Fee on CA$100 | You keep | Charge to keep CA$100 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Credit card in person | 2.5% | CA$2.50 | CA$97.50 | CA$102.56 | | Debit card in person | 0.75% + CA$0.07 | CA$0.82 | CA$99.18 | CA$100.83 | | Online store, checkout, API or online invoice | 2.8% + CA$0.30 | CA$3.10 | CA$96.90 | CA$103.19 | | Keyed in, card on file or payment link with Virtual Terminal | 3.3% + CA$0.15 | CA$3.45 | CA$96.55 | CA$103.57 | | Afterpay | 6% + CA$0.30 | CA$6.30 | CA$93.70 | CA$106.70 | ## Cards from outside Canada A card issued outside Canada carries an extra 1.5% on three lines. The table repeats the CA$100 sale with that add-on switched on, and the debit line is left out because the price list does not mark it. | Line | Canadian card | Card from outside Canada | Extra cost | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Credit card in person | CA$2.50 | CA$4.00 | CA$1.50 | | Online store, checkout, API or online invoice | CA$3.10 | CA$4.60 | CA$1.50 | | Keyed in, card on file or payment link with Virtual Terminal | CA$3.45 | CA$4.95 | CA$1.50 | ## Small sales: where the fixed amounts show Debit has only CA$0.07 fixed, while online carries CA$0.30. A CA$5 debit sale pays CA$0.11 (2.20%), a CA$5 online sale pays CA$0.44 (8.80%), and by CA$1,000 the online sale pays CA$28.30. | Payment | Debit card in person fee (share) | Credit card in person fee (share) | Online store fee (share) | Keyed in fee (share) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA$3.00 | CA$0.09 (3.00%) | CA$0.08 (2.67%) | CA$0.38 (12.67%) | CA$0.25 (8.33%) | | CA$5.00 | CA$0.11 (2.20%) | CA$0.13 (2.60%) | CA$0.44 (8.80%) | CA$0.32 (6.40%) | | CA$10.00 | CA$0.15 (1.50%) | CA$0.25 (2.50%) | CA$0.58 (5.80%) | CA$0.48 (4.80%) | | CA$25.00 | CA$0.26 (1.04%) | CA$0.63 (2.52%) | CA$1.00 (4.00%) | CA$0.98 (3.92%) | | CA$60.00 | CA$0.52 (0.87%) | CA$1.50 (2.50%) | CA$1.98 (3.30%) | CA$2.13 (3.55%) | | CA$250.00 | CA$1.95 (0.78%) | CA$6.25 (2.50%) | CA$7.30 (2.92%) | CA$8.40 (3.36%) | | CA$1,000.00 | CA$7.57 (0.76%) | CA$25.00 (2.50%) | CA$28.30 (2.83%) | CA$33.15 (3.32%) | A made up example for a market stall with 120 sales of CA$25 a month: all debit costs CA$31.20 and all credit costs CA$75.60. At CA$20 a debit sale pays only CA$0.22. ## Setting the price to keep a round figure The fee depends on the charge itself, so covering it means solving for the charge, not tacking the fee onto the price. These are the charges for an online sale. | You want to receive | Charge the customer | Fee on that charge | | --- | --- | --- | | CA$10.00 | CA$10.60 | CA$0.60 | | CA$25.00 | CA$26.03 | CA$1.03 | | CA$50.00 | CA$51.75 | CA$1.75 | | CA$100.00 | CA$103.19 | CA$3.19 | | CA$200.00 | CA$206.07 | CA$6.07 | | CA$1,000.00 | CA$1,029.12 | CA$29.12 | ## What the tool leaves out - Hardware, software subscriptions and instant transfer fees are priced elsewhere on the same page and are not part of a sale fee. - Keyed in sales overtake online sales on size: above CA$30.16 the keyed rate costs more. - An amount that rounds to zero cents is refused with a message instead of a number. - The price list shows one Afterpay rate for the whole Afterpay product, so the tool treats it as one line. - Dollars and the United States version of this tool are on the [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md). ## Questions about Square fees in Canada ### What does Square take from a CA$100 online sale in Canada? CA$3.10 for a card not present sale at 2.8% + CA$0.30, leaving CA$96.90. That is 3.10% of the sale. ### Is debit really that much cheaper than credit in person? On the price list, yes. A debit tap or insert costs 0.75% + CA$0.07 while a credit card costs 2.5%. On CA$100 that is CA$0.82 against CA$2.50, and on CA$1,000 it is CA$7.57 against CA$25.00. ### What extra applies to a card issued outside Canada? The price list adds 1.5% to the credit in person, online and keyed in lines. A CA$100 online sale goes from CA$3.10 to CA$4.60, and a credit card tap from CA$2.50 to CA$4.00. The debit line carries no such add-on. ### When does a keyed in sale cost more than an online one? Keyed in is 3.3% + CA$0.15 against 2.8% + CA$0.30 online, so the keyed rate is higher once a payment passes CA$30.16. At CA$100 the fees are CA$3.45 and CA$3.10. ### What price leaves CA$200 after an online sale? Charge CA$206.07. The fee on that is CA$6.07, and CA$200 is left. Adding the fee on CA$200 to the price instead would leave you a few cents short. ### What does Afterpay cost through Square? The price list shows a single Afterpay rate of 6% + CA$0.30: CA$6.30 on CA$100, which is 6.30%. ### How are the cents rounded? The percentage part is rounded half up to the cent, then any fixed amount is added. The CA$5 online sale, for example, costs CA$0.44. ### How recent are these rates? Square's Canadian pricing page was read on 19 Oct 2026. Confirm the page before a large decision, because rates can change. ## The same tool for Australia and the US Square prices cards differently in [Australia](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/australia.md), where there is no fixed fee on card sales, and the [United States page](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) starts from dollars. For the same sale on Stripe see the [Canadian Stripe calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md), and use the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) to see what a fee does to your margin. ## Sources - Square's Canadian pricing page: [squareup.com/ca/en/pricing](https://squareup.com/ca/en/pricing), read 19 Oct 2026. The rates, fixed amounts and add-ons on this page come from that read. ## Related - [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) - [Square fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/australia Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Square fee calculator for Australia On an A$100 in person card sale Square takes A$1.60 in Australia and you keep A$98.40. Charge A$101.63 to receive the full A$100. Example with the default inputs: | Input | Value | | --- | --- | | Payment amount | 100 | | How the customer pays | In person: tap, insert or swipe | | Seller sign-up date | Account opened from 30 May 2024 | | Result | Value | | --- | --- | | Square fee | A$1.60 | | You keep | A$98.40 | | Effective rate | 1.60% | | Rate applied | 1.6% | | Charge to keep A$100.00 | A$101.63 | Working: 1. Payment: A$100.00 paid as "In person: tap, insert or swipe". 2. Rate: 1.6%. 3. Percentage part: A$100.00 x 1.6% = A$1.60 (rounded to the nearest minor unit). 4. There is no fixed part, so the fee is A$1.60. 5. You keep A$100.00 - A$1.60 = A$98.40. 6. To keep A$100.00 after the fee, charge A$101.63: the fee on that is A$1.63. ## Square pricing in Australia in brief Square's Australian price list has no fixed fee on cards. A card in person costs 1.6%, an online or invoice sale costs 2.2%, a keyed in or card on file sale costs 2.2%, and Afterpay costs 6% + A$0.30. That makes a card sum a single multiplication: A$100 in person is A$1.60. Expressed as a sentence, the fee is the sale times the rate, rounded to the cent, plus the fixed amount where one exists. Expressed as symbols, f = round(a × r) + c, where c is zero on every card line, and the amount you keep is a − f. ## Each way a customer can pay The same A$100 sale costs A$1.60 in person, A$2.20 online, A$2.20 keyed in and A$6.30 through Afterpay. Online and keyed in are priced alike. | How the customer pays | Rate | Fee on A$100 | You keep | Charge to keep A$100 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | In person: tap, insert or swipe | 1.6% | A$1.60 | A$98.40 | A$101.63 | | Online store, checkout, API or online invoice | 2.2% | A$2.20 | A$97.80 | A$102.25 | | Mail or phone order: keyed in on a point of sale, invoice or Virtual Terminal, or card on file | 2.2% | A$2.20 | A$97.80 | A$102.25 | | Afterpay | 6% + A$0.30 | A$6.30 | A$93.70 | A$106.70 | ## The sign-up date rule An account opened from 30 May 2024 pays 1.6% in person. An older account pays 1.9% when the buyer pays at a Reader or a Stand or taps to pay, which is 0.3 points more. The tool has a selector for it, and the table shows what it costs on larger sales. | Sale | Account opened from 30 May 2024 | Earlier account | Extra paid by earlier accounts | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$10.00 | A$0.16 | A$0.19 | A$0.03 | | A$50.00 | A$0.80 | A$0.95 | A$0.15 | | A$100.00 | A$1.60 | A$1.90 | A$0.30 | | A$500.00 | A$8.00 | A$9.50 | A$1.50 | | A$1,000.00 | A$16.00 | A$19.00 | A$3.00 | | A$5,000.00 | A$80.00 | A$95.00 | A$15.00 | A made up cafe with 900 sales a month of A$7.50 each pays A$108.00 in fees on the newer rate and A$126.00 on the older one. ## Where Afterpay changes the picture Card sales lose the same share at any size, but Afterpay has a fixed A$0.30. On a sale of A$10 the fee takes 9.00%, and on a sale of A$500 it takes 6.06%. Square states the Afterpay rate excluding GST. | Payment | In person fee (share) | Online store fee (share) | Afterpay fee (share) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A$5.00 | A$0.08 (1.60%) | A$0.11 (2.20%) | A$0.60 (12.00%) | | A$10.00 | A$0.16 (1.60%) | A$0.22 (2.20%) | A$0.90 (9.00%) | | A$25.00 | A$0.40 (1.60%) | A$0.55 (2.20%) | A$1.80 (7.20%) | | A$100.00 | A$1.60 (1.60%) | A$2.20 (2.20%) | A$6.30 (6.30%) | | A$500.00 | A$8.00 (1.60%) | A$11.00 (2.20%) | A$30.30 (6.06%) | | A$2,000.00 | A$32.00 (1.60%) | A$44.00 (2.20%) | A$120.30 (6.02%) | ## Pricing a sale so the full amount arrives To receive a set figure after fees you need the smallest charge that leaves it, which is slightly more than the figure plus the fee on the figure. The table gives that charge for an in person card sale. | You want to receive | Charge the customer | Fee on that charge | | --- | --- | --- | | A$10.00 | A$10.16 | A$0.16 | | A$25.00 | A$25.41 | A$0.41 | | A$50.00 | A$50.81 | A$0.81 | | A$100.00 | A$101.63 | A$1.63 | | A$300.00 | A$304.88 | A$4.88 | | A$1,000.00 | A$1,016.26 | A$16.26 | ## Notes on the tool - Hardware, plans and instant transfers are priced separately on the same page and are not in a sale fee. - Seller sign-up date only changes the in person line, and the steps tell you when a selector does not apply to the line chosen. - Amounts are worked in cents, half up, and a result that would round to zero is refused with a message. - Custom rates are offered on the page for sellers with large annual volume, and are not modelled here. - For dollars, see the [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md). ## Questions about Square fees in Australia ### What does Square charge on an A$100 in person sale in Australia? A$1.60 at 1.6%, so A$98.40 is left. There is no fixed fee on this line, so the share stays at 1.60% however small the sale. ### Which sellers pay the higher in person rate? The page gives a rate of 1.9% to sellers who signed up before 30 May 2024 using Square Reader, Stand or Tap to Pay. On A$100 that is A$1.90 instead of A$1.60, and on A$1,000 it is A$19.00 against A$16.00. ### How much more is an online sale than a card in person? Online and mail or phone orders are 2.2%. On A$100 that is A$2.20 against A$1.60 in person, and on A$1,000 the gap is A$6.00 (A$22.00 against A$16.00). ### Do small sales cost proportionally more on cards? Not on cards: with no fixed fee the share is the same on A$10 (A$0.16) as on A$1,000 (A$16.00). Afterpay is the exception, with 6% + A$0.30 costing A$0.90 on A$10, which is 9.00%. ### Is GST included in the Afterpay fee? The price list states the Afterpay rate excluding GST, so A$6.30 on A$100 is before any GST on the fee. Card lines on the same page are given without that remark. ### What should I charge to receive A$300 in person? Charge A$304.88. The fee on that charge is A$4.88, and A$300 remains. ### How is the fee rounded? The percentage is applied to the sale and rounded half up to the cent. A A$7.50 in person sale costs A$0.12, and A$0.14 for a seller on the older rate. ### When were these Square rates read? 19 Oct 2026, from Square's Australian pricing page. Check that page before relying on a rate for a large decision. ## Related calculators Canadian sellers can use the [Canada version](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/canada.md), which has fixed fees and an issuer add-on, and US sellers the [United States page](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md). The [Stripe calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md) prices the same sale on the other processor, and the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) turns a fee into a margin. ## Sources - Square's Australian pricing page: [squareup.com/au/en/pricing](https://squareup.com/au/en/pricing), read 19 Oct 2026. The rates, fixed amounts and add-ons on this page come from that read. ## Related - [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md) - [Square fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/canada.md) - [Stripe fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics Last updated: 2026-10-19 # SaaS metrics glossary A plain guide to 19 SaaS metrics, from visitor to trial rate to LTV to CAC, each with a formula, an example and a calculator. Each page below defines one metric in a sentence, gives the formula in words and symbols, works an example with made up numbers, lists the mistakes that most often distort it and links to a calculator that runs the sum with your figures. The metrics are grouped by where they sit in the path from a visitor to a customer who stays. ## Visitors The top of the funnel: how many of the people who arrive start a trial. - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md): Distinct visitors who start a trial, out of all visitors in the same period. ## Trials What happens between starting a trial or a free plan and becoming a paying customer. - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md): What fraction of a trial start cohort turns into paying customers. - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md): Free signups that upgrade inside a stated window, as a fraction of all signups. ## Payments Charges that fail, why they fail and how much of the lost revenue comes back. - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md): Failed charges divided by attempted charges. - [Card decline rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate.md): Declined attempts divided by attempts, split into soft and hard declines. - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md): How many failed payments are collected later, out of all that failed. - [Dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md): Retries, messages, a grace period and a final action for failed payments. ## Recurring revenue The size of the subscription base and how it changes from month to month. - [MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md): The monthly equivalent of every active subscription, and its four movements. - [ARR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arr.md): MRR times twelve, a run rate and not recognized revenue. - [ARPU](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md): MRR divided by paying customers. - [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md): Revenue added by existing customers through upgrades, seats, add-ons and usage. ## Customers kept Who stays, what it costs to win them and what they are worth over time. - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md): Customers lost to a failed charge that was never collected. - [Churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): Customers who left, over the customers you began with. New arrivals do not count. - [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md): Subscription revenue that cancels or shrinks, shown before and after expansion. - [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md): How much of the starting recurring revenue remains after losses and expansion. - [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md): The gross margin a customer brings over the life of the account. - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): Total acquisition spend over the paying customers it won. - [CAC payback period](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md): The months of gross margin it takes to earn back what a customer cost to win. - [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md): What a customer is worth over their lifetime, set against the cost of winning them. ## Calculators Every calculator runs in your browser and shows its working. The fee calculators also come in versions for the UK, Canada and Australia. - [ROI calculator](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md): Weigh what a change to your trial or billing is worth against what it costs. - [Trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md): Work out visitor to trial and trial to paid rates from your own counts. - [Churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md): Customer and revenue churn from your opening base and your losses. - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md): Lifetime value from revenue per account, gross margin and churn. - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md): Monthly recurring revenue from your plans and customer counts. - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md): What a change in recovery rate is worth in revenue you keep. - [Price increase calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md): See how a price change moves revenue once some customers leave. - [Proration calculator](https://trialvalid.com/proration-calculator.md): Split a charge across a plan change by the days used. - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md): Gross margin and markup from your price and your cost. - [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md): Card fees and net payout on a US Stripe payment. - [PayPal fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator.md): Fees and net amount on a US PayPal payment. - [Square fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator.md): Fees and net amount on a US Square payment. - [Stripe fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/uk.md): Card fees and net payout in pounds. - [Stripe fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/canada.md): Card fees and net payout in Canadian dollars. - [Stripe fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator/australia.md): Card fees and net payout in Australian dollars. - [PayPal fee calculator for the UK](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/uk.md): Fees and net amount in pounds. - [PayPal fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/canada.md): Fees and net amount in Canadian dollars. - [PayPal fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/paypal-fee-calculator/australia.md): Fees and net amount in Australian dollars. - [Square fee calculator for Canada](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/canada.md): Fees and net amount in Canadian dollars. - [Square fee calculator for Australia](https://trialvalid.com/square-fee-calculator/australia.md): Fees and net amount in Australian dollars. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Visitor to trial conversion rate Visitor to trial conversion rate counts distinct visitors who start a trial in the same period, shown with the formula and a worked case. ## Why it matters Every trial starts as a visit. If too few visitors start trials, nothing later in the funnel has anything to work on, so this is the first rate in the chain that ends in revenue. The rate also tells you where to look. A low blended figure can hide one strong channel and one weak one, and a high rate on a page that gets almost no traffic says little about the business. Read it beside the visitor count and read it per channel, so a change in the mix of traffic is not mistaken for a change in how well the page persuades. ## The formula In words: trial sign-ups divided by the distinct people who visited, with both counted over one shared period, then multiplied by 100 to show a percentage. In symbols: ```text visitor_to_trial_rate = trial_signups / distinct_visitors x 100 ``` - Count people, not page views. A person who visits five times is one visitor. - Pick one period, such as a week or a month, and use it for both numbers. - Decide what a sign-up is (an account created, or a card entered) and keep that definition fixed. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): three channels sent distinct visitors to the trial page over one month, and some of those people started a trial. | Channel | Distinct visitors | Trial sign-ups | Rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Search | 6,000 | 240 | 4.0% | | Email | 2,000 | 100 | 5.0% | | Paid ads | 4,000 | 80 | 2.0% | | All channels | 12,000 | 420 | 3.5% | Across all channels, 420 sign-ups from 12,000 distinct visitors is a rate of 3.5%. The blended rate sits between the best channel and the weakest one, and it moves whenever the mix of traffic moves. Visitor to trial rate by channel (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Search | 4.0% | | Email | 5.0% | | Paid ads | 2.0% | | All channels | 3.5% | ## How to improve it The changes that tend to help are the ones that remove doubt before the sign-up step. - State what the trial includes, how long it lasts and what happens when it ends, above the sign-up button. - Show the price on the page that offers the trial, so a visitor is never surprised later. - Cut the sign-up form down to the fields you need to start the trial. - Send each channel to a page that matches the promise that brought the visitor there. - Change one thing at a time and keep the period equal, so you can tell which change moved the rate. ## Common mistakes - Counting page views or sessions as visitors, which inflates the denominator and drags the rate down. - Dividing this month’s sign-ups by last month’s visitors, so the two counts describe different people. - Comparing channels by rate alone without checking how many visitors each one sent. - Counting sign-ups from existing customers who start another trial, or from your own team. ## Work it out with your own numbers The trial conversion rate calculator begins with the visitor to trial rate. Open the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md): the next step, from a started trial to a paying customer. - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md): the matching measure when the entry point is a free plan. - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): what each new paying customer costs you to win. ## Questions ### What counts as a trial sign-up? A person who completes the step that starts a trial, whether that means creating an account or entering a card. Choose one definition and keep it fixed so the rate stays comparable over time. ### Should I count visitors or sessions? Count distinct visitors. Sessions count the same person again each time they return, which makes the rate look worse than it is. ### Is a higher rate always better? Not on its own. A form that lets anyone start a trial can lift this rate while lowering the share of trials that become paying customers, so read it next to the [trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md). ### How long a period should I use? One long enough to hold a steady number of visitors, usually a week or a month, with the same period used for both counts. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md) - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial to paid conversion rate Trial to paid conversion rate means the part of a trial start cohort that pays once the trials end, with a worked example. ## Why it matters A trial is the last step before a customer pays. This rate shows whether the people who start a trial find enough value to stay, so it sits close to revenue and moves it quickly. It is a cohort measure. Trials that are still running have not had the chance to convert, so counting them lowers the rate for no good reason. Group trials by the week they started, wait until every trial in the group has ended, and then count how many became paying customers. ## The formula In words: the paying customers that came from a start cohort, divided by the number of that cohort’s trials that have ended, then multiplied by 100. In symbols: ```text trial_to_paid_rate = paying_customers_from_cohort / ended_trials_in_cohort x 100 ``` - The cohort is every trial that started in one period, such as one week. - Only ended trials go in the denominator. A trial that is still running is neither a win nor a loss yet. - A customer who pays once and cancels later still counts as converted. The later loss belongs to churn. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): 600 trials started over three weeks. All of them have ended, and some of those people became paying customers. | Start week | Ended trials | Paying customers | Rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Week 1 | 200 | 30 | 15.0% | | Week 2 | 200 | 36 | 18.0% | | Week 3 | 200 | 30 | 15.0% | | Whole cohort | 600 | 96 | 16.0% | The cohort produced 96 paying customers from 600 ended trials, a trial to paid rate of 16.0%. Each start week keeps its own rate, so a strong week and a weak week stay visible. Trial to paid rate by start week (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Week 1 | 15.0% | | Week 2 | 18.0% | | Week 3 | 15.0% | | Whole cohort | 16.0% | ## What published data says Published figures give a loose reference point, and they differ with how a trial is set up. Treat them as context for your own cohorts, not as a target. - Median free-to-paid conversion rate across 200 products: 8%. ChartMogul, The Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026), January 2026 study of 200 products. Read on 18 Oct 2026. [Source](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/). - Free-to-paid conversion of trials that require a credit card: 30%. Same ChartMogul report: trials requiring a credit card converted at 30% in the January 2026 study. Read on 18 Oct 2026. [Source](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/). ## How to improve it Most of the gain comes from getting a new customer to a useful result while the trial is still running. - Find the first result that new customers value and point your onboarding messages at it. - Before the trial ends, say what will be billed and on what date, so the first payment comes as no surprise. - Ask the trials that did not convert why they left. The same few reasons usually repeat. - Compare trial designs, such as length or card up front, on separate cohorts and not on one mixed group. ## Common mistakes - Dividing by trials started instead of trials ended, which scores unfinished trials as losses. - Blending cohorts, so a good week and a bad week hide each other. - Comparing a card-required trial with a no-card trial as though they were one kind of trial. - Counting a customer as converted when they only entered a card, before any payment was collected. ## Work it out with your own numbers The trial conversion rate calculator takes your trial and paying counts and shows the rate for a cohort. Open the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md): the step before the trial starts. - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md): the same idea for products that start with a free plan. - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): how the conversion rate feeds the cost of winning a customer. ## Questions ### Which trials belong in the denominator? Only trials from the cohort that have ended. A trial that is still running cannot yet be counted as converted or as lost. ### When is a trial customer counted as paid? When the first payment is collected. Entering a card is a step on the way, not a payment. ### Does requiring a card change the rate? It changes who starts a trial, so the two kinds of trial give rates that are not directly comparable. Keep them in separate cohorts when you track them. ### How big should a cohort be? Large enough that one customer more or less does not move the rate noticeably. If a week is too small, group two or four weeks together and keep the grouping fixed. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md) - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md) - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Freemium conversion rate Freemium conversion rate tracks the free signups in a cohort that move to a paid plan inside a stated window, with a worked example. ## Why it matters A free plan removes the first barrier to trying a product, and it also fills the account list with people who may never pay. The freemium conversion rate shows how many of them cross over, which decides whether the free plan is an investment or only a cost. Because upgrades keep arriving for months, the number has no meaning until you name the window. A rate measured at 90 days and a rate measured at 180 days describe the same people at different moments, so quote both and always say which one you mean. ## The formula In words: the free signups in a cohort that upgraded within the window, divided by all free signups in that cohort, then multiplied by 100. Show a 90 day and a 180 day window. In symbols: ```text freemium_rate(window) = upgraded_within_window / free_signups_in_cohort x 100 ``` - The cohort is every free-plan sign-up from one period, active or not. - Count an upgrade only when it falls inside the window, measured from each person’s own signup date. - Some products have no free plan and run a short paid trial instead. For those, use the [trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md). ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): 2,400 free-plan sign-ups arrived in one month, and you counted how many of them upgraded inside two windows. | Window | Free signups in the cohort | Upgraded within the window | Rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 90 days | 2,400 | 190 | 7.9% | | 180 days | 2,400 | 265 | 11.0% | 190 upgrades inside 90 days is 7.9%, and 265 inside 180 days is 11.0%. It is the same cohort, so the longer window can only be equal or higher. Quote the window every time. Freemium conversion by window (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | 90 days | 7.9% | | 180 days | 11.0% | ## What published data says A published median for free to paid conversion is a rough guide only. Check the window and the kind of product it was measured on before you compare it with your own 90 or 180 day figures. - Median free-to-paid conversion rate across 200 products: 8%. ChartMogul, The Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026), January 2026 study of 200 products. Read on 18 Oct 2026. [Source](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/). ## How to improve it The strongest moves connect what free users do with what the paid plan adds. - Find the action that free users take shortly before they upgrade, and guide new users toward it first. - Place the limit of the free plan where people meet it while doing real work, with the upgrade option beside it. - Message free users as they approach a limit, not only after they hit it. - Be able to name in one sentence what the paid plan adds, and show that sentence where the upgrade is offered. ## Common mistakes - Quoting a rate without its window, so a 90 day figure gets compared with a 180 day figure. - Dropping inactive free signups from the denominator, which makes the rate look better than it is. - Mixing cohorts from different months into one number, so a recent cohort that has had little time drags the figure down. - Comparing a freemium rate with a trial rate as if both started from the same point. They measure different people. ## Work it out with your own numbers The same arithmetic applies to free signups, and the trial conversion rate calculator will do it for any cohort. Open the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md): the measure for products that start with a trial. - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md): the step from visit to sign-up. - [Churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): what happens to customers after they upgrade. ## Questions ### Which window should I report? Report at least two, such as 90 and 180 days, and name the window each time. A single number with no window cannot be compared with anything. ### Should inactive free signups stay in the denominator? Yes. They are part of the cohort, and removing them makes the rate look better without any change in how many people upgraded. ### Why does the longer window give a higher rate? It covers the same cohort for more time, so more people have had a chance to upgrade. For one cohort the longer window can only be equal or higher. ### Is this the same as a trial conversion rate? No. A trial has a fixed end date and a freemium plan does not, so the freemium rate depends on the window you choose. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md) - [Customer churn rate and how to measure it](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Failed payment rate Failed payment rate is failed charges divided by attempted charges over the same period, with a formula and a worked example. ## Why it matters A failed payment is revenue you have earned and not collected. Subscriptions charge on a schedule, so every failed charge sits on a customer who did not plan to leave, and it is one of the few leaks you can measure directly. The failed payment rate is where the work starts. It shows how large the problem is before you look at causes, and watching it over months shows whether changes to billing or card handling are helping. It is a measure of the problem. The part you collect again is the [payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md). ## The formula In words: failed charges divided by attempted charges over the same period, then multiplied by 100. In symbols: ```text failed_payment_rate = failed_charges / attempted_charges x 100 ``` - Decide whether a retry counts as a new attempt. Counting only first attempts shows how often a card fails the first time, while counting every attempt mixes retries into the figure. - Pool the counts across a period instead of averaging monthly rates. - Keep one-off purchases and subscription renewals apart if they behave differently. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): a subscription business attempted charges over three months and counted how many failed. | Period | Attempted charges | Failed charges | Rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Month 1 | 4,000 | 200 | 5.0% | | Month 2 | 5,000 | 350 | 7.0% | | Month 3 | 6,000 | 480 | 8.0% | | Three months | 15,000 | 1,030 | 6.9% | Over the three months, 1,030 failed charges out of 15,000 attempted is 6.9%. Averaging the three monthly rates gives 6.7% instead, because the busier months count for more in the pooled figure. Failed payment rate by month (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Month 1 | 5.0% | | Month 2 | 7.0% | | Month 3 | 8.0% | | Three months | 6.9% | ## How to improve it Failures come from cards that expire, accounts that run short and checkouts that go wrong, and each has its own fix. - Email customers before a card expires and give them a simple page to update it. - Use the card update services your payment processor offers, so new card details reach you without action from the customer. - Show clear error messages at checkout, so a mistyped number is fixed on the spot. - Offer a second payment method for customers whose first one keeps failing. - Test different billing dates and watch the rate by date before you change anything for everyone. ## Common mistakes - Averaging the monthly rates instead of pooling the counts, which gives a small month the same weight as a large one. - Counting retries as fresh attempts without saying so, which dilutes the rate. - Mixing one-off payments with subscription renewals, which fail for different reasons. - Counting refunds or disputes as failed payments. They are separate events with their own measures. ## Work it out with your own numbers The failed payment recovery calculator starts from your failed payments and shows what recovery is worth. Open the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Card decline rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate.md): the part of failures where the issuing bank said no. - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md): how much of the failed revenue comes back. - [Dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md): the process that does the recovering. ## Questions ### Is a failed payment the same as a declined card? Not quite. A decline is the issuing bank refusing the charge. A failed payment also includes errors such as an expired card or a processing problem, so the failed payment rate is the wider measure. ### Should I count retries as attempts? Choose one rule and keep it. Counting only first attempts shows how often a card fails on the first try, and counting all attempts includes the retries. ### What period should I use? A month is common. Pool the failed and attempted counts across the period rather than averaging smaller periods. ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Card decline rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate.md) - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md) - [Dunning: recovering failed payments](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Card decline rate Card decline rate is declined attempts divided by attempts, split into soft declines that can recover and hard declines that cannot. ## Why it matters Most failed subscription payments begin with a card decline, so this rate shows how often the issuing bank is turning your charges away. It is the closest measure to the cause of the problem. The split matters more than the total. A soft decline is temporary, for example an account short of funds or a bank that could not be reached, and a later attempt may succeed. A hard decline means the card is closed, lost or invalid, and only a new card will work. The two call for different responses, so a single combined rate hides the next step. ## The formula In words: declined attempts divided by card attempts over the same period, then multiplied by 100. Report soft and hard declines as two parts of the total. In symbols: ```text card_decline_rate = declined_attempts / card_attempts x 100 soft_rate + hard_rate = card_decline_rate ``` - Count attempts, not customers. One customer can generate several attempts in a month. - Use the decline category your payment processor returns to separate soft from hard. - Exclude payment types that are not cards if you want a pure card figure. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): 8,000 card charges were attempted in a month, and the issuers declined some of them. | Outcome | Attempts | Share of all attempts | | --- | --- | --- | | Soft declines | 400 | 5.0% | | Hard declines | 160 | 2.0% | | All declines | 560 | 7.0% | 560 declines from 8,000 attempts is a card decline rate of 7.0%. Of that, 5.0% is soft declines that may succeed on a later try and 2.0% is hard declines that need a new card. Card decline rate split by type (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Soft declines | 5.0% | | Hard declines | 2.0% | ## How to improve it The two kinds of decline need different handling, so improvement starts with sorting them. - Retry soft declines on a schedule that spreads attempts over days, and do not retry hard declines at all. - Ask for a new card straight away after a hard decline, with a link that makes the update quick. - Compare decline rates by card brand and by country, since a pattern there points to a specific fix. - Keep the name on the statement recognisable, so customers do not dispute a charge they do not remember. ## Common mistakes - Lumping every decline together, so retries are wasted on cards that can never succeed. - Counting customers instead of attempts, which understates the rate for customers who are retried often. - Treating a bank’s suspected fraud block like a low balance. The first needs the customer to act, and the second may clear by itself. - Reading the rate without a time period, so a quiet week and a busy week look alike. ## Work it out with your own numbers The failed payment recovery calculator turns your declines into a recovery estimate. Open the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md): the wider measure that includes errors other than declines. - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md): how many declined payments are collected later. - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md): what happens when declines are never resolved. ## Questions ### What is the difference between a soft and a hard decline? A soft decline is temporary, such as a short balance, and may succeed on a later attempt. A hard decline means the card cannot be used again, for example because it is closed, so the customer must supply a new one. ### Should I retry a hard decline? No. A retry cannot succeed and only adds noise. Ask the customer for a new card instead. ### Where do I find the decline category? Your payment processor returns a reason with each declined attempt. Group those reasons into soft and hard and keep the grouping fixed. ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md) - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Payment recovery rate Payment recovery rate measures how many failed payments were eventually collected, out of every payment that failed, with a worked example. ## Why it matters Once a payment fails, recovery decides whether the revenue is lost or only late. The recovery rate shows how well your retries and messages win it back, in the one number that connects billing work to revenue. Read it together with the failed payment rate. A business with a low failure rate and poor recovery loses more than it expects, and a business with a high failure rate and strong recovery loses less than it fears. The rate also shows whether a change to your retry schedule helped, which is hard to see from revenue alone. ## The formula In words: the failed payments that were later collected, divided by all failed payments, then multiplied by 100. Give the same period and the same recovery window to every cohort. In symbols: ```text payment_recovery_rate = recovered_payments / failed_payments x 100 ``` - The denominator is all failed payments, not all payments. - Wait until the recovery window has closed before you read the rate for a cohort. - Report soft and hard declines separately when you can, because they recover at very different rates. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): in one month 200 payments failed, and over the following weeks some of them were collected. | Type of failure | Failed payments | Recovered | Recovery rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Soft declines | 140 | 84 | 60.0% | | Hard declines | 60 | 6 | 10.0% | | All failed payments | 200 | 90 | 45.0% | 90 recovered out of 200 failed payments is a payment recovery rate of 45.0%. The two groups behave very differently, so the blended rate depends on how many failures are soft and how many are hard. Payment recovery rate by failure type (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Soft declines | 60.0% | | Hard declines | 10.0% | | All failed payments | 45.0% | ## What published data says A processor’s published average is a reference point and not a target. It depends on the mix of declines, the products and the retry settings behind it. - Average failed-payment recovery rate Stripe publishes for businesses using Stripe Billing: 55%. Stripe states 55% on its Billing product page. Read on 18 Oct 2026. [Source](https://stripe.com/billing). ## How to improve it Recovery improves when each failure gets the right response at the right time. - Spread retries over several days and skip them for hard declines. - Send a message with a one click link to update the card as soon as a payment fails. - Keep the customer’s access running through a short grace period, so they can fix the card without losing the product. - Make the card update page work on a phone and ask for nothing but the new card. - Track recovery by step so you can see which retry or message earns its place. ## Common mistakes - Dividing by all payments instead of failed payments, which shrinks the rate to a meaningless figure. - Reading a cohort before its recovery window has closed, so late recoveries are missed. - Counting a customer who signs up again as a recovered payment while the original charge stays unpaid. - Blending soft and hard declines, which hides the fact that most hard declines never recover. ## Work it out with your own numbers The failed payment recovery calculator shows what a change in recovery is worth in revenue. Open the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md): the retries and messages that produce recovery. - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md): the size of the problem recovery is working on. - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md): what is lost when recovery fails. ## Questions ### What counts as a recovered payment? A payment that failed and was later collected on the same invoice, whether by a retry or after the customer updated their card. ### Why use failed payments as the denominator? The rate measures how well you win back what failed. Dividing by all payments would mix in payments that never needed recovering. ### When should I measure a cohort? After the recovery window has closed. A cohort read too early understates the rate because late recoveries have not yet arrived. ### Do soft and hard declines recover alike? No. Soft declines often succeed on a later attempt, while hard declines usually need a new card, so track them as separate groups. ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Dunning: recovering failed payments](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Dunning: recovering failed payments Dunning is the process of recovering failed subscription payments through retries, messages, a grace period and a final action. ## Why it matters Without a plan, a failed payment either turns into a cancellation or sits unpaid. Dunning is the plan, a set of steps that runs automatically from the first failure until the payment is collected or the subscription ends. Good dunning protects revenue without annoying the customer. Most people whose card fails did not decide to leave, so the aim is to fix the card quickly and keep them in the product while you do it. Measuring each step tells you which part of the plan is earning its place. ## The formula In words: recovery at a step is the customers recovered at that step, divided by the customers who entered dunning. The step rates add up to the overall recovery rate. In symbols: ```text step_recovery = recovered_at_step / entered_dunning x 100 total_recovery = sum of step_recovery ``` - Every step uses the same denominator, the customers who entered dunning. - A customer is counted at the step where the payment was finally collected, and at no other step. ## The four parts of dunning - Retries: new attempts to charge the saved card, spaced over days so a temporary problem has time to clear. - Messages: emails or in-product notices that tell the customer a payment failed and link to a simple card update page. - Grace period: the time the customer keeps access while the payment is still outstanding. - Final action: what happens when the last step fails, such as pausing or cancelling the subscription. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): 400 subscribers entered dunning in a month. The table counts how many were recovered at each step. | Step | Recovered at the step | Share of those who entered dunning | | --- | --- | --- | | Retry on day 1 | 60 | 15.0% | | Retry on day 3 | 40 | 10.0% | | Email with a card update link | 32 | 8.0% | | Final retry on day 7 | 28 | 7.0% | | All steps | 160 | 40.0% | Each step is measured against the 400 who entered dunning, so the step rates add up to the total: 160 recovered is 40.0%. The table shows which step earns its place and which one adds little. Recovery by dunning step (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Retry on day 1 | 15.0% | | Retry on day 3 | 10.0% | | Email with a card update link | 8.0% | | Final retry on day 7 | 7.0% | ## What published data says Stripe documents a recommended retry schedule for its Smart Retries feature. It is a starting point for your own settings, which should follow your own results. - Stripe Smart Retries recommended default: 8 tries within 2 weeks. Stripe documentation recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks for Smart Retries. Read on 18 Oct 2026. [Source](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries). ## How to improve it Treat dunning as a short sequence you can read step by step, then adjust the weakest part. - Spread retries across days and weekdays, and stop retrying hard declines. - Write messages that name the amount, say what failed and link straight to a card update page. - Choose a grace period long enough to fix a card and short enough that unpaid use does not pile up. - Warn the customer before the final action, with the date it will happen. - Review recovery by step each month and remove steps that add nothing. ## Common mistakes - Retrying hard declines, which wastes attempts and cannot succeed. - Sending one email and nothing after it, so a missed message ends the subscription. - Ending the grace period without warning, which turns a fixable card problem into an angry cancellation. - Writing messages that read like threats. A calm note with a clear link recovers more goodwill than it costs. - Not measuring recovery by step, so a step that does nothing runs for years. ## Work it out with your own numbers The failed payment recovery calculator lets you test how a different recovery rate changes the revenue you keep. Open the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md): the overall result that dunning produces. - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md): the customers lost when dunning does not work. - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md): how many payments enter dunning to begin with. ## Questions ### What are the parts of dunning? Retries, messages, a grace period and a final action. Together they cover how you try again, how you tell the customer, how long they keep access and what happens at the end. ### How long should a grace period last? Long enough for a customer to notice the message and update a card, and short enough that unpaid use does not accumulate. Set it from your own recovery results by step. ### Should I retry every failed payment? No. Retry a soft decline, since it may clear. After a hard decline, request a different card. ### How do I know a step is worth keeping? Measure the customers recovered at each step against everyone who entered dunning. A step with a very small share is a candidate to change or drop. ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md) - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md) - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Involuntary churn Involuntary churn is the share of opening customers lost because a failed charge was never collected, not because they chose to cancel. ## Why it matters Some customers leave because they decide to. Others leave because a card expired, a bank blocked a charge or a payment failed and nobody fixed it. Involuntary churn counts the second group, people who would probably have stayed if the payment had gone through. It matters because it is the most fixable kind of churn. Someone who cancels decided to go, and only the product can change that, while someone lost to a failed charge can often be recovered with a retry or a clear message. Separating the two shows how much of your churn is a billing problem and how much is a product problem. ## The formula In words: the customers who left through an uncollected failed charge, divided by the customer count at the start of the period, then multiplied by 100. In symbols: ```text involuntary_churn_rate = customers_lost_to_uncollected_charges / customers_at_start x 100 ``` - The denominator is the opening customer count, so anyone who joined partway through is not counted. - Count a customer as involuntary when the subscription ended after a failed charge that stayed unpaid, whatever the cancellation flag says. - Voluntary churn plus involuntary churn equals total churn for the period. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): a business began a month with 2,000 subscribers. Some chose to cancel and some were lost because a failed charge was never collected. | Kind of loss | Customers lost | Share of opening customers | | --- | --- | --- | | Voluntary (chose to cancel) | 70 | 3.5% | | Involuntary (uncollected failed charge) | 50 | 2.5% | | All churn | 120 | 6.0% | 50 subscribers lost to uncollected charges out of 2,000 at the start is an involuntary churn rate of 2.5%. It makes up 42% of all customers lost that month. Monthly churn split by cause (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Voluntary | 3.5% | | Involuntary | 2.5% | ## How to improve it Involuntary churn falls when failed payments are caught and fixed before the subscription ends. - Build a recovery sequence of retries and clear messages, as described under [dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md). - Email customers ahead of a card expiry with a link that updates it in one step. - Give customers a short grace period so a fixable card problem does not cut off their access. - Offer a second payment method at sign-up or in account settings. - Check the involuntary share each month, so a change in billing shows up quickly. ## Common mistakes - Filing every cancellation under voluntary churn, which hides a billing leak that could be fixed. - Counting new customers whose first charge failed. They never became customers, so they do not belong in the figure. - Dividing by the closing customer count instead of the opening count. - Waiting for a customer to press cancel before counting a loss, so unpaid subscriptions that lapse are missed. ## Work it out with your own numbers The churn rate calculator takes your opening customers and your losses, and you can enter the involuntary losses on their own. Open the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [Churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): total churn, which involuntary churn is part of. - [Dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md): the process that prevents involuntary churn. - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md): how much of the failed revenue you win back. ## Questions ### What is the difference between voluntary and involuntary churn? Voluntary churn is a customer choosing to cancel. Involuntary churn is a loss caused by a charge that failed and was never collected. ### Why use the opening customer count? It keeps new customers out of the rate. Customers who joined during the period had no chance to be lost from the starting group. ### How do I tell the two apart? Look at whether the subscription ended after a failed charge that stayed unpaid. If it did, count it as involuntary, whatever the cancellation reason says. ## Related - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer churn rate and how to measure it](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md) - [Dunning: recovering failed payments](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) - [Payment recovery rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/payment-recovery-rate.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr Last updated: 2026-10-19 # MRR: monthly recurring revenue MRR is the monthly equivalent of every active subscription, and it moves through four changes: new, expansion, contraction and churned. ## Why it matters Subscription businesses sell the same thing every month, and MRR is the plain total of that. It turns a mix of monthly, quarterly and annual plans into one number you can compare from month to month, which is the number most other metrics are built on. The change in MRR matters as much as the level. A flat figure can hide a lot of new revenue offset by a lot of loss, and a rising figure can hide a leaking base. Splitting the change into its four movements shows which of those is happening. ## The formula In words: the sum of the monthly equivalent of every active subscription. A plan billed yearly counts at one twelfth of its yearly price, and a plan billed quarterly at one third. In symbols: ```text MRR = sum of (plan price / months in the billing period) for every active subscription closing MRR = opening MRR + new + expansion - contraction - churned ``` - Count active, paying subscriptions only. Trials, one-off fees and usage that is not under contract stay out. - Apply discounts the same way every month, either always before or always after. - Use one currency, converted on a stated date, if you sell in more than one. ## The four movements of MRR - New: MRR from customers who started paying this month. - Expansion: extra MRR from existing customers, for example through upgrades, more seats, add-ons or usage. - Contraction: MRR lost when an existing customer moves to a cheaper plan or drops seats but stays. - Churned: MRR lost when a customer cancels, or when a failed payment is never collected. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): a business opened the month with a base of monthly recurring revenue, and four kinds of movement changed it. | Line | Monthly recurring revenue | | --- | --- | | Opening MRR | $40,000 | | New | +$6,000 | | Expansion | +$2,500 | | Contraction | -$1,000 | | Churned | -$3,000 | | Net new MRR | +$4,500 | | Closing MRR | $44,500 | Opening MRR of $40,000 plus net new MRR of +$4,500 gives closing MRR of $44,500. New and expansion add $8,500, contraction and churn take away $4,000. MRR bridge for one month (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Opening | $40,000 | | New | +$6,000 | | Expansion | +$2,500 | | Contraction | -$1,000 | | Churned | -$3,000 | | Closing | $44,500 | ## How to improve it MRR grows by adding to the first two movements and shrinking the last two. - Win new customers with a clear offer and a short path from interest to first payment. - Give existing customers a reason to grow, such as more seats or a feature on a higher plan. - Look at contraction as a signal. Customers who downgrade are telling you something about the plan. - Reduce churned MRR with recovery for failed payments and with attention to why customers cancel. ## Common mistakes - Counting an annual contract at its full yearly price in the month it is paid, which makes MRR jump and then collapse. - Including one-off setup fees or a single spike in usage as if they would recur. - Counting trials as MRR before the first payment is collected. - Mixing gross and discounted prices from month to month, so the figure moves without any customer change. ## Work it out with your own numbers The MRR calculator builds the figure from your own plans and customer counts. Open the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [ARR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arr.md): the same number projected over a year. - [ARPU](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md): MRR spread across paying customers. - [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md): a closer look at one of the four movements. ## Questions ### How do I count an annual plan in MRR? Divide its yearly price by twelve and count that amount every month the plan is active. ### Do one-off fees count? No. MRR covers revenue that recurs. A setup fee or a one-time purchase belongs in revenue but not in MRR. ### What is net new MRR? New and expansion added together, then contraction and churned taken away. That is the gap between opening and closing MRR. ### Should trials be counted? Not until the first payment is collected. A trial is a possible future subscription and not yet recurring revenue. ## Related - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [ARR: annual recurring revenue](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arr.md) - [Average revenue per user (ARPU)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md) - [Expansion MRR: growth from existing customers](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arr Last updated: 2026-10-19 # ARR: annual recurring revenue ARR is monthly recurring revenue times twelve, a run rate that shows scale and is not the revenue you have recognized. ## Why it matters ARR puts monthly recurring revenue on a yearly scale, which is how many people think about the size of a business. It is easier to say that a company has crossed a given annual figure than to quote a monthly one, and it is the figure often used when companies are compared. It is a run rate and not a result. ARR says where the business would end up if this month repeated for twelve months, so it moves the moment MRR moves. It does not say how much revenue has been earned, and it should never be reported as if it did. ## The formula In words: monthly recurring revenue multiplied by twelve. In symbols: ```text ARR = MRR x 12 ``` - Build it from [MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md), with one-off fees and trials left out. - Read ARR at a stated date, usually the end of a month. - Revenue recognized over a year is a different number, taken from the accounts. ## A worked example Example numbers (made up for illustration): the same business read its MRR at the end of three months and multiplied each reading by twelve. | Month end | MRR | MRR times 12 (ARR run rate) | | --- | --- | --- | | Month 1 | $40,000 | $480,000 | | Month 2 | $42,500 | $510,000 | | Month 3 | $44,500 | $534,000 | Closing MRR of $44,500 times 12 is an ARR run rate of $534,000. The figure says where the business would land if the month stayed as it is for a year. It does not say how much revenue was earned. ARR run rate at each month end (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Month 1 | $480,000 | | Month 2 | $510,000 | | Month 3 | $534,000 | ## How to improve it ARR has no levers of its own. It improves when MRR improves. - Add new customers and expansion revenue, which raise MRR and so ARR. - Reduce churned and contracted revenue, which hold ARR down. - Keep the definition steady, so a rise in ARR comes from customers and not from a new way of counting. - Report ARR next to the movements behind it, so readers can see how it changed. ## Common mistakes - Calling ARR revenue earned. It is a projection of the current month and not a total of past billing. - Annualising a single unusually strong month, which makes the run rate look larger than the business is. - Adding one-time fees or services to ARR, which are not recurring. - Combining currencies without converting them on a stated date, so ARR changes with exchange rates alone. ## Work it out with your own numbers The MRR calculator works out monthly recurring revenue, and multiplying its result by twelve gives your ARR. Open the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) and enter your own figures. It runs in your browser and shows each step of the sum. ## Read next - [MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md): the monthly figure that ARR is built from. - [ARPU](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md): how much each paying customer adds. - [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md): how much of last year’s recurring revenue is still there. ## Questions ### Is ARR the same as annual revenue? No. ARR is the current month of recurring revenue times twelve. Annual revenue is what was actually recognized over a year. ### When should I use ARR instead of MRR? When you are describing size, especially for companies with annual contracts. MRR is better for tracking month to month change. ### Should one-off revenue be included? No. ARR covers only revenue that recurs, so setup fees and one-time purchases stay out. ## Related - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [MRR: monthly recurring revenue](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md) - [Average revenue per user (ARPU)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md) - [Net revenue retention (NRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Average revenue per user (ARPU) ARPU is monthly recurring revenue spread across your paying customers, the average amount each one pays per month. ## Why it matters ARPU turns a revenue total into a per customer figure, and that figure is the input to almost every other unit economics calculation. Customer lifetime value multiplies it by margin, CAC payback divides acquisition cost by it, and pricing decisions start from it. It also moves for reasons that have nothing to do with how many customers you have. A growing share of expensive plans lifts it, and a flood of small sign-ups drags it down even while total revenue rises. Watching ARPU next to your customer count tells you whether growth comes from more customers or from each customer paying more. ## The formula Add up the monthly recurring revenue from every paying customer, then divide by the number of paying customers. Trials, free accounts and customers who have not been charged yet are left out of both numbers. Some teams say ARPA, average revenue per account, when a customer is an account with several users. The sum is the same. ```text ARPU = MRR / paying customers ``` ## A worked example A subscription business has 400 paying customers on three plans. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | Starter: 200 subscribers at $50 a month | $10,000 | | Team: 150 subscribers at $150 a month | $22,500 | | Business: 50 subscribers at $350 a month | $17,500 | | Total MRR | $50,000 | | Paying customers | 400 | | ARPU | $125 | Dividing $50,000 by 400 subscribers gives an ARPU of $125. Notice that no single plan costs that much. The figure is a blend, and it depends on the mix: without the 50 Business customers, the same sum gives $92.86. Monthly price per plan against blended ARPU (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Starter | $50 | | Team | $150 | | Business | $350 | | ARPU | $125 | ## How to improve it ARPU rises when customers pay more for the same relationship, or when the mix shifts toward larger accounts. - Review plan prices and packaging against the value each tier delivers, and move features that serious buyers need into a higher tier. - Offer add-ons and extra seats so a growing customer has something to buy without switching plans. - Aim acquisition at the customers who fit your higher tiers, so new sign-ups do not pull the average down. - Track ARPU by plan and by cohort, not only as one blended number, so you can see which group moved it. ## Common mistakes - Dividing total revenue, including one time charges and setup fees, by customers. ARPU as defined here uses recurring revenue only. - Counting free accounts and trials in the customer count. They pay nothing, so they pull the average toward zero and hide what a paying customer is worth. - Quoting one blended figure when your plans differ widely. The average describes no real customer, so also look at ARPU per plan. - Comparing an annual plan billed once with a monthly plan without converting both to a monthly amount first. - Reading a rising ARPU as good news without checking churn. Losing small customers raises the average while the business shrinks. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). Then read about [Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md), [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md) and [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md). - [Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md): the revenue total that ARPU divides. - [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md): what ARPU becomes once margin and churn are applied. - [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md): the revenue growth that lifts ARPU without new customers. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between ARPU and ARPA? ARPU divides by users and ARPA divides by accounts. When every customer is one account paying one subscription they are the same number. Use whichever matches how you bill. ### Should ARPU include free users? For the figure used in lifetime value and payback, no. Divide recurring revenue by paying customers only. If you want a figure across all sign-ups, label it clearly as revenue per sign-up. ### How often should I calculate ARPU? Monthly is the usual rhythm, matching MRR. Look at it per plan and per signup month as well, since a blended figure can hide a shift in mix. ### Why did my ARPU fall while revenue grew? Most often because the new customers joined cheaper plans than your existing base. Revenue can rise on volume while the average per customer falls. ## Related - [MRR: monthly recurring revenue](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md) - [Customer lifetime value (LTV)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md) - [Expansion MRR: growth from existing customers](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Expansion MRR: growth from existing customers Expansion MRR is the extra monthly recurring revenue you add from customers who were already paying you. ## Why it matters Expansion is the cheapest growth a subscription business has. The customer already knows the product, trusts the billing and has already paid to acquire, so each extra dollar of recurring revenue costs far less than a dollar from a new customer. It is also what lets a business shrink its customer base and still grow revenue. When expansion is larger than the revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades, net revenue retention rises above 100%, and the existing base grows on its own. ## The formula Add together the increase in monthly recurring revenue from every customer who was already paying when the period opened and is paying more when it closes. There are four common sources: plan upgrades, additional seats, add-ons and usage that raises the bill. Revenue from brand new customers is new MRR, and revenue that comes back from a customer who had left is reactivation. Neither belongs in expansion. ```text Expansion MRR = upgrades + seats + add-ons + usage increases Expansion rate = Expansion MRR / MRR at start of period ``` ## A worked example A business starts the month with $40,000 of MRR. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | MRR at start of month | $40,000 | | Plan upgrades | $1,500 | | Additional seats | $1,200 | | Add-ons | $600 | | Usage increases | $700 | | Expansion MRR | $4,000 | | Expansion rate | 10.0% | The four sources add up to $4,000, which is 10.0% of starting MRR. The $6,000 the same business added from brand new customers is excluded. Had it been counted, the rate would read 25.0% and hide how much growth came from the existing base. Where the expansion MRR came from (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Upgrades | $1,500 | | Seats | $1,200 | | Add-ons | $600 | | Usage | $700 | ## How to improve it Expansion comes from giving a customer a reason and a way to spend more as they succeed with the product. - Price on a dimension that grows with the customer, such as seats, projects or volume, so success raises the bill. - Make upgrade moments visible: show a customer when they near a limit and what the next tier unlocks. - Build add-ons for needs your larger customers raise repeatedly, and sell them from inside the product. - Review accounts that stopped growing and ask what is blocking them, whether it is a missing feature, a missing champion or a missing integration. ## Common mistakes - Counting revenue from new customers as expansion. The metric exists to show growth from the base you already had. - Counting a customer who returns after cancelling as expansion. That is reactivation and should have its own line. - Including one time charges such as setup or training fees. Only recurring revenue is MRR, so only recurring increases are expansion. - Forgetting to net a downgrade within the same account when you want a net figure. Report expansion and contraction separately so neither hides the other. - Comparing the rate across months of very different starting MRR without saying what the denominator was. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). Then read about [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md), [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md) and [Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md). - [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md): expansion measured against the revenue lost from the same customers. - [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md): the losses that expansion has to outrun. - [Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md): the total that expansion adds to. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is expansion MRR the same as upsell? Upsell is one source of it. Expansion MRR also includes extra seats, add-ons and usage growth that nobody had to sell in a conversation. ### Does a price increase count as expansion? It raises recurring revenue from existing customers, so many teams count it. Say so in your definition and show it on its own line, because it behaves differently from customers choosing to buy more. ### What is a good expansion rate? It depends on your pricing model and market. Compare your own rate over time and against your churn, since expansion matters most relative to the revenue you lose. ### Where does expansion appear in an MRR movement report? It sits beside new MRR, contraction and churned MRR. Together they explain the change from starting MRR to ending MRR. ## Related - [Net revenue retention (NRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md) - [Revenue churn rate: gross and net](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md) - [MRR: monthly recurring revenue](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/mrr.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Customer churn rate and how to measure it Churn rate is the fraction of your opening customers that have left by the close of the period. ## Why it matters Churn sets the ceiling on how large a subscription business can grow. Every lost customer has to be replaced before the base can grow at all, and a high rate means acquisition spend is refilling a leaking bucket. It also drives lifetime value directly. A customer lifetime is roughly one divided by the monthly churn rate, so small changes in churn move the value of every customer you win. Measuring it the same way each month is what makes the trend trustworthy. ## The formula Start from the customers who were paying when the period opened. Count how many of those same people are gone when it closes. Divide the number lost by the opening count. Anyone who signed up during the period sits outside the opening group, so they are excluded from both numbers, even if they also left before it ended. ```text Churn rate = customers lost / customers at start Annual churn = 1 - (1 - monthly churn)^12 ``` ## A worked example A business starts the month with 500 paying customers. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | Customers at start of month | 500 | | Customers lost during the month | 15 | | New customers during the month (not counted) | 60 | | Monthly churn rate | 3.0% | | Annual churn, compounded | 30.6% | | Annual churn, wrongly multiplied by 12 | 36.0% | 15 lost out of 500 is a monthly churn of 3.0%. Compounded over twelve months, that leaves 69.4 of every 100 subscribers, so annual churn is 30.6%, not the 36.0% you would get by multiplying by twelve. Putting the 60 new customers into the denominator would show 2.7% and flatter the result. Customers left out of 100 at a constant monthly churn (example numbers): | Months | 3.0% monthly churn | | --- | --- | | 0 | 100 | | 1 | 97 | | 2 | 94.09 | | 3 | 91.27 | | 4 | 88.53 | | 5 | 85.87 | | 6 | 83.3 | | 7 | 80.8 | | 8 | 78.37 | | 9 | 76.02 | | 10 | 73.74 | | 11 | 71.53 | | 12 | 69.38 | ## How to improve it Churn falls when customers reach value sooner, stay engaged, and are not lost to avoidable events. - Shorten the time to first value, since customers who see results in the first weeks are far less likely to leave. - Read cancellation reasons and group them. Fix the top cause before spreading effort across the rest. - Recover failed card payments quickly, because customers who never meant to leave still count as churn. - Offer a pause or a lower plan as an alternative to cancelling for customers whose needs have shrunk. - Track churn by signup cohort and plan, so a problem in one group is not averaged away. ## Common mistakes - Counting customers who joined during the period in the denominator, which makes churn look lower than it is. - Multiplying the monthly rate by twelve to get an annual rate. Churn compounds, so the correct annual figure is smaller. - Mixing a monthly churn rate with an annual price or an annual lifetime without converting one of them. - Counting a customer who downgrades as lost. A downgrade is lost revenue, not a lost customer, so it belongs in revenue churn. - Treating a failed payment that is later recovered as churn, or ignoring one that never is. Decide how long you wait and apply it every month. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md). Then read about [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md), [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md) and [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md). - [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md): the same idea measured in dollars instead of heads. - [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md): what is left of the revenue after churn and expansion. - [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md): what churn does to the value of each customer. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do customer churn and revenue churn differ? Customer churn counts how many customers left. Revenue churn counts how much recurring revenue left, including downgrades. A business can lose few customers and still lose a lot of revenue if the leavers were large. ### Should I measure churn monthly or annually? Monthly is the better working figure because it reacts faster. Convert to an annual figure by compounding, and state which one you are quoting. ### Do paused or failed payment customers count as churned? Pick a rule and keep it. A common rule is to count a customer as churned once an uncollected failed payment has run out of retries, and to count a paused customer as retained until the pause ends. ### Can churn be zero? It can for a short period with a small base, but a single month of zero is a poor guide. Look at a trailing average across several months. ### How is a churn rate used to estimate lifetime? The expected lifetime in months is one divided by the monthly churn rate. A 3% monthly churn gives about 33 months. It is an average and assumes churn stays constant. ## Related - [Revenue churn rate: gross and net](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md) - [Net revenue retention (NRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md) - [Customer lifetime value (LTV)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Revenue churn rate: gross and net Revenue churn rate is the share of starting monthly recurring revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades, before or after expansion. ## Why it matters Customer churn treats every customer as equal, but customers do not pay equal amounts. Losing one large account hurts more than losing five small ones, and revenue churn is the measure that shows it. The net version answers a different question: is the revenue base shrinking or growing on its own, with no new customers at all? When the answer is growing, the net figure is negative, and that is the position every subscription business wants to reach. ## The formula Gross revenue churn adds the monthly recurring revenue lost to cancellations and the revenue lost to downgrades, then divides by the recurring revenue at the start of the period. Net revenue churn subtracts expansion revenue from the same customers before dividing. Revenue from new customers is excluded from both. ```text Gross revenue churn = (cancelled MRR + downgrade MRR) / MRR at start Net revenue churn = (cancelled MRR + downgrade MRR - expansion MRR) / MRR at start ``` ## A worked example A business starts the month with $50,000 of MRR. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | MRR at start of month | $50,000 | | Cancelled MRR | $1,500 | | Downgrade MRR | $500 | | Expansion MRR | $2,500 | | Gross revenue churn | 4.0% | | Net revenue churn | -1.0% | | MRR from the same customers at end of month | $50,500 | Losing $2,000 out of $50,000 is a gross revenue churn of 4.0%. Expansion of $2,500 more than covers it, so net revenue churn is -1.0%. A negative number means the same customers pay more at the end than at the start. From starting MRR to ending MRR for the same customers (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Start | $50,000 | | Cancelled | -$1,500 | | Downgrades | -$500 | | Expansion | +$2,500 | | End | $50,500 | ## How to improve it Reduce the revenue that leaves and grow the revenue that stays, and watch both lines separately. - Find where the lost dollars sit. If a few large accounts account for most of it, assign someone to each of them. - Reduce downgrades with usage reviews, so a customer who is under using a plan hears from you before the renewal does. - Grow expansion with pricing that scales with usage, seats or volume, which is the only way net churn goes negative. - Report the gross and net figures side by side, so a strong expansion quarter does not hide a rising cancellation rate. ## Common mistakes - Quoting only net revenue churn. Strong expansion can mask a cancellation problem that will show up once expansion slows. - Counting revenue from new customers as expansion, which pushes the net figure down artificially. - Dividing by ending MRR instead of starting MRR. The base for the rate is the revenue you began the period with. - Leaving downgrades out of the loss. A customer who halves their plan has churned half their revenue. - Treating a negative net figure as a reason to stop working on cancellations. It describes the average, not each customer. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md). Then read about [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md), [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) and [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md). - [Net revenue retention](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md): the same movements expressed as what remains rather than what leaves. - [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md): the revenue that offsets the losses. - [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): the same loss counted in customers. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can revenue churn be negative? Net revenue churn dips under zero once upgrades from existing customers outweigh what cancellations and downgrades took away. Gross revenue churn cannot be negative because it ignores expansion. ### How do gross and net revenue churn differ? Gross counts only what was lost. Net also subtracts what the same customers added. Gross tells you how leaky the product is, and net tells you how the base changed overall. ### How does revenue churn relate to net revenue retention? Net revenue retention is one minus net revenue churn, and gross revenue retention is one minus gross revenue churn. They carry the same information in opposite directions. ### Does a price increase affect revenue churn? A price increase counts as expansion for existing customers and can push customers to cancel or downgrade. Track it separately so you can see which effect won. ## Related - [Net revenue retention (NRR)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention.md) - [Expansion MRR: growth from existing customers](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) - [Customer churn rate and how to measure it](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/net-revenue-retention Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Net revenue retention (NRR) Net revenue retention is the share of last period's recurring revenue still there now, counting expansion, downgrades and cancellations. ## Why it matters Net revenue retention shows whether the customers you already have are worth more or less to you over time. Above 100%, your existing base grows by itself, and every new customer is added on top of that growth. Below 100%, you refill a shrinking base before you can grow. It combines three forces in one number: the revenue that leaves in cancellations, the revenue that shrinks in downgrades and the revenue that grows in expansion. Pairing it with gross revenue retention, which leaves expansion out, shows how much of the result is protection and how much is growth. ## The formula Start with the recurring revenue from the customers who were paying at the beginning of the period. Add expansion from those customers, subtract downgrades and cancellations, and divide the result by the starting revenue. Revenue from customers who joined during the period is excluded. Gross revenue retention runs the same calculation but ignores any upsell. ```text NRR = (MRR at start + expansion - downgrades - cancelled) / MRR at start GRR = (MRR at start - downgrades - cancelled) / MRR at start ``` ## A worked example A business starts the month with $50,000 of MRR from its existing customers. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | MRR at start of month | $50,000 | | Expansion MRR | $2,500 | | Downgrade MRR | $500 | | Cancelled MRR | $1,500 | | Net revenue retention | 101.0% | | Gross revenue retention | 96.0% | | Net revenue churn (one minus NRR) | -1.0% | Adding $2,500 and subtracting $2,000 leaves $50,500, which is 101.0% of the starting revenue. Because the figure is above 100%, net revenue churn is negative at -1.0%. Gross retention, which ignores expansion, is 96.0%. Held for twelve months, that retention would turn $100 of cohort revenue into $112.7, while the gross figure would leave $61.3. What $100 of cohort MRR becomes at constant monthly retention (example numbers): | Months | Net retention 101.0% | Gross retention 96.0% | | --- | --- | --- | | 0 | 100 | 100 | | 1 | 101 | 96 | | 2 | 102.01 | 92.16 | | 3 | 103.03 | 88.47 | | 4 | 104.06 | 84.93 | | 5 | 105.1 | 81.54 | | 6 | 106.15 | 78.28 | | 7 | 107.21 | 75.14 | | 8 | 108.29 | 72.14 | | 9 | 109.37 | 69.25 | | 10 | 110.46 | 66.48 | | 11 | 111.57 | 63.82 | | 12 | 112.68 | 61.27 | ## How to improve it Raise net revenue retention by losing less and by giving customers more to buy. - Lower the cancellation and downgrade losses first, since gross retention sets the floor for the whole figure. - Build pricing that grows with usage or seats so that a customer's success shows up as revenue. - Identify the cohorts and plans with the weakest retention and compare them with the strongest to see what differs. - Give account owners a view of expansion opportunities among customers who are close to a plan limit. ## Common mistakes - Including revenue from customers who joined during the period. The measure follows a fixed starting group. - Quoting NRR without gross retention. A high NRR built on a few large expanding accounts can hide a leaky base. - Mixing periods, for example monthly expansion with annual churn. Use one period for every term in the sum. - Counting one time fees or reactivated customers as expansion, which overstates the result. - Reading above 100% as proof that nothing needs fixing. It says the base grows overall, not that individual customers are staying. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md). Then read about [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md), [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) and [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md). - [Revenue churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md): the loss side of the same movements. - [Expansion MRR](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md): the growth side of the same movements. - [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): the same base counted in customers. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can net revenue retention be above 100%? Yes. When upgrades from current customers outweigh the revenue that downgrades and cancellations took, the figure passes 100% and net revenue churn turns negative. ### What is the difference between NRR and GRR? Gross revenue retention leaves expansion out, so it can never pass 100%. Net revenue retention includes expansion. Together they show how much is protected and how much is grown. ### Should NRR be measured monthly or annually? Either, as long as every term uses the same period. Annual figures follow the same customers across twelve months, and a monthly figure compounded gives a close estimate if the rate is steady. ### Does NRR include new customers? No. It tracks just the customers already paying when the period opened. New customers appear in new MRR and have no effect on retention. ## Related - [Revenue churn rate: gross and net](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/revenue-churn-rate.md) - [Expansion MRR: growth from existing customers](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/expansion-mrr.md) - [Customer churn rate and how to measure it](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Customer lifetime value (LTV) Customer lifetime value is the gross margin you can expect from an average customer over the whole time they stay. ## Why it matters Lifetime value sets the ceiling on what winning a customer can cost. Without it, acquisition spend is guesswork. With it, you can compare channels, set a ceiling for what each new customer may cost and decide whether a price change pays for itself. It is also a sensitivity test for the whole business. Because lifetime is the inverse of churn, a small drop in churn lengthens every customer's life and raises the value of every customer you have already won. ## The formula Multiply the average monthly revenue per customer by your gross margin to get the monthly margin per customer. Then divide by the monthly churn rate. One divided by the churn rate is the expected lifetime in months, so the result is monthly margin times expected months. Churn must be above zero, since zero churn means no end to the lifetime. ```text LTV = ARPA x gross margin / monthly churn Lifetime in months = 1 / monthly churn ``` ## A worked example A subscription business has the following averages. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | ARPA per month | $120 | | Gross margin | 75% | | Monthly customer churn | 3.0% | | Monthly margin per customer | $90 | | Expected lifetime | 33.3 months | | Customer lifetime value | $3,000 | | Lifetime revenue, before margin | $4,000 | A margin of $90 a month for an expected 33.3 months gives a lifetime value of $3,000. The revenue figure of $4,000 is larger, but it is not what the customer is worth to you, because the cost of serving them is not yours to keep. The chart shows the expected margin building toward the $3,000 ceiling as customers leave. Expected cumulative margin per customer, with churn thinning the group (example numbers): | Months since sign-up | Expected margin | | --- | --- | | 0 | 0 | | 6 | 501.08 | | 12 | 918.47 | | 18 | 1266.15 | | 24 | 1555.75 | | 30 | 1796.98 | | 36 | 1997.92 | | 42 | 2165.29 | | 48 | 2304.71 | | 54 | 2420.84 | | 60 | 2517.58 | ## How to improve it Value rises with margin per customer and with the time customers stay, so each of the three inputs is a lever. - Lower churn first. Because lifetime is one divided by churn, a lower rate has the largest effect on the result. - Raise ARPA with plans, add-ons and usage pricing that scale with what the customer gets. - Improve gross margin by reducing the cost of serving a customer, including payment fees and support time. - Calculate it by segment. An average across very different customers describes none of them. ## Common mistakes - Using revenue instead of gross margin, which overstates value and then flatters the ratio to acquisition cost. - Mixing a monthly ARPA with an annual churn rate, or the reverse. Both must use the same period. - Using a very low churn rate from a young cohort. A few good months give a huge lifetime that older customers do not match. - Applying one blended figure to every channel, when customers from different sources stay for different lengths of time. - Treating the figure as precise. It is an estimate that assumes churn stays constant, so show it as a range when you can. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). Then read about [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md), [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) and [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md). - [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md): the lifetime value set against what a customer cost to win. - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): the spend that value has to repay. - [Customer churn rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md): the input that sets the lifetime. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is LTV based on revenue or on margin? Use gross margin. Revenue ignores the cost of delivering the product, so a figure built on revenue overstates what a customer is worth to you. ### What if my churn rate is zero? Then the formula has no finite answer, since the expected lifetime has no end. Use a longer window to find a realistic rate, or cap the lifetime at a horizon you can defend, such as five years. ### Is this customer lifetime value or loan to value? This page is about customer lifetime value, the subscription metric. Loan to value is a lending ratio and is unrelated. ### How accurate is the estimate? It is a model with a constant churn assumption, so treat it as a guide for decisions rather than a forecast. Recalculate it as your churn history grows. ## Related - [LTV to CAC ratio explained](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md) - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) - [Customer churn rate and how to measure it](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/churn-rate.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Customer acquisition cost (CAC) Customer acquisition cost is the sales and marketing spend it takes, on average, to win one new paying customer. ## Why it matters CAC is the price of growth. Whatever you spend on sales and marketing, CAC says how many paying customers it bought, and therefore whether the spend is working. A rising CAC with flat pricing is an early warning that a channel is saturating. It matters most beside what a customer is worth. A CAC is only high or low relative to lifetime value and to the margin a customer pays back each month, which is why it feeds both the payback period and the LTV to CAC ratio. ## The formula Add up everything spent on sales and marketing in a period, including salaries, tools, advertising and commissions. Divide that by the new paying customers won over the same period. If you run free trials, you can reach the same figure from the trial side: the cost of one trial divided by the share of trials that become paying customers. ```text CAC = total acquisition spend / customers won CAC = cost per trial / trial-to-paid rate ``` ## A worked example A business spends the following in one quarter. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | Sales spend | $22,000 | | Marketing spend | $13,000 | | Total spend | $35,000 | | New paying customers | 50 | | Trials started | 250 | | Customer acquisition cost | $700 | | Cost per trial | $140 | | Trial-to-paid rate | 20% | Spending $35,000 to win 50 paying customers gives a CAC of $700. From the trial side, each trial cost $140, and only 20% of trials paid, so the cost per paying customer is $140 divided by 0.20, which is the same $700. Improving the trial-to-paid rate lowers CAC without cutting spend. Where the $35,000 of acquisition spend went (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Sales | $22,000 | | Marketing | $13,000 | ## How to improve it CAC falls when the same spend wins more customers, or when you win the same customers for less. - Raise the trial-to-paid rate, since every trial that converts lowers the cost per paying customer. - Shift spend toward the channels with the lowest CAC, and measure channels separately rather than as one blended figure. - Shorten the sales cycle. Time spent on a prospect is a cost, and a quicker decision lowers it. - Improve referral and word of mouth, which add customers without a matching rise in spend. ## Common mistakes - Leaving out salaries and tools and counting only advertising. The figure is then far lower than the real cost of a customer. - Counting new sign-ups and trials as customers. CAC divides by new paying customers. - Matching one month's spend to the same month's customers when your sales cycle is long. Customers won this month were paid for earlier. - Blending paid and organic customers, which hides that the paid channels cost far more per head. - Comparing CAC with revenue instead of with gross margin. A customer must repay acquisition cost from margin, not from revenue. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). Then read about [CAC payback period](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md), [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md) and [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md). - [CAC payback period](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md): the months of margin needed to repay CAC. - [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md): what a customer is worth against what they cost. - [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md): the value that acquisition spend buys. ## Frequently asked questions ### What spend counts toward CAC? Everything it takes to win customers: advertising, content, tools, sales and marketing salaries, commissions and agency fees. Leave out the cost of serving customers after they sign. ### How do I handle a long sales cycle? Match spend to the customers it won, not to the same calendar month. A common method is to lag spend by the length of your average sales cycle. ### Is blended CAC or channel CAC better? Both. Blended CAC shows overall efficiency, and channel CAC shows where to spend the next dollar. Blended figures can hide a channel that costs far more than the rest. ### How does a free trial affect CAC? Each trial has a cost, and only some trials become customers. Divide the cost per trial by the trial-to-paid rate to see the cost per paying customer. ## Related - [CAC payback period in months](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md) - [LTV to CAC ratio explained](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md) - [Customer lifetime value (LTV)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period Last updated: 2026-10-19 # CAC payback period in months The months of gross profit a new customer must generate before the cost of winning them is repaid. ## Why it matters Payback is a cash measure. Acquisition spend leaves your account on the day you win a customer, while the margin comes back a month at a time. The payback period measures how long that gap stays open, and a long one means growth needs outside funding or large cash reserves. It also gives a quick check that does not depend on a lifetime estimate. Lifetime value rests on a churn assumption, whereas payback uses only what a customer pays each month, so it is a steadier figure for a young business. ## The formula Take the monthly gross margin from one customer, which is average monthly revenue per customer times gross margin. Divide customer acquisition cost by that monthly margin. The result is the number of months until the customer has repaid what it cost to win them. This simple version assumes the customer stays that long. ```text CAC payback (months) = CAC / (ARPA x gross margin) ``` ## A worked example The customer acquisition cost from the previous example meets the same averages used for lifetime value. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | Customer acquisition cost | $700 | | ARPA per month | $120 | | Gross margin | 75% | | Monthly margin per customer | $90 | | CAC payback period | 7.8 months | A margin of $90 a month against a cost of $700 takes 7.8 months to repay. After that month the customer is profit. If the average customer left before then, acquiring them would never pay for itself. Compare the result with your churn: when the expected lifetime is shorter than the payback period, the answer is that the customer never pays back on average. Cumulative margin per customer against what they cost to win (example numbers): | Months since sign-up | Cumulative margin | | --- | --- | | 0 | 0 | | 1 | 90 | | 2 | 180 | | 3 | 270 | | 4 | 360 | | 5 | 450 | | 6 | 540 | | 7 | 630 | | 8 | 720 | | 9 | 810 | | 10 | 900 | | 11 | 990 | | 12 | 1080 | | 13 | 1170 | | 14 | 1260 | | 15 | 1350 | | 16 | 1440 | ## How to improve it Payback shortens when acquisition costs less, or when each customer pays more margin each month. - Lower CAC through better conversion, since a cheaper customer is repaid sooner. - Raise the margin per customer with pricing, add-ons and lower delivery costs. - Bill annually in advance where customers agree. The cash arrives at the start and the cash payback shrinks. - Charge for a trial or take a card at the start, so some of the cost is repaid before the first full month. ## Common mistakes - Using revenue instead of gross margin in the divisor, which makes payback look shorter than it is. - Ignoring churn. A payback of ten months means little if a large share of customers leave in six. - Mixing a quarterly CAC with a monthly margin without converting them to the same period. - Calculating payback on blended CAC when paid channels cost far more than organic ones. - Treating annual prepayment as a lower CAC. It improves cash timing but does not change what acquiring the customer cost. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). Then read about [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md), [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md) and [Average revenue per user (ARPU)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md). - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): the cost that payback has to recover. - [LTV to CAC ratio](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md): the same comparison made over the whole lifetime. - [Average revenue per user (ARPU)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md): the revenue the margin comes from. ## Frequently asked questions ### How is payback different from LTV to CAC? Payback measures how fast you recover acquisition cost, and LTV to CAC measures how much you recover in total. A business can have a good ratio and a slow payback, which is a cash risk. ### Should payback use revenue or gross margin? Gross margin. Acquisition cost is repaid from what is left after delivering the product, not from revenue. ### What if payback is longer than the customer lifetime? Then the average customer never pays back what they cost, and you lose money on each one. Lower CAC, raise margin or reduce churn before spending more on growth. ### Does annual billing change the payback period? It changes the cash timing, since the customer pays up front, but not the margin you earn per month. Count the cash payback and the margin payback separately. ## Related - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) - [LTV to CAC ratio explained](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio.md) - [Average revenue per user (ARPU)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/arpu.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/ltv-to-cac-ratio Last updated: 2026-10-19 # LTV to CAC ratio explained The LTV to CAC ratio compares what a customer is worth over their lifetime with what it cost to win them. ## Why it matters The ratio answers one question: for each dollar spent winning a customer, how many dollars of gross margin come back over their life? Above one, growth creates value. Below one, every customer costs more than they return. It is useful because it joins the two sides of growth in one number. A business with a low CAC can still be weak if customers leave quickly, and a business with a high CAC can be strong if customers stay and expand. The ratio shows which side is carrying the result. ## The formula Work out customer lifetime value from monthly margin and churn. Work out customer acquisition cost from sales and marketing spend and new paying customers. Divide the first by the second. The result is the margin returned per dollar spent on acquisition. Use margin in the lifetime value, not revenue, and use fully loaded acquisition cost. ```text LTV to CAC = LTV / CAC LTV = ARPA x gross margin / monthly churn ``` ## A worked example The lifetime value and acquisition cost from the earlier examples are compared here. These numbers are made up for illustration. | Example numbers | Value | | --- | --- | | Customer lifetime value | $3,000 | | Customer acquisition cost | $700 | | LTV to CAC ratio | 4.3 to 1 | | Lifetime value if monthly churn doubles | $1,500 | | Ratio if monthly churn doubles | 2.1 to 1 | A lifetime value of $3,000 against an acquisition cost of $700 gives a ratio of 4.3 to 1. The second block shows how fragile it is: doubling monthly churn halves the lifetime and halves the ratio to 2.1 to 1, with no change in what customers cost to win. Lifetime value at two churn rates against acquisition cost (example numbers): | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | LTV | $3,000 | | LTV at double churn | $1,500 | | CAC | $700 | ## How to improve it The ratio improves when value per customer rises or acquisition cost falls, and the two are worked on separately. - Reduce churn, which lengthens lifetime and lifts value for every customer, old and new. - Raise ARPA and margin with pricing and packaging, so each month of a customer's life returns more. - Lower CAC with better conversion and cheaper channels, without lowering the quality of customers. - Check the ratio by channel and plan, and move spend toward the segments with the strongest ratio. ## Common mistakes - Building the lifetime value from revenue instead of gross margin, which inflates the ratio. - Using only part of acquisition cost, such as ad spend, so that the denominator is too small. - Quoting the ratio without payback. A strong ratio with a long payback can still starve a business of cash. - Using a churn rate from a few good months to produce a long lifetime, then comparing it with today's cost to win a customer. - Pursuing a higher ratio by cutting acquisition spend, which can shrink growth while the figure looks better. ## Calculate it and read next Work it out with your own figures in the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). Then read about [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md), [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) and [CAC payback period](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md). - [Customer lifetime value](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md): the numerator, built from margin and churn. - [Customer acquisition cost](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md): the denominator, built from spend and new customers. - [CAC payback period](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md): the cash view of the same comparison. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is a higher LTV to CAC ratio always better? Not always. A very high ratio can mean you are under investing in growth. The useful question is whether more acquisition spend would still return more than it costs. ### Should the ratio use margin or revenue? Margin. Revenue ignores the cost of delivering the product and inflates the ratio. ### How does the ratio relate to payback? Both compare value with cost. The ratio looks at total value over the lifetime and payback looks at how quickly the cost is recovered, so you need both. ### What if I have too little history to measure churn? Use your best available churn estimate, show the ratio at a range of churn values, and update it as customers age. Treat it as a guide until you have a longer record. ## Related - [Customer lifetime value (LTV)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-lifetime-value.md) - [Customer acquisition cost (CAC)](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/customer-acquisition-cost.md) - [CAC payback period in months](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/cac-payback-period.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/solutions Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Solutions by company stage Three setups for card held free trials, matched to your monthly recurring revenue, each with a 30 day plan, setup advice and the fee. TrialValid places a hold for the plan price when someone starts a trial, then captures it before the trial ends. How you set it up depends on how much revenue runs through your Stripe account. Your plan is chosen from that figure: Starter at $29 a month up to $10,000 of MRR, rising to $1,995 at $1,000,000 and above. - [Startups](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/startups.md): Under $10,000 of MRR. Publish a first page, send a slice of traffic, and read results in four weeks. ($29 a month) - [Growing SaaS](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/growing-saas.md): From $10,000 to $250,000 of MRR. Tighten the path from trial to first charge and test page variants. ($95 to $595 a month) - [Enterprise](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/enterprise.md): From $250,000 of MRR. Review the money flow with finance and security, and arrange a call by email for custom terms. ($995 to $1,995 a month) ## How to choose Pick the page that matches your connected account today. The setup steps differ in pace more than in kind: a startup moves fast with one person, a growing team adds testing and alerts, and a large company adds review steps before real traffic. ## What every plan includes - Monthly billing only. - No contract. - No transaction fees. - No setup fees. - Cancel any time by email, with no reason needed. The plan runs to the end of the period you paid for. - All features are included on every plan, with no usage caps. Full prices and bands are on the [pricing page](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md). For a tour of what the product does, start with the [product overview](https://trialvalid.com/product.md). ## Related - [Trial setup for early stage SaaS startups](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/startups.md) - [Trial conversion for growing SaaS teams](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/growing-saas.md) - [Card holds for trials at large SaaS companies](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/enterprise.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/solutions/startups Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial setup for early stage SaaS startups A first card held trial for a startup under $10,000 of MRR: what to set up in week one, how to read results, and what it costs. ## Who this is for You sell a subscription through Stripe, your connected account is below $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, and trial signups are something you watch by hand. There is no growth team and no billing engineer. One person sets up the trial, reads the numbers on Friday, and goes back to building the product. On the current price list that puts you on the Starter plan at $29 a month, with a 14-day trial that costs $1 at signup. No setup fees. No transaction fees. All features are included on every plan, with no usage caps. ## Challenges this solves - People start a trial with a throwaway email and never come back. A card that can be held for the plan price filters out some of the casual signups before they fill your trial list. - The first charge arrives as a surprise. TrialValid shows the buyer the trial end date and the amount at signup, then sends a reminder, so the first invoice is expected. - You cannot tell which channel brought a paying customer. Each signup keeps its first-touch campaign tags, so a paid trial can be traced to where the visitor came from. - A failed card at the end of a trial costs you a customer you already won. The card is checked at signup and the hold is captured before the trial ends, with retries. - Writing and testing page copy takes time you do not have. A model writes new page variants from a short description of your product, and you switch on the ones you like. ## Your first 30 days ### Week 1: connect and publish one page Connect your Stripe account with the OAuth step, pick the Stripe price you want people to trial, and choose a trial length. Trials run from 1 to 90 days. Shorter trials mean a shorter wait before you learn whether a card converts, which suits a small team that needs signal fast. Publish a single page and read the confirmation and reminder text as a buyer would. ### Week 2: send a slice of your traffic Point about one visitor in five at the new page, for example from one newsletter or one pricing page link, and keep your old signup for everyone else. A small share keeps a mistake cheap while you confirm that holds are placed, trials start, and the visit, signup and revenue figures you read back match what Stripe shows. ### Week 3: add one variant and turn on Slack Describe your product in a few sentences and let the model write a second version of the page. Read it, edit anything that is off, and switch it on. Traffic then splits evenly between the active variants. Paste a Slack webhook so failed captures, lost holds and disputes reach you the day they happen. ### Week 4: read the numbers and widen the share Compare visits, signups, conversions and revenue per variant. Run your own figures through the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) so you know what a trial is worth to you. If the numbers hold, move most of your signup traffic to the TrialValid page and promote the stronger variant. ## Recommended setup 1. One trial page for your main plan, with a trial length of 7 or 14 days. 2. The default failure setting, which leaves a failed first capture to Stripe and its own retries, so a good customer is not canceled over one declined attempt. 3. A Slack webhook with a high-value threshold set to your top plan price. 4. A statement descriptor your buyers recognize, so the charge on their card is not mistaken for a mistake. ## What the fee looks like as you grow Pricing follows your MRR, so the fee rises only when your revenue does. The next step up from your band is Growth at $95 a month, for accounts from $10,000. At that lower edge the fee is 0.95% of MRR. | Plan | Price per month | Connected-account MRR | | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $29 | $0 up to $10,000 | | Growth | $95 | $10,000 up to $50,000 | ## First features to use - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) for the page itself and the even traffic split. - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) to understand what happens between signup and the first invoice. - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) for first-touch campaign data on each signup. - [AI page variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) to get a second version of your page without a copywriter. ### Do I need a developer to start? Someone comfortable with a few API calls sets up the first page: connecting Stripe is a standard OAuth step, and pages, variants and results each have their own routes. After that, nobody needs to touch code to read results or switch variants on. ### What if I am under the Starter band and grow past it? Your plan follows your connected account's MRR, which is rechecked about every 7 days. Crossing $10,000 moves you to Growth at $95 a month. ### Does a card hold take money from the buyer? No. The plan price is held on the card and nothing is charged at signup. The capture happens before the trial ends, and the buyer is charged once. ### How long should my first trial be? Start at 7 or 14 days. A shorter trial gets you a result sooner. You can change the length on the next page you publish. ### Can I run this beside my current signup flow? Yes. Send a slice of traffic to the TrialValid page and keep the rest where it is until you trust the numbers. ### Where does the money go? Into your own Stripe account. TrialValid never holds it and takes no per-transaction fee. ## Related - [Solutions by company stage](https://trialvalid.com/solutions.md) - [Trial conversion for growing SaaS teams](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/growing-saas.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/solutions/growing-saas Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial conversion for growing SaaS teams For SaaS teams between $10,000 and $250,000 of MRR: tighten the trial to charge path, split tests, and alerts without a billing project. ## Who this is for Your connected Stripe account sits between $10,000 and $250,000 of monthly recurring revenue. You have a marketing lead or a growth engineer, a support inbox that sees billing questions, and a trial funnel that already produces paying customers. The question is no longer whether trials work. It is how much revenue leaks between the trial start and the first successful charge. ## Challenges this solves - Unplanned churn at trial end, when a card that looked fine at signup is declined on the first invoice. - Page tests that never ship because every variant needs a designer and a deploy. - High-value trials that sit unnoticed in a list until someone happens to look. - Disputes that arrive weeks later with no record of what the buyer was shown. - Statement lines that buyers do not recognize, which turn into support tickets and chargebacks. ## How the fee scales with your revenue Three plans cover this stage. The price is a flat monthly amount for the band your MRR sits in, and the share of revenue it represents falls as you move up inside a band and across bands. | Plan | Price per month | Connected-account MRR | | --- | --- | --- | | Growth | $95 | $10,000 up to $50,000 | | Scale | $295 | $50,000 up to $150,000 | | Pro | $595 | $150,000 up to $250,000 | | Plan | Fee at the bottom of the band | Fee just under the top of the band | | --- | --- | --- | | Growth | 0.95% | 0.19% | | Scale | 0.59% | 0.20% | | Pro | 0.40% | 0.24% | Another way to read the fee is in customers. The table below shows how many paying customers at a given monthly price it takes to cover the Growth fee of $95. | Your monthly price | Customers to cover Growth | Customers to cover Scale | | --- | --- | --- | | $29 | 4 | 11 | | $49 | 2 | 7 | | $99 | 1 | 3 | These are arithmetic on list prices, not a prediction of how many customers a card hold will add. Use your own conversion data to decide what a held trial is worth. ## Your first 30 days ### Days 1 to 7: measure the leak you have today Before changing anything, pull last quarter from Stripe: trials started, trials that produced a successful first payment, and first invoices that failed. Put those into the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) and the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) so you have a baseline in your own numbers. ### Days 8 to 14: run TrialValid beside the existing flow Connect Stripe, publish a page for your best selling plan, and send around a fifth of signup traffic to it from a single channel. Keep attribution tags on every link so the first-touch data lines up with the campaign you are testing. ### Days 15 to 21: add variants and alerts Have the model write two or three variants from your product description, edit them to match your voice, and switch them on together. Set the Slack high-value threshold to a plan price that deserves a personal note from your team, and keep the capture failure alert on for the person who owns billing. ### Days 22 to 30: promote, widen, and compare Look at visits, signups, conversions and revenue per variant, and compare the held-card trials against your baseline. Promote the leading variant, raise the traffic share toward half, and write down what you would need to see before moving everyone over. ## Recommended setup - Two or three page variants active at once, so the split is meaningful without diluting traffic. - The failure setting chosen deliberately: leave to Stripe if your own retry settings are tuned, or cancel on failure if you want a clean stop. - A custom statement descriptor that matches the name on your invoices. - A Slack channel shared by sales and billing for high-value trials and disputes. - The webhooks documented on the [webhooks page](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) wired into your own systems if you track trials elsewhere. ## First features to use - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) for the capture window, retries and renewal of long holds. - [AI page variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) for the second and third versions of your page. - [High-value trial alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) so large trials get a personal reply. - [Dispute readiness](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) for the record you will want if a charge is questioned. - [Statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/custom-statement-descriptors.md) that make the charge recognizable. ### How is my plan picked as I grow? From your connected account's MRR, which is rechecked about every 7 days. The bands are on the [plans and MRR page](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md): Growth runs $10,000 up to $50,000, Scale runs $50,000 up to $150,000 and Pro runs $150,000 up to $250,000. ### Can I keep my current Stripe retry settings? Yes. The default setting leaves a failed first capture to Stripe, which charges the saved card on the first invoice and keeps retrying under your own billing settings. ### Will a hold last through a long trial? Holds on long trials are renewed with a fresh hold before the old one lapses. A renewal that needs buyer authentication counts as failed, and you are alerted if a hold is lost. ### Can my team see results per variant? Yes. Visits, signups, conversions and revenue are kept for each variant, and you can record your own events against a visitor. ### Does it replace my billing system? No. Subscriptions live in your Stripe account. TrialValid places the hold, starts the trial, captures, and credits the customer balance so the first invoice nets to zero. ### What is the cost of a failed trial? You pay no per-transaction fee. A failed capture releases the hold and alerts you. What the subscription does next follows the setting you chose. ## Related - [Solutions by company stage](https://trialvalid.com/solutions.md) - [Trial setup for early stage SaaS startups](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/startups.md) - [Card holds for trials at large SaaS companies](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/enterprise.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [AI page variants for trial signup](https://trialvalid.com/product/ai-optimization.md) - [High-value trial alerts in Slack](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) - [Plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/solutions/enterprise Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Card holds for trials at large SaaS companies For SaaS companies above $250,000 of MRR: how the money flow works, which controls you keep, and how to arrange a call for a custom setup. ## Who this is for Your connected Stripe account is above $250,000 of monthly recurring revenue. Trials touch finance, security, support and engineering, and each team wants to see how the money moves before anything is connected. This page is written for the person who has to answer those questions. ## Challenges this solves - Finance needs a clear answer to who holds the funds and when the buyer is charged, before any connection is approved. - Security reviewers want to know which access is granted, how it is revoked and which secrets are stored. - Engineering wants events and records it can pull into existing systems rather than another console to check. - Support and risk want a per trial record they can open when a buyer questions a charge. - Leadership wants a rollout with agreed shares and review dates, not an overnight switch. ## What it costs Two plans sit at this level. Max covers $250,000 up to $1,000,000 at $995 a month. Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month for $1,000,000 and above. At the bottom of each band the fee is 0.40% and 0.20% of MRR. No transaction fees. No contract. | Plan | Price per month | Connected-account MRR | | --- | --- | --- | | Max | $995 | $250,000 up to $1,000,000 | | Enterprise | $1,995 | $1,000,000 and above | The Enterprise price is a starting point. If you need terms that differ from the published plans, email hello@trialvalid.com to arrange a call (see the [contact page](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md)) and we will go through your volumes, your approval steps and your Stripe setup together. ## How the money moves 1. The buyer signs up on a trial page and a hold for the plan price is placed on their card in your Stripe account. 2. Once Stripe confirms the card can cover the price, a free-trial subscription starts on the same card and ends on the date the buyer saw. 3. About two hours before the trial ends, the hold is captured, with up to 11 attempts spaced 10 minutes apart. 4. A matching credit is written to the customer balance, so the first invoice nets to zero and the buyer is charged once. 5. Funds sit in your Stripe account throughout. TrialValid does not custody them. ## Controls your teams keep - Stripe access is granted through OAuth and can be revoked from your own Stripe dashboard. Revoking ends the connection, held trials are marked as lost and unconfirmed ones are ended. - Webhook events are signature verified and claimed once, so a repeated delivery does not run twice. - Every write to Stripe carries an idempotency key built from the trial and the action. - Seller keys are stored only as hashes, and secrets are never returned by the API. - You choose what happens to a subscription after a failed capture: leave it to your Stripe retry settings, or cancel it. - Each trial keeps its record, its scheduled jobs and its alerts, so finance can follow a single trial from signup to first invoice. The details behind each point are on the [security page](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) and in the [trial lifecycle docs](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md). The prices on this page are the launch prices. ## Your first 30 days ### Week 1: review with finance and security Walk the money flow above with the people who approve payment changes. Read the webhook and API references with engineering, and agree on who owns the Stripe connection and the Slack channel that receives alerts. ### Week 2: connect a non-production scope Connect a Stripe account that is not your main one, publish a page for a single plan, and run internal signups through it. Check that the customer balance credit appears and that the first invoice nets to zero. ### Week 3: wire alerts and records into your tools Subscribe your own systems to the events described in the [webhooks docs](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md), pull records through the [API](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md), and decide how disputes are handled using the stored trial record. ### Week 4: choose a first live slice Pick one plan, one region or one channel for the first real traffic, with an agreed share and an agreed review date. Widen the share only after finance has reconciled the first captured trials against Stripe payouts. ## Recommended setup - A dedicated Slack channel for capture failures, lost holds and disputes, read by finance and support. - Failure setting agreed between finance and growth before launch, since it applies to the whole account. - Webhook consumers in your own infrastructure that mirror trial status into your data warehouse. - One owner for the MRR figure, which the plan depends on and which is rechecked about every 7 days. ## First features to use - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) for the capture rules and money safety checks. - [Dispute readiness](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) for the record kept per trial. - [High-value trial alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/high-value-alerts.md) for named accounts. - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) for page control and custom domains. ### Can we talk to someone before connecting Stripe? Yes. Email hello@trialvalid.com to arrange a call about your volumes, your approvals and a custom setup (see the [contact page](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md)). ### Does TrialValid hold our funds? No. Holds, captures and credits all happen inside your Stripe account, and no per-transaction fee is taken. ### How do we revoke access? Revoke the connection from your own Stripe dashboard. TrialValid then marks held trials as lost and ends trials that had not confirmed a card. ### What do finance teams see for each trial? The hold, the subscription, the capture, the balance credit and the first invoice are all objects in your Stripe account, and TrialValid keeps its own record of each step and the jobs behind it. ### Can we get terms that differ from the plan list? The listed prices are the starting point. Email hello@trialvalid.com to arrange a call and we will go through anything that needs to differ. ### Is there an API for our own systems? Yes. See the [API reference](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md) and the [webhooks reference](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) for routes, events and error codes. ## Related - [Solutions by company stage](https://trialvalid.com/solutions.md) - [Trial conversion for growing SaaS teams](https://trialvalid.com/solutions/growing-saas.md) - [Security at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) - [API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Dispute readiness for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/dispute-readiness.md) - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Documentation Guides for TrialValid: getting started, the trial lifecycle, plans, webhooks, errors and the API overview. How TrialValid holds, starts, captures and refunds a card-backed free trial. > Every state, job, webhook and error in the trial engine is documented here. [See the API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md). [Read getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) ### Start - [Getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) - [Plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md) ### Concepts - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) ### Reference - [Errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md) - [API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md) ## Trial states Every trial is in exactly one state. This is the whole state machine the engine enforces. ``` awaiting_card -> held | abandoned | canceled held -> converted | canceled | capture_failed | hold_lost converted -> refunded (every other state is terminal) ``` ## Related - [Getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [Errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md) - [API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started Last updated: 2026-10-22 # Getting started What you need to run card-backed trials with TrialValid, the steps a seller follows, and what the platform handles for you. ## What you need - A Stripe account. You connect it with Stripe Connect OAuth, and the connection can be revoked at any time. - A Stripe price for the plan you sell, which gives the trial page its price. - Optional: a Slack incoming-webhook URL for alerts, and a domain for hosted pages. ## How to start Email hello@trialvalid.com and we set up your account. Starter begins with a 14-day trial for $1; Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise begin with an onboarding call. ## The steps 1. Connect your Stripe account. TrialValid reads your active subscriptions to work out your plan. 2. Create a trial page: pick the price and a trial length from 1 to 90 days, and write a variant. 3. Publish the page. A buyer sees it, reads the authorization text and enters a card in Stripe Elements. 4. TrialValid holds the plan price, starts the trial subscription and schedules the capture and the reminder. 5. Shortly before the trial ends, the hold is captured. The first invoice is paid by the credit, so the buyer is charged once. ## What the platform handles | Part | What it does | | --- | --- | | Hold, subscription, capture, refund and credit logic | Runs each trial from sign-up to the single charge, with retries and idempotent Stripe writes | | Stripe Connect OAuth and webhook verification | Connects your account and checks every Stripe event before it runs | | Trial pages, variants, attribution, Slack alerts, descriptors, trial records | Sells the trial, tracks where signups come from and tells you when something needs attention | | HTTP API and OpenAPI document | Manages pages, variants, trials, domains and alerts from your own tools | | Plans | Chooses your plan from the MRR of your connected account | ## Related - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md) - [Errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle Last updated: 2026-10-17 # Trial lifecycle The states a trial moves through, the jobs that drive it, and how cancel and failure paths resolve. ## States | State | Means | Can move to | | --- | --- | --- | | `awaiting_card` | The hold is created and the buyer has not confirmed a card | `held`, `abandoned`, `canceled` | | `held` | The card is confirmed, the trial is running, the hold is open | `converted`, `canceled`, `capture_failed`, `hold_lost` | | `converted` | The hold was captured and the credit written | `refunded` | | `canceled`, `abandoned`, `refunded`, `capture_failed`, `hold_lost` | Terminal | Nothing | ## Jobs Four job kinds drive a trial: `capture`, `renew_hold`, `remind` and `abandon`. A runner claims due jobs with a 5 minute lease, runs each one and marks it done, rescheduled or failed. One job failing never stops the others. Every handler starts from Stripe's current state, so running a job twice is safe. - `abandon` runs 24 hours after the hold is created and cancels the intent if the buyer never confirmed a card. - `remind` sends the reminder: 7 days before the end for trials longer than 7 days, at the start otherwise. - `capture` runs 2 hours before the trial ends, with up to 11 attempts 10 minutes apart. - `renew_hold` places a fresh hold when the capture falls after the current hold would lapse (a standard online hold lasts about 7 days). A failed renewal is retried up to 3 times, 1 hour apart. ## Cancel paths | When | What happens | | --- | --- | | Before the card is confirmed | The trial is canceled and the hold released | | While `held` | The subscription is canceled and the hold released. If a capture landed in that instant, it is refunded and the credit reversed | | After capture, before the trial ends | The subscription is canceled, the capture refunded and the credit reversed | | After the trial ended | Refused with `conflict`. You refund the invoice in Stripe | ## Failure policies - Every capture attempt failed: the trial becomes `capture_failed`, the hold is released and you are alerted once. Your `on_capture_failure` setting decides the subscription: `leave_to_stripe` (the default) leaves it, and Stripe keeps retrying the first invoice under your own billing settings, which may recover the payment; `cancel_subscription` cancels it. - Capture window missed: recorded as `capture_window_missed`. The subscription is not canceled and the buyer is charged once by the invoice. - Hold lapsed or unrenewable: the trial becomes `hold_lost`, you are alerted once, and the same `on_capture_failure` setting applies as for `capture_failed`. - You disconnect Stripe: held trials become `hold_lost` and unconfirmed ones end. Nothing is canceled, because TrialValid can no longer reach your account; the subscriptions keep billing in Stripe. - The setting is read when a trial fails, not when it starts, and a change never alters a trial that already failed. Each failed trial records what was done as `failure_policy_applied`. ## Related - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Plans and MRR How a seller's plan is chosen from connected-account MRR, with the bands, the counting rules and the prices. > Every feature is on every plan. ## Bands | Plan | Price per month | Connected-account MRR | | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $29 | $0 up to $10,000 | | Growth | $95 | $10,000 up to $50,000 | | Scale | $295 | $50,000 up to $150,000 | | Pro | $595 | $150,000 up to $250,000 | | Max | $995 | $250,000 up to $1,000,000 | | Enterprise | from $1,995 | $1,000,000 and above | Starter starts online with a 14-day trial for $1. Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a booked onboarding call and are paid afterwards; see [book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md). The lower edge of a band is inclusive and the upper edge exclusive, so exactly $10,000 of MRR is on Growth. Unknown MRR is treated as the lowest band, the Starter plan. ## Starting and managing your plan You start and manage your plan with the API key you get when your account is set up. Connect Stripe first, so your MRR is known. Then `POST /v1/billing/checkout` returns a Stripe Checkout link for Starter: the $1 trial fee is charged now and $29 a month when the trial ends, renewing every month until you cancel. `POST /v1/billing/portal` opens your Stripe billing page, where you change the card, read invoices or cancel, and `GET /v1/billing` shows your plan, your trial and the refund window. ## How MRR is counted - Only subscriptions with status `active` count. Trialing, past due, paused and canceled ones do not. - Only USD counts. Other currencies are listed, never converted. - Each subscription is its flat licensed items, unit amount times quantity, as a monthly equivalent: a day is 30 days, a week is 52/12 weeks, a year is 12 months, rounded half up to a cent. - Tiered, metered, packaged and mixed-interval items are counted as unpriced and left out. Discounts and taxes are ignored, so the figure is list price. - Up to 20 pages of subscriptions are read. Hitting the limit marks the figure as a lower bound. ## When it is rechecked The figure is read when you connect Stripe, and again about every 7 days when you view your plan. A seller who never views their plan is not rechecked. ## Related - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Webhooks The Stripe events TrialValid handles, how each event is claimed once, and why invoice events are not subscribed. TrialValid receives events from Stripe. The signature of each event is verified against the endpoint secret before anything runs. ## Handled events | Event | What TrialValid does | | --- | --- | | `payment_intent.amount_capturable_updated` | The card is confirmed: start the trial subscription | | `payment_intent.canceled` | The hold was released by the network or by us: update the trial | | `payment_intent.succeeded` | A capture settled, including captures made outside TrialValid | | `customer.subscription.deleted` | The subscription ended: update the trial | | `charge.dispute.created` | Flag the trial and alert you | | `account.application.deauthorized` | You disconnected Stripe: held trials become `hold_lost` | ## Each event is handled once An event is claimed when it first arrives and answered as a duplicate if Stripe sends it again. If a handler fails, the claim is released so Stripe's retry runs the handler again. ## Your invoices are never held back TrialValid never subscribes to `invoice.created`. While an endpoint subscribed to that event keeps failing, Stripe waits before finalizing invoices, so leaving it out means a slow or failed delivery to TrialValid never delays an invoice on your account. ## Related - [Trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) - [Errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Errors The error envelope the service uses, its fields, and the codes a seller can see. > Every error from the service and the API uses this envelope. ## Envelope ```json { "error": { "code": "conflict", "message": "The resource is in a state that does not allow this action.", "fix": "Read the resource and check its state.", "docs_url": "https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors#conflict", "retryable": false, "request_id": "req_example" } } ``` Branch on `code`. `fix` says what to change, and `retryable` says whether sending the same request again can work. ## Codes | Code | HTTP | Retryable | Meaning | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `unauthorized` | 401 | No | The API key is missing, malformed, revoked or unknown | | `forbidden` | 403 | No | This key is not allowed to make this request | | `invalid_input` | 400 | No | The request input is invalid | | `not_found` | 404 | No | No such resource exists for this account | | `conflict` | 409 | No | The resource is in a state that does not allow this action | | `signature_invalid` | 400 | No | A webhook signature or connect state did not verify | | `rate_limited` | 429 | Yes | Too many requests for this key. Wait for `Retry-After` | | `provider_unavailable` | 503 | Depends | A vendor is unavailable or not configured. If `retryable` is false, retrying will not help | | `internal_error` | 500 | Once | Retry once with backoff | Another account's resource looks exactly like a missing one, so `not_found` never reveals that a resource exists. ## Related - [API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md) - [Webhooks](https://trialvalid.com/docs/webhooks.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/docs/api Last updated: 2026-10-29 # API overview The TrialValid HTTP API: seller routes for pages, variants, trials, domains and alerts, public routes for the hosted trial page, and an OpenAPI document. > API keys are issued when your account is set up. Email hello@trialvalid.com to get one and the address of the API host. The API sits on top of the trial engine. Seller methods take the authenticated account, another account's resource looks like a missing one, and public methods return no account, customer or Stripe ids. ## What the API exposes - Seller routes for trial pages, variants, trials, domains and alerts. - Seller routes for your own TrialValid plan: start it with a Stripe Checkout link, open your Stripe billing page, end the trial early and read what you are billed for. - Public routes for a published page and for starting a trial. - A webhook route for Stripe events and a job route that runs due jobs about every minute. - An OpenAPI document that describes every route, provided with your API access. Every failure uses the envelope described in [errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md). ## Related - [Errors](https://trialvalid.com/docs/errors.md) - [Getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/pricing Last updated: 2026-10-21 # Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1 Start on Starter for $29 a month with a 14-day trial for $1. Larger plans from $95 begin with a booked onboarding call. Every feature is on every plan. Every feature is on every plan. Your plan follows the monthly recurring revenue on the Stripe account you connect. Every feature is on every plan. Starter starts with a 14-day trial for $1. Growth and above start with a booked onboarding call, then you pay. Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month: [book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md). | Plan | Price per month | Connected-account MRR | How to start | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $29 | $0 up to $10,000 | Start the 14-day trial for $1 | | Growth | $95 | $10,000 up to $50,000 | [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md) | | Scale | $295 | $50,000 up to $150,000 | [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md) | | Pro | $595 | $150,000 up to $250,000 | [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md) | | Max | $995 | $250,000 up to $1,000,000 | [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md) | | Enterprise | from $1,995 | $1,000,000 and above | [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md) | ## Terms Monthly billing, no contract. The plan price covers setup and every transaction. Enterprise starts from $1,995 a month and is arranged on a call: [book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md). A first paid month can be refunded within 7 days. Ask at hello@trialvalid.com and a person reviews the request. ## Questions ### How is my plan chosen? By the monthly recurring revenue on the Stripe account you connect. TrialValid reads your active subscriptions, adds up their USD monthly equivalents and maps the total to a plan. It checks again about every 7 days. ### How does the Starter trial work? You pay $1 when you start. The trial runs for 14 days with every feature on, and on day 15 your card is charged $29 for the first month unless you cancel before then. Nothing else is charged during the trial. ### How do Growth and the larger plans start? You book an onboarding call with us, we set up your first trial page together, and then you pay. Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995. ### What does Enterprise cost? Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month for accounts with $1,000,000 or more of MRR. Book a call and we will agree the details with you. ### What counts toward MRR? Only active subscriptions (not trialing, past due or paused), only USD, and only flat licensed items at list price. Tiered, metered and mixed-interval items are left out, and discounts and taxes are ignored. ### What does the plan price cover? Setup and every transaction. The plan price is the whole cost, and every feature is on every plan. ### Are there transaction fees, setup fees or usage caps? None: TrialValid takes no per-transaction fee, there is no setup fee, and every feature is on every plan. ### Can I get a refund? Yes, for your first paid month. Ask within 7 days of paying and a person reviews your request. The $1 trial fee is not part of the first month. ### When am I billed? Starter charges $1 when you start the trial and $29 on day 15 unless you cancel first. Growth and larger plans are paid after your onboarding call. ## Related - [Plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison Last updated: 2026-10-23 # TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools How TrialValid card-backed trials sit next to billing, dispute, retention, analytics and onboarding tools, with dated prices and linked sources. Each page copies prices and features from the vendor's own public pages, shows the date it was read and links the page. Where a tool sits beside a card-hold product rather than replacing it, the page says it works alongside. ## Billing and merchant of record - [Paddle](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/paddle.md): Paddle compared with TrialValid: 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction, no monthly fee. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Chargebee](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebee.md): Chargebee compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Lemon Squeezy](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/lemon-squeezy.md): Lemon Squeezy compared with TrialValid: 5% + 50 cents per transaction for ecommerce, with no monthly charge. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Recurly](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/recurly.md): Recurly compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Stripe Billing](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-billing.md): Stripe Billing compared with TrialValid: 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go, or from $620 per month on an annual contract paid monthly. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Zuora](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/zuora.md): Zuora compared with TrialValid: Contact sales: no price is printed on the pages. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Product and session analytics ## Onboarding ## Subscription analytics - [Baremetrics](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/baremetrics.md): Baremetrics works alongside TrialValid: Launch plan card shows $75 per month; the FAQ on the same page says $49. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [ChartMogul](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chartmogul.md): ChartMogul works alongside TrialValid: Free up to $10K MRR; paid plans scale with tracked revenue. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Dispute management - [Chargebacks911](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebacks911.md): Chargebacks911 compared with TrialValid: No public price; the site routes you to request an ROI analysis or a demo. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Chargeflow](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargeflow.md): Chargeflow compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Justt](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/justt.md): Justt compared with TrialValid: Success-based: a fee applies only on chargebacks Justt wins, and the page prints no rate. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Retention and dunning - [Chargebee Retention](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebee-retention.md): Chargebee Retention compared with TrialValid: Chargebee Growth Starter at $0 for Chargebee Billing customers; Growth Enterprise is custom. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Churn Buster](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/churn-buster.md): Churn Buster compared with TrialValid: Dunning or Cancel Flows from $269 per month; both from $430 per month. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Experimentation and landing pages ## Site builders and membership - [Memberstack](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/memberstack.md): Memberstack works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) - [Outseta](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/outseta.md): Outseta works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Creator checkout - [Gumroad](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/gumroad.md): Gumroad works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Fraud prevention - [Stripe Radar](https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar.md): Stripe Radar compared with TrialValid: Radar Standard starts at $10 per month, or $0.05 per screened transaction on pay as you go. Checked 2026-10-19. (Checked 2026-10-19) ## Migration guides - [Switch from 1Capture to TrialValid: moves and changes](https://trialvalid.com/switch-from/1capture.md): Move card-backed trials from 1Capture to TrialValid: what carries over, the setup steps and how plans differ. Checked 2026-10-23. (Checked 2026-10-23) ## Related - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Switch from 1Capture to TrialValid: moves and changes](https://trialvalid.com/switch-from/1capture.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/paddle Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Paddle vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Paddle compared with TrialValid: 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction, no monthly fee. Checked 2026-10-19. > Paddle takes the sale as merchant of record for a single 5% plus 50 cent fee, while TrialValid leaves the sale in your Stripe account and only runs the card hold, the trial and the first capture. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Paddle: 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction, no monthly fee (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Paddle | | --- | --- | | What it is | A payments, checkout, subscription billing and tax platform for SaaS and apps in which Paddle is the merchant of record, so it also handles global sales tax, fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support. | | Who it suits | Software and app businesses that want one provider to take the sale, collect and file tax, and answer buyer billing questions. | | Starting price | 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction, no monthly fee | | Free tier | There is no free plan; the pay-as-you-go plan has no monthly fee, so you pay only when a transaction happens. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Paddle pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Pay-as-you-go | 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction | Per transaction, no monthly fee, with payments, checkout, billing, tax compliance, fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support included | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Custom pricing | Contact sales | For high-volume businesses or more complex needs; the page routes you to book a demo | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Orders under $10 | Contact sales | The page says to get in touch for bespoke pricing on products under 10 dollars | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | The Paddle prices above come from www.paddle.com, read on 2026-10-19. Paddle can change them at any time. ## What Paddle is A payments, checkout, subscription billing and tax platform for SaaS and apps in which Paddle is the merchant of record, so it also handles global sales tax, fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Paddle | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | different approach | [source](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Global sales tax collection and filing handled for you | no | yes | [source](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Paddle overlap Choosing between them is mostly choosing who sells. With Paddle, Paddle is the seller, files tax and fields buyer billing questions, so the sale never passes through your Stripe account. TrialValid assumes Stripe is already your processor and adds a card hold, a trial subscription and a capture just before the first invoice. A team on Paddle checkouts has no use for TrialValid on those sales, and a team on Stripe has no need for Paddle to run a trial. ## When to pick which ### Pick Paddle when - You would rather have Paddle appear as the seller and handle sales tax filing than do it yourself. - A flat rate of 5% plus 50 cents per transaction, covering checkout, billing, fraud screening and chargebacks, suits your volume. - Handing the sale to a merchant of record is acceptable, even though it leaves your Stripe account out of the flow. ### Pick TrialValid when - Stripe stays your processor and you want every charge to remain there. - A buyer should hold a real card before a trial starts, with capture shortly before it ends and retries if that capture fails. - You would rather pay a monthly plan tied to connected MRR than 5% of each order plus 50 cents. - Every signup should carry the stored wording, time, IP address and terms version. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The pay-as-you-go plan is priced at 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | The page states there are no monthly fees, no migration fees and no hidden extras on its pay-as-you-go tier. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Paddle describes itself as the merchant of record, which the page ties to global tax and regulatory compliance. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Included in the standard fee are payments, checkout and billing in one platform, plus fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | A custom pricing tier exists for high-volume businesses or more complex needs and is reached by booking a demo. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | The FAQ says Paddle collects the correct tax rate, tracks filing deadlines and submits sales tax returns for you. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | For products priced under 10 dollars, the FAQ says to contact Paddle for bespoke pricing instead of using the standard fee. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | The FAQ says there is no lock-in period and that your data can be migrated to another provider. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | A premium advisory service is offered to SaaS businesses with large transaction volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | The included list names a migration service, billing support for buyer questions about payments, subscriptions and cancellations, and reporting. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | Invoicing, advisory services and implementation support are listed as additional features and services outside the standard list. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | | The navigation lists a metrics product described as real-time subscription analytics and a retain customers product aimed at reducing churn. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.paddle.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### What does Paddle charge per sale? The pay-as-you-go plan is 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction with no monthly fee. Larger or more complex businesses are sent to a demo for custom pricing. ### Is Paddle the seller of record for my sales? That is how the page describes it, and it links the role to global tax and regulatory handling. ### What if my products cost under 10 dollars? The page says to contact Paddle for bespoke pricing on those, so the standard rate is not what applies. ### Would TrialValid sit on top of a Paddle checkout? No. TrialValid works through your own Stripe account, and a Paddle sale runs through Paddle instead. ### Does Paddle tie me in? The page says there is no lock-in period and that your data can be migrated to another provider. ## What we could not verify - Whether Paddle can place a hold on a card at sign-up and capture it before a trial ends: the page covers fees and tax rather than trial mechanics. - The size of Paddle custom pricing: the page sends buyers to a demo and prints no figure. - The quote for orders under 10 dollars: the page names no number. - Whether Paddle stores authorization wording, descriptor rules or signup attribution: nothing on the page mentions them. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/baremetrics Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Baremetrics vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Baremetrics works alongside TrialValid: Launch plan card shows $75 per month; the FAQ on the same page says $49. Checked 2026-10-19. > Baremetrics reports subscription revenue and trial behavior once subscriptions exist, while TrialValid creates trial subscriptions by holding a card and capturing at the end. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Baremetrics: Launch plan card shows $75 per month; the FAQ on the same page says $49 (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Baremetrics | | --- | --- | | What it is | A subscription analytics product that tracks more than 28 metrics such as MRR, ARR and churn, with trial insights, segments, email reports, a Slack integration and add-ons for payment recovery and cancellation insights. | | Who it suits | Subscription businesses that want revenue metrics, segmentation and forecasting, from solo founders on the Launch plan to larger companies on Scale. | | Starting price | Launch plan card shows $75 per month; the FAQ on the same page says $49 | | Free tier | The page lists no free plan; a free trial and a live demo are offered from the menus. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Baremetrics pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Launch | Starts at $75 per month on the plan card (FAQ text: $49 per month) | For $0 to 360K ARR; single integration; the page notes a 35% annual discount | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Growth | Starts at $255 per month on the plan card (FAQ text: $189 per month) | For $360K to 3.6M ARR; two integrations | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Scale | Starts at $1,152 per month on the plan card (FAQ text: $749 per month) | For $3.6M+ ARR; unlimited integrations | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Payment Recovery add-on | $129 per month extra | Available on any plan | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Cancellation Insights add-on | $129 per month extra | Available on any plan | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Build your own plan | Mix and match | Choose analytics features, integrations and support levels | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | The Baremetrics prices above come from baremetrics.com, read on 2026-10-19. Baremetrics can change them at any time. ## What Baremetrics is A subscription analytics product that tracks more than 28 metrics such as MRR, ARR and churn, with trial insights, segments, email reports, a Slack integration and add-ons for payment recovery and cancellation insights. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Baremetrics | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Trial insights on what customers do during the trial | no | yes | [source](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Slack integration | different approach | yes | [source](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Revenue metrics such as MRR, ARR and churn | no | yes | [source](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Baremetrics overlap Baremetrics reads data from your billing source and turns it into MRR, ARR, churn and segment views, and its Launch plan lists Trial Insights on what customers do during a trial. TrialValid produces the trials those views describe, by holding the card at signup and capturing before the trial runs out. Baremetrics also sells a Payment Recovery add-on for failed charges, a step TrialValid leaves to your Stripe settings for now. ## When to pick which ### Pick Baremetrics when - You want more than 28 metrics, segments and forecasting across your subscriptions. - You need to read a billing source other than Stripe, such as Chargebee, Recurly or an app store. - You want an add-on for payment recovery or cancellation insights, each listed at $129 a month. - You want Trial Insights on what customers do while a trial is running. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your gap sits upstream of the metrics: too few trial signups ever leave a card on file. - You want a stored authorization record per signup, and a reminder sent before the charge. - You want the capture and the trial subscription to run inside your own Stripe account. - You want the first touch recorded for every trial signup. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Plans are tiered by ARR: Launch for $0 to 360K, Growth for $360K to 3.6M and Scale for $3.6M and above. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | The plan cards show starting prices of $75, $255 and $1,152 per month, while the FAQ text on the same page says $49, $189 and $749. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | The page says annual plans can come with up to a 35% discount on listed prices. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Launch includes subscription analytics covering over 28 metrics, trial insights, automated email reports, autogenerated segments and chat support. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Trial Insights are described as showing what customers do during their trial, to help improve conversion. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Growth adds custom dashboards, unlimited segmentation, benchmarks, advanced exports, goal tracking and Slack and Intercom integrations. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Scale adds scenario planning, budget and expense tracking, the analytics API and a dedicated support rep. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Payment Recovery is a $129 per month add-on with automated reminders, customizable card forms, in-app banners and one-click recovery links. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | The Payment Recovery add-on carries a promise that your next month is free if it does not recover more than your Baremetrics cost. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | Cancellation Insights is a $129 per month add-on with custom cancellation reasons, in-app feedback popups and follow-up emails after cancellation. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | | The integrations menu lists Stripe, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly, Shopify, the Apple App Store, Google Play, QuickBooks Online and Xero. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://baremetrics.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### Do I need a metrics tool if I use TrialValid? That is a separate choice. TrialValid does not report MRR or churn. ### Why does the Baremetrics page show two sets of prices? The plan cards show $75, $255 and $1,152 per month while the FAQ text says $49, $189 and $749. The page does not explain the gap, so check the plan page before you buy. ### How much is the Baremetrics recovery add-on? The page lists Payment Recovery at $129 per month on any plan. ### Does Baremetrics report on trials? Yes. Launch lists Trial Insights, described as showing what customers do during their trial. ### Does TrialValid recover failed payments after the trial? No. It retries its own capture before the trial ends and leaves later retries to your Stripe settings. ## What we could not verify - Which of the two price sets is current: the plan cards and the FAQ on the pricing page disagree and the page does not say why. - Whether Baremetrics treats trial subscriptions that began with a card hold differently: the page does not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebacks911 Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Chargebacks911 vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Chargebacks911 compared with TrialValid: No public price; the site routes you to request an ROI analysis or a demo. Checked 2026-10-19. > Chargebacks911 is a managed chargeback service sold on quotes, while TrialValid is software you set up yourself that shapes how a trial begins, before any dispute exists. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Chargebacks911: No public price; the site routes you to request an ROI analysis or a demo (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Chargebacks911 | | --- | --- | | What it is | A chargeback management company offering response and representment, source detection, merchant onboarding audits, alerts and inquiries, with an ROI analysis offered on request. | | Who it suits | Merchants and financial institutions in retail, travel, digital goods and other sectors that want a provider to manage chargebacks end to end. | | Starting price | No public price; the site routes you to request an ROI analysis or a demo | | Free tier | No free plan is shown; the site offers a free demo and a calculator for the cost of chargebacks. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Chargebacks911 pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Chargeback management (all solutions) | Contact sales | Quote after an ROI analysis or demo request; the pages show no price | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/) | The Chargebacks911 prices above come from chargebacks911.com, read on 2026-10-19. Chargebacks911 can change them at any time. ## What Chargebacks911 is A chargeback management company offering response and representment, source detection, merchant onboarding audits, alerts and inquiries, with an ROI analysis offered on request. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Chargebacks911 | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Managed chargeback response and representment | no | yes | [source](https://chargebacks911.com/merchant-solutions/) | | Pre-dispute alerts and inquiries | no | yes | [source](https://chargebacks911.com/merchant-solutions/) | ## Where TrialValid and Chargebacks911 overlap Both exist because a buyer may not recognize a trial charge. TrialValid lowers that chance at the start with a card hold, a reminder ahead of the charge and a stored authorization record. Chargebacks911 steps in once a chargeback or alert arrives and runs the response for you, and its own recurring billing guide treats free trials with ongoing charges as higher risk. It is a managed service reached through a conversation, whereas TrialValid is configured by the seller, so the choice often turns on how much dispute work you want handed off. ## When to pick which ### Pick Chargebacks911 when - A chargeback problem already exists and you want response and representment run for you. - You want alerts, inquiries and onboarding audits bought from a single provider. - A sales conversation and an ROI analysis before pricing suit how you buy. - You sell through Shopify, Square, Toast, Clover, BigCommerce or WooCommerce and want a one-click connector. ### Pick TrialValid when - You want the hold, the reminder and the capture timing to be settings you control. - You want the exact authorization text kept for each signup. - You prefer self-serve software that works inside your own Stripe account. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The home page offers an ROI analysis and a demo request rather than a price list. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/) | | The site includes a calculator that adds up annual revenue lost, chargeback fees, admin fees and the cost of goods and shipping. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/) | | The company describes its approach as reduce, recover and repair: fewer chargebacks, recovered revenue and repaired industry relationships. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/) | | Its solutions page lists response and representment, source detection, merchant onboarding audits, refund-based prevention and data-based prevention. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/merchant-solutions/) | | Refund-based prevention is labeled as alerts, and data-based prevention is labeled as inquiries. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/merchant-solutions/) | | The solutions page says the technology is agnostic and works with existing systems. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/merchant-solutions/) | | The connectors page lists one-click connectors for Shopify, Square, Toast, Clover, BigCommerce and WooCommerce. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/connectors/) | | The connectors page says most integrations go live within 15 minutes and complex custom ones take one to three business days. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/connectors/) | | The digital category on the home page names memberships and software among the supported categories. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/) | | Its recurring billing guide says free trials combined with ongoing charges are a common source of chargebacks and are treated as higher risk by acquirers. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/recurring-billing/) | | The guide recommends that the first receipt state it is a recurring transaction, give the charge schedule and give the duration of the plan. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chargebacks911.com/recurring-billing/) | ## Questions ### Does Chargebacks911 publish prices? The pages show no price. They offer an ROI analysis and a demo request. ### Could Chargebacks911 sit beside TrialValid? They act at different moments. TrialValid works before a trial starts and Chargebacks911 works when a dispute arrives. ### Which platforms does Chargebacks911 connect to? Its connectors page lists one-click connectors for Shopify, Square, Toast, Clover, BigCommerce and WooCommerce, and says it integrates with many other technologies. ### Does Chargebacks911 cover subscriptions and trials? Its recurring billing guide discusses trials and subscription chargebacks. The pages do not describe a product built for trial subscriptions. ### Does TrialValid submit dispute evidence? It stores the agreement record for each signup and the seller attaches it to a dispute in Stripe. ## What we could not verify - Any price or minimum: the pages show none, only a request for a quote. - Whether it integrates directly with Stripe: the connector list does not include Stripe. - Results and win rates: the figures quoted on the site are reported by Chargebacks911 itself. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebee Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Chargebee vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Chargebee compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Chargebee is a full subscription billing system priced by invoicing volume, while TrialValid is a narrower tool for holding a card and converting a trial inside your own Stripe account. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Chargebee: Billing Flow plan: $0 + 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume, or $99 + 0.65%, with a $66K breakeven shown on the slider (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Chargebee | | --- | --- | | What it is | A subscription billing and revenue platform with invoicing, usage-based billing, dunning, tax, quoting and revenue recognition modules, connecting to more than 40 payment gateways including Stripe. | | Who it suits | Teams that want a billing system of record for hybrid pricing, contracts and usage, with finance modules around it. | | Starting price | Billing Flow plan: $0 + 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume, or $99 + 0.65%, with a $66K breakeven shown on the slider | | Free tier | The Billing Flow plan has no base fee at low volume, and the page offers a Start Free Trial button and a free Growth Starter plan for Billing customers. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Chargebee pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Billing: Flow, low volume end | $0 + 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume | Slider starts at $0 of monthly invoicing volume and includes 100M usage events a month | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Billing: Flow, high volume end | $99 + 0.65% of monthly invoicing volume | Slider runs to $500K of monthly invoicing volume | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Billing: Flow, breakeven | $66K monthly invoicing volume | The page marks this volume as the point where the $99 option starts to cost less | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Billing: Enterprise | Contact sales | Demo required; adds multi-entity management, account hierarchy and higher limits | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth: Starter | $0 | Only for Chargebee Billing customers; pricing tables, hosted checkout, self-serve portal and cancel pages | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth: Enterprise | Custom, based on number of active subscribers | Contact sales; adds trial conversion experiments and upsell experiments | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | CPQ Lite | Free for the first 50 quotes | Only for Chargebee Billing customers | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | The Chargebee prices above come from www.chargebee.com, read on 2026-10-19. Chargebee can change them at any time. ## What Chargebee is A subscription billing and revenue platform with invoicing, usage-based billing, dunning, tax, quoting and revenue recognition modules, connecting to more than 40 payment gateways including Stripe. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Chargebee | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | different approach | [source](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Free-to-paid trial conversion experiments | different approach | yes | [source](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | ## Where TrialValid and Chargebee overlap Chargebee is where the subscription and its invoices live, and TrialValid is a thin layer over the trial itself. Both can sit on Stripe, since Chargebee lists Stripe among its gateways. They overlap at the trial-to-paid moment: Chargebee offers dunning, checkout pages and trial conversion experiments on its top Growth plan, while TrialValid holds the card up front and captures it shortly before the trial ends. A team already running billing in Chargebee would ask whether it needs a separate card-hold step at all. ## When to pick which ### Pick Chargebee when - You need a billing system of record for usage, hybrid pricing, quotes or revenue recognition. - You want dunning and payment retries inside the same system that issues invoices. - Your pricing involves multiple entities, account hierarchies or contract terms. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your billing already runs in your own Stripe account and only the trial conversion step is missing. - You want the card held at sign-up and captured close to the trial's end, with retries. - You want each signup stored with the agreement text shown, plus its time, IP and terms version. - You want a flat plan tied to connected MRR rather than a percentage of invoicing volume. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The Billing Flow plan is priced by monthly invoicing volume on a slider from $0 to $500K, with $0 + 0.80% at one end and $99 + 0.65% at the other. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The slider marks a $66K monthly invoicing volume as the breakeven between the two Flow price points. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The Flow plan includes 100M usage events a month and connects to more than 40 payment gateways. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Billing Enterprise is described for companies running billing at global scale with multiple business entities, account hierarchies and high-spike billing events, and is reached through a demo. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The Growth Starter plan costs $0 and is available exclusively to Chargebee Billing customers. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth Enterprise is priced on the number of active subscribers and, unlike Starter, lists free-to-paid trial conversion experiments. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Both Billing plans in the comparison list basic dunning and smart dunning, with payment retries described as machine-learning powered in the navigation. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Stripe is named in the list of supported payment gateways, alongside GoCardless and others. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The comparison lists card payment methods covering credit, debit and prepaid cards, and full API checkout including Stripe.js. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Stripe Radar transaction-level and customer-level alerts are listed as included under fraud management. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Revenue recognition plans are priced by demo or quote, with a Performance plan for finance teams that asks you to book a demo and request pricing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The page shows a Start Free Trial button and a Get a Demo button at the top. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | ## Questions ### How is Chargebee priced? The Flow billing plan is $0 + 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume at the low end and $99 + 0.65% at the high end, with a $66K breakeven marked on the slider. ### Does Chargebee work with Stripe? Stripe is named in the list of supported gateways, and the comparison lists Stripe.js checkout and Stripe Radar alerts. ### Does Chargebee support free trials? The solutions menu mentions running free trials and self-serve checkout, and Growth Enterprise lists free-to-paid trial conversion experiments. ### Does Chargebee include dunning? Yes. Basic dunning and smart dunning are listed in the Billing plan comparison. ### Could TrialValid stand in for Chargebee? No. TrialValid does not issue invoices or manage usage billing. It handles the card hold, the trial and the first charge in your Stripe account. ## What we could not verify - Whether Chargebee can hold a card at sign-up before a trial begins: the pricing page does not describe the mechanism. - What a trial subscription costs to run inside Chargebee beyond the invoicing percentage: the page prints no trial-specific price. - Billing Enterprise, Growth Enterprise and revenue recognition prices: the page says to contact sales. - Whether agreement text, statement descriptor rules or per-signup attribution are stored: the pricing page does not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargebee-retention Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Chargebee Retention vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Chargebee Retention compared with TrialValid: Chargebee Growth Starter at $0 for Chargebee Billing customers; Growth Enterprise is custom. Checked 2026-10-19. > Chargebee Retention is a cancel-flow and win-back tool now sold inside Chargebee Growth, while TrialValid works before the first charge, so each covers a different moment. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Chargebee Retention: Chargebee Growth Starter at $0 for Chargebee Billing customers; Growth Enterprise is custom (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Chargebee Retention | | --- | --- | | What it is | A cancel experience and retention tool that redirects cancelling subscribers to a personalized page with offers, surveys and alerts, now sold as part of Chargebee Growth. | | Who it suits | Subscription businesses that want to test cancel offers and see why customers leave. | | Starting price | Chargebee Growth Starter at $0 for Chargebee Billing customers; Growth Enterprise is custom | | Free tier | Growth Starter is $0 for Chargebee Billing customers, and the retention page offers a sign-up button and a free trial of Chargebee Growth. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Chargebee Retention pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Growth: Starter | $0 | Exclusively for Chargebee Billing customers; single-brand businesses with hundreds of subscribers | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth: Enterprise | Custom, based on number of active subscribers | Contact sales; adds multi-brand experiments, AI offer builder and trial conversion experiments | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | The Chargebee Retention prices above come from www.chargebee.com, read on 2026-10-19. Chargebee Retention can change them at any time. ## What Chargebee Retention is A cancel experience and retention tool that redirects cancelling subscribers to a personalized page with offers, surveys and alerts, now sold as part of Chargebee Growth. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Chargebee Retention | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Slack alert on a customer event | yes | different approach | [source](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | Cancel flow with personalized offers and surveys | no | yes | [source](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | ## Where TrialValid and Chargebee Retention overlap These tools sit at opposite ends of a subscription. TrialValid acts before the first charge, holding the card and converting the trial. Chargebee Retention acts when a subscriber presses cancel, sending them to a page with offers, surveys and alerts. The retention page lists Stripe among the billing platforms it connects to, so a Stripe business could use both. Neither one substitutes for the other. ## When to pick which ### Pick Chargebee Retention when - Your concern is subscribers who cancel and you want to test offers on the cancel page. - You want to learn why customers leave through surveys and cancel dashboards. - You already run Chargebee Billing and want the Growth Starter plan at $0. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your concern is the trial itself: getting a card on file and charging it when the trial ends. - You want the trial subscription held in your own Stripe account. - You want a stored record of the agreement text each signup saw. - You want first-touch attribution per signup and a Slack alert for high-value trials. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The retention page states that Chargebee Retention is now part of Chargebee Growth. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | The cancel button sends customers to a personalized cancel experience that presents dynamic offers based on targeting parameters. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | Tests can be randomized, rules-based or machine-learning based, which the page calls Smart Targeting. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | An Experience Manager lets you edit branding, fonts, copy and imagery for the cancel page in a web interface. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | The page says Slack or email alerts can be sent when customers cancel and that save workflows or subscription updates can be triggered when they accept an offer. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | Retention insights are described as dashboards covering why customers cancel and how offers perform. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | The page says it integrates with billing platforms such as Chargebee, Recurly and Stripe. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | | The Growth Starter plan costs $0 and lists pricing tables, hosted checkout, a self-serve portal and no-code cancel pages. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth Starter is available exclusively to Chargebee Billing customers and is aimed at single-brand businesses with hundreds of subscribers. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | Growth Enterprise has custom pricing based on active subscribers and lists multi-brand experiments, an AI offer builder and trial conversion experiments. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) | | The retention page places retention inside an acquire, expand and retain lifecycle and offers a free trial of Chargebee Growth. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargebee.com/growth/retention/) | ## Questions ### Is Chargebee Retention still sold on its own? The retention page says it is now part of Chargebee Growth. ### What does Chargebee Retention cost? The pricing page lists Growth Starter at $0 for Chargebee Billing customers and custom pricing for Growth Enterprise. ### Does Chargebee Retention connect to Stripe? The retention page names Stripe among the billing platforms it integrates with. ### Does Chargebee Retention take a card at sign-up? The retention page describes cancel experiences and does not describe card collection for trials. Trial conversion experiments appear on the Growth Enterprise plan. ### Do TrialValid and Chargebee Retention conflict? No. TrialValid acts before the first charge and Chargebee Retention acts at cancellation. ## What we could not verify - A standalone Chargebee Retention price: the product is now sold inside Chargebee Growth and the pages state no separate figure. - Whether Growth Starter can be bought without Chargebee Billing: the pricing page says it is exclusively for Billing customers. - Growth Enterprise pricing: the page says custom and prints no number. - Anything about card collection or trial billing: the retention page does not cover it. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chargeflow Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Chargeflow vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Chargeflow compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Chargeflow fights and prevents chargebacks after money has moved, while TrialValid works before the trial starts by holding the card, so one handles disputes and the other aims to lower the chance of them. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Chargeflow: First 1,000 scanned transactions free on Prevent, then $0.1 each; 25% of each recovered chargeback on recovery (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Chargeflow | | --- | --- | | What it is | A chargeback platform that sells three pay-per-outcome products (Prevent, automated recovery and deflection alerts), plus an Enterprise tier and a Connect offer for platforms. | | Who it suits | Ecommerce and SaaS sellers that want disputes handled, evidence assembled and card-network alerts acted on. | | Starting price | First 1,000 scanned transactions free on Prevent, then $0.1 each; 25% of each recovered chargeback on recovery | | Free tier | The first 1,000 scanned transactions on Prevent are free, and recovery has no payment until a chargeback is recovered. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Chargeflow pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Prevent | $0.1 per scanned transaction | First 1,000 scanned transactions are free | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Automation (recovery) | 25% per recovered chargeback | No payment until a chargeback is recovered | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Alerts (deflection) | $29 per deflected chargeback | The page invites buyers with over 50 alerts a month to ask for a better price | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Enterprise | Contact sales | Demo request; no price on the page | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Connect (for platforms) | Contact sales | Demo request; no price on the page | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | The Chargeflow prices above come from www.chargeflow.io, read on 2026-10-19. Chargeflow can change them at any time. ## What Chargeflow is A chargeback platform that sells three pay-per-outcome products (Prevent, automated recovery and deflection alerts), plus an Enterprise tier and a Connect offer for platforms. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Chargeflow | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Automated chargeback evidence submission | no | yes | [source](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Card-network dispute alerts with automatic refunds | no | yes | [source](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Chargeflow overlap Both care about disputes, from opposite ends. TrialValid acts at the start of a trial: it holds the card, stores the authorization text with time, IP and terms version, and sends a reminder ahead of the charge, the kind of records a seller would want on file if a charge is questioned. Chargeflow acts once a dispute or alert lands: it gathers evidence, submits it and tracks outcomes. A seller could pair them, with TrialValid shaping how trials begin and Chargeflow handling whatever disputes still arrive. ## When to pick which ### Pick Chargeflow when - You already receive chargebacks and want evidence assembled and submitted for you. - You want card-network alerts that can refund a charge before it turns into a chargeback. - You prefer paying per outcome over a flat fee. - You sell through ecommerce platforms and processors beyond Stripe. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your goal is how a trial begins, not what happens after a dispute arrives. - You want a trial to start only once the card hold has gone through. - You want the agreement text each signup saw stored with its time, IP and terms version. - You want the trial and the capture to run in your own Stripe account. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Prevent is priced at $0.1 per scanned transaction, with the first 1,000 scanned transactions free. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | The recovery product charges 25% of each recovered chargeback and takes no payment until one is recovered. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | The alerts product costs $29 per deflected chargeback, and the page says buyers with over 50 alerts a month can ask for a better price. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Recovery is described as covering data collection, AI-built evidence and submission, and it also handles PayPal, Klarna and Afterpay inquiries. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | The page says Chargeflow connects with over 100 payment processors, ecommerce platforms and business tools, and lists Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, PayPal and Zapier. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Alerts are described as coming through partnerships with Verifi and Ethoca, with alerts matched to transactions and refunded automatically. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Evidence enrichment is said to include courier tracking data and customer messages from Gmail and Zendesk. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Subscription data from Recharge and Chargebee is listed as an evidence source. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Startups can apply for an accelerator offering up to 70% off, with separate tracks for SaaS and ecommerce. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | The Enterprise tier lists a dedicated success manager, single sign-on, user provisioning and custom legal terms. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | | Insights are included with each product, covering win-rate trends, repeat disputers and a view across processors. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.chargeflow.io/pricing) | ## Questions ### Does Chargeflow replace TrialValid? No. Chargeflow responds to disputes and alerts, while TrialValid controls how a trial starts and when the card is captured. ### How does Chargeflow charge? Per outcome: $0.1 per scanned transaction on Prevent after 1,000 free, 25% of recovered chargebacks, and $29 per deflected chargeback on alerts. ### Does Chargeflow connect to Stripe? The pricing page lists Stripe among its integrations and offers a sign-up through Stripe. ### Does TrialValid submit dispute evidence? No. It stores the agreement record for each signup, and the seller attaches it to a dispute in Stripe. ### Does Chargeflow have a startup discount? The page describes an accelerator with up to 70% off for eligible SaaS and ecommerce startups. ## What we could not verify - Win rates and results quoted on the page: these figures are reported by Chargeflow itself. - The price on Enterprise and Connect: the page asks for a demo and states no number. - Whether recovery works on a subscription trial dispute specifically: the page does not single that case out. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/chartmogul Last updated: 2026-10-29 # ChartMogul vs TrialValid: pricing and fit ChartMogul works alongside TrialValid: Free up to $10K MRR; paid plans scale with tracked revenue. Checked 2026-10-19. > ChartMogul turns billing data into subscription metrics after revenue exists, while TrialValid takes care of the card, the trial and the first charge that create it. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. ChartMogul: Free up to $10K MRR; paid plans scale with tracked revenue (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | ChartMogul | | --- | --- | | What it is | A subscription analytics tool that connects to billing systems such as Stripe and calculates MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value, with segmentation, scheduled reports, a built-in CRM and data destinations. | | Who it suits | SaaS founders and finance, growth and revenue teams that want trusted subscription metrics across one or several billing systems. | | Starting price | Free up to $10K MRR; paid plans scale with tracked revenue | | Free tier | The Free plan is priced at $0 for companies up to $10K MRR and lists unlimited team members and one billing source. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## ChartMogul pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Up to $10K MRR | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Starter | From $57 per month billed annually, or $69 per month billed monthly | Scales with tracked ARR; the page lists seven price steps | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Pro | From $99 per month billed annually, or $119 per month billed monthly | Scales with tracked ARR; the page lists seven price steps | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Enterprise | From $19,900 per year | Billed annually, for companies over $10M ARR | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | The ChartMogul prices above come from chartmogul.com, read on 2026-10-19. ChartMogul can change them at any time. ## What ChartMogul is A subscription analytics tool that connects to billing systems such as Stripe and calculates MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value, with segmentation, scheduled reports, a built-in CRM and data destinations. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | ChartMogul | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per trial signup | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value calculated from billing data | no | yes | [source](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Connects to a Stripe account | yes | yes | [source](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | ## Where TrialValid and ChartMogul overlap ChartMogul lists Stripe among the billing systems it connects to, and TrialValid creates its trial subscriptions inside your own Stripe account, so both end up reading and writing the same account. ChartMogul then reports on the revenue it finds, while TrialValid comes earlier and collects the card, starts the trial and captures when it ends. One converts trials and the other measures what the conversions add up to. ## When to pick which ### Pick ChartMogul when - You need MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value reported across one or several billing systems. - You want scheduled reports, segmentation and forecasting for a board or investors. - You want CRM records tied to subscription revenue in one place. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your problem is upstream of the reports: trials that never carry a card into the first charge. - You want the trial subscription held in your own Stripe account. - You want the authorization text each signup saw kept with its time, IP and terms version. - You want first-touch attribution and a high-value alert on each trial signup. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The page states that pricing is free up to $10K MRR and then scales with your revenue. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The Free plan lists investor-grade SaaS metrics, unified lead, trial and billing data, customer segmentation and workflow automation. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Starter is limited to 3 team members and one billing system plus 2 custom or third-party sources, and it includes CRM sync and Slack updates. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Pro adds unlimited team members, multiple billing systems in one view, two-way CRM sync and pushing data to a warehouse. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Enterprise starts from $19,900 per year, billed annually, and is described for companies over $10M ARR. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The plan comparison counts connected billing systems such as Stripe and Chargebee as billing sources: 1 on Free and Starter, 5 on Pro and 15 on Enterprise. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Data sent through the API, CSV uploads, Google Sheets, n8n or Zapier counts as a custom or third-party source, not a billing source. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | A 14-day trial can be started without a credit card, according to the page FAQ. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The startup program gives $50 off each month of any paid plan for a year, $600 in all, and startups under $120K ARR can use the Free plan. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Paid-plan price depends on ARR tracked inside ChartMogul, and the account moves to the next tier as ARR grows. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The comparison table limits connected mailboxes to 3 on Free and Starter, 20 on Pro and 30 on Enterprise, and lists a built-in CRM row. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The annual discount shown on the page is 17 percent and requires an annual contract. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | ## Questions ### Does ChartMogul collect cards or run trials? The pricing page describes analytics, a CRM and data destinations. It does not describe card collection or trial billing. ### Is ChartMogul free? The pricing page lists a Free plan at $0 for companies up to $10K MRR. ### Do ChartMogul and TrialValid share a Stripe account? Yes, they can. ChartMogul connects to Stripe and TrialValid works in your Stripe account, each doing a different job. ### Does ChartMogul offer a trial? The FAQ says a 14-day trial can be started without a credit card. ### What does ChartMogul cost past $10K MRR? The page lists Starter from $57 per month billed annually and Pro from $99 per month billed annually, scaling with tracked ARR. Enterprise starts from $19,900 per year. ## What we could not verify - Whether ChartMogul offers any card collection or trial billing: the pricing page does not say. - How ChartMogul treats trial subscriptions created in Stripe when it calculates MRR: the pricing page does not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/churn-buster Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Churn Buster vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Churn Buster compared with TrialValid: Dunning or Cancel Flows from $269 per month; both from $430 per month. Checked 2026-10-19. > Churn Buster recovers failed subscription payments and runs cancel flows for a flat monthly fee, a job TrialValid does not do yet, while TrialValid handles the card and trial before the first charge. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Churn Buster: Dunning or Cancel Flows from $269 per month; both from $430 per month (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Churn Buster | | --- | --- | | What it is | A retention service that sells dunning for failed-payment recovery, cancel flows with save offers and exit feedback, an MCP for asking questions of retention data and a free measurement tier, run with a retention team. | | Who it suits | Subscription businesses that want failed payments recovered and cancellations saved, with help from a team rather than a self-set tool. | | Starting price | Dunning or Cancel Flows from $269 per month; both from $430 per month | | Free tier | The Measure tier is free and includes the Churn Buster MCP. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Churn Buster pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Measure | Free | Recovery analytics and a baseline; includes the MCP | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Dunning or Cancel Flows (one product) | From $269 per month | Flat monthly fee set by your MRR tier, month to month | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Dunning and Cancel Flows | From $430 per month | Flat monthly fee set by your MRR tier, month to month | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Advisory | $2,500 | One time, based on MRR; 60 days of measurement, a report and a one hour review | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | The Churn Buster prices above come from churnbuster.io, read on 2026-10-19. Churn Buster can change them at any time. ## What Churn Buster is A retention service that sells dunning for failed-payment recovery, cancel flows with save offers and exit feedback, an MCP for asking questions of retention data and a free measurement tier, run with a retention team. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Churn Buster | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | different approach | [source](https://churnbuster.io/) | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://churnbuster.io/) | | Card update page for customers whose payment failed | no | yes | [source](https://churnbuster.io/) | | Cancel flow with save offers | no | yes | [source](https://churnbuster.io/) | ## Where TrialValid and Churn Buster overlap This is the clearest overlap, on the failed-charge step. TrialValid captures a held amount shortly before the trial ends and retries that capture for a short window; if every attempt fails, the seller picks whether the subscription stays with Stripe retrying or is canceled. TrialValid does not send recovery emails after a failed charge. Churn Buster is built for that stage and for save offers when someone cancels. A seller could use TrialValid for trial entry and conversion, then bring in a dunning service for ongoing failed payments. ## When to pick which ### Pick Churn Buster when - You want failed payments recovered through tuned retries, emails, SMS and a card update page. - You want cancel flows that match a save offer to the reason a customer gives for leaving. - You value working with a retention team and paying a flat monthly fee. - You want to begin by measuring your current recovery on the free Measure tier. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your problem is the front of the trial: holding a card and reaching a first charge the buyer agreed to. - You want the trial subscription kept in your own Stripe account. - You want a stored authorization record and a reminder sent ahead of the charge. - You want each trial signup tied to its first touch. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Measure is a free tier that includes recovery analytics, a baseline and the Churn Buster MCP. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Dunning or Cancel Flows alone start at $269 per month, and the bundle starts at $430 per month. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | The monthly fee is flat and set by your MRR tier, with no contract and no commissions. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | The page says pricing for one product scales at roughly 0.1% of MRR. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | The vendor says it does not offer pay-for-performance pricing, and counts every recovery in the dashboard. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Advisory is a one-time $2,500 engagement, with the fee credited toward a monthly bill if you adopt the tools within 90 days. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Setup is described as taking about an hour with the vendor's team. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/pricing/) | | Dunning is described as a retry strategy tuned to recency, frequency and duration, with recovery emails sent from a dedicated pool on your domain, then SMS, then a team alert. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/) | | On Stripe and Braintree, dunning includes a card update page that needs no login and supports 3D Secure. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/) | | Cancel Flows ask why a customer is leaving and present a save offer matched to the reason, by plan, product and tenure. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/) | | The vendor says it was established in 2013 and is based in San Diego. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://churnbuster.io/) | ## Questions ### Does TrialValid send recovery emails? No. It sends a reminder before the trial charge, and the seller's Stripe settings govern later retries. ### How much does Churn Buster cost? Dunning or Cancel Flows start at $269 per month and both start at $430, set by your MRR tier. Measure is free. ### Does Churn Buster tie you to a contract? The pricing page says plans run month to month and can be canceled at any time. ### Does Churn Buster take a share of what it recovers? The page says no. You pay a flat monthly fee based on MRR. ### Where does each tool act in the life of a subscription? TrialValid acts before and at the first charge. Churn Buster acts on failed payments and cancellations after it. ## What we could not verify - The exact MRR tiers behind each price: the page states starting prices and says the fee moves with your tier. - Results quoted on the site, such as recurring revenue under management: vendor figures that were not checked independently. - Whether it can act on a trial subscription differently from other subscriptions: the pages do not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/gumroad Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Gumroad vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Gumroad works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Gumroad is a creator storefront that keeps a percentage of every sale and acts as merchant of record, while TrialValid adds a card-backed trial to subscriptions billed in your own Stripe account, so you would normally pick one setup. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Gumroad: No monthly fee; 10% plus $0.50 per transaction on direct sales, and 30% on sales that come through its Discover marketplace (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Gumroad | | --- | --- | | What it is | A marketplace and storefront for selling digital products, courses, e-books and memberships, with no monthly fee and a per-sale charge, and with Gumroad acting as merchant of record for tax. | | Who it suits | Independent creators and small digital sellers who want a ready-made checkout and storefront with tax handled for them. | | Starting price | No monthly fee; 10% plus $0.50 per transaction on direct sales, and 30% on sales that come through its Discover marketplace | | Free tier | There is no subscription fee at all; the page says Gumroad only earns when a sale happens. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Gumroad pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Direct sales (your profile or direct links) | 10% + $0.50 per transaction | Per sale, no monthly charge | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Discover marketplace sales | 30% per transaction | Per sale to new customers who find you through the marketplace | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | The Gumroad prices above come from gumroad.com, read on 2026-10-19. Gumroad can change them at any time. ## What Gumroad is A marketplace and storefront for selling digital products, courses, e-books and memberships, with no monthly fee and a per-sale charge, and with Gumroad acting as merchant of record for tax. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Gumroad | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | different approach | [source](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Merchant of record that handles sales tax collection and remittance | different approach | yes | [source](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Membership sales | different approach | yes | [source](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Gumroad overlap Both can be part of how someone gets paid for a recurring product, but they sit in different places. With Gumroad the checkout, the tax handling and the payout all run through its marketplace, and the fee comes out of each sale. TrialValid hosts no store. It wraps a trial around a subscription that already lives in your Stripe account, holding the card first and capturing at the end of the trial. A creator selling through Gumroad has no reason to add it, while a software seller using Stripe directly might. ## When to pick which ### Pick Gumroad when - You are selling courses, e-books or memberships as a creator and would rather not pay a monthly fee for the storefront. - You want someone else to collect and remit sales tax worldwide as merchant of record. - A percentage cut per sale suits you better than a flat subscription for tooling. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your product is software with a subscription already running through Stripe, and you want visitors to start on a trial with a card held up front. - You want each signup to carry its own record of the agreement wording and the moment it was accepted. - You would rather capture at the end of a trial, retrying if it fails, than hand 10% plus $0.50 of every direct sale to a marketplace. - You care about knowing which first touch produced each trial signup. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Direct sales through a creator profile or direct links cost 10% plus $0.50 per transaction. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Sales to new customers who find a creator through the Discover marketplace cost 30% per transaction. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | The page says there are no monthly charges and that fees come out of each sale. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Since January 1, 2025 Gumroad describes itself as merchant of record and says it handles sales tax collection and remittance worldwide. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Tax collection settings in a creator dashboard are automatically disabled because Gumroad handles collection. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Creators who already file their own sales tax returns can download a reseller certificate to report Gumroad sales as sales for resale. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Products named on the page include digital products, e-books, courses, tutorials and memberships. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Memberships are listed as supported, including podcast, course and SaaS subscription memberships. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Physical goods are excluded, along with items such as illegal goods, securities, credit repair, gambling and adult content. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | | Payouts reach creators by direct deposit or PayPal, depending on the country. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://gumroad.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### Can a Gumroad product start with a card-backed trial? The pricing page covers per-sale fees, tax handling and what may be sold. It does not mention trials. ### What is the Gumroad fee on a direct sale? The page lists 10% plus $0.50 per transaction, and 30% when a new customer arrives through Discover. ### Does Gumroad charge a subscription? No. The page says there are no monthly charges and that fees come out of each sale. ### Who deals with sales tax at Gumroad? Gumroad describes itself as merchant of record since January 1, 2025 and says it collects and remits tax worldwide. ### Would a Gumroad seller need TrialValid? Gumroad runs its own checkout, so TrialValid, which works inside your own Stripe account, fits sellers who bill through Stripe instead. ## What we could not verify - Whether memberships on Gumroad can begin with a trial period: the page describes none. - The card network or partner charges on top of the listed percentage: the page does not break them out. - The list of countries where tax is collected: the page says it depends on location. - How fast payouts arrive: the page says it varies by country and gives no schedule. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/justt Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Justt vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Justt compared with TrialValid: Success-based: a fee applies only on chargebacks Justt wins, and the page prints no rate. Checked 2026-10-19. > Justt responds to chargebacks after they happen and bills on wins, while TrialValid works before the charge by holding a card at sign-up so trials start with a real payment method on file. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Justt: Success-based: a fee applies only on chargebacks Justt wins, and the page prints no rate (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Justt | | --- | --- | | What it is | An automated chargeback management service that connects to payment providers, builds a response for each dispute, decides case by case whether a dispute is worth fighting, and reports outcomes in a dashboard. | | Who it suits | Merchants and subscription businesses with enough chargebacks to want the response work handled for them. | | Starting price | Success-based: a fee applies only on chargebacks Justt wins, and the page prints no rate | | Free tier | No free plan is named; under the success-based model there is no charge unless a chargeback is won. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Justt pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Automated chargeback management | Success-based: fee applies only on won chargebacks | The page prints no rate and says to contact Justt for more information | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | The Justt prices above come from justt.ai, read on 2026-10-19. Justt can change them at any time. ## What Justt is An automated chargeback management service that connects to payment providers, builds a response for each dispute, decides case by case whether a dispute is worth fighting, and reports outcomes in a dashboard. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Justt | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Automated chargeback responses built per dispute | no | yes | [source](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Alerts before a chargeback is filed | no | yes | [source](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | ## Where TrialValid and Justt overlap Both aim at fewer lost payments on subscription and trial sales, but they act at opposite ends. TrialValid acts before the charge: a card is held at sign-up, the trial subscription sits in your Stripe account, and the time, IP address and terms version are stored for each signup. Justt acts after a buyer disputes a charge, building the response and deciding whether to contest it. TrialValid does not file or contest disputes. ## When to pick which ### Pick Justt when - Chargebacks are already arriving and you want the response work done for you. - A fee that applies only when a chargeback is won suits your budget better than a monthly plan. - You want a service that decides, dispute by dispute, whether fighting is worth the cost. ### Pick TrialValid when - You want a real card on file before a trial starts, so trials are less likely to end in disputes at all. - Stripe stays your processor and the trial subscription should live in your own account. - You want capture just before the trial ends with retries, and every signup logged with its time, IP address and terms version. - Your volume is too low for a dispute service to matter yet. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | For automated chargeback management the FAQ says Justt uses success-based pricing, so a fee applies only on chargebacks it wins. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | The same answer sends readers to contact Justt for more pricing information and prints no percentage or fee. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Justt describes itself as handling disputes after a transaction is complete by assembling evidence to contest the chargeback, and says it handles all reason codes. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Justt says it connects to payment providers through their official APIs and names Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Braintree and Nuvei. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Each dispute gets a response built from its own reason code, transaction details, payment provider and available evidence rather than a fixed template, a method the page calls Dynamic Arguments. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | A feature called Dispute Optimization estimates whether fighting each chargeback pays off and accepts it when the projected net recovery is negative. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Setup is listed as a questionnaire, connecting your payment provider in an admin tool, a research step of 3 to 5 business days, and then sending the required data by API or upload. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | The page says Justt can be used without an API, through manual uploads or a hands-off service set up with your team. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | The FAQ has industry answers for retail, digital goods, travel, event ticketing, SaaS, crypto, gaming and financial services. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | A pre-chargeback alerts feature combines alerts into one dashboard so merchants can refund early. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | The page says Justt focuses on friendly fraud and that preventing true fraud before a sale is a separate job. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | | Round-the-clock support and a free Net Dollar Recovery calculator are listed. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://justt.ai/frequently-asked-questions/) | ## Questions ### How does Justt charge? The FAQ says automated chargeback management uses success-based pricing, so a fee applies only on chargebacks it wins. It prints no rate and points readers to contact Justt. ### Does Justt work with Stripe? Yes. The page names Stripe among the payment providers it connects to using their official APIs. ### Does Justt stop chargebacks before they happen? The page says Justt addresses chargebacks after a transaction completes, and separately lists a pre-chargeback alerts feature that helps merchants refund early. ### Could TrialValid and Justt run together? They do different jobs, so a business could use TrialValid to hold the card at sign-up and a dispute service for any chargeback that still arrives. ## What we could not verify - The success fee itself: the page says to contact Justt and prints no percentage or amount. - Whether Justt has any minimum, setup fee or other charge beyond the success-based fee: the page does not say. - How many payment providers Justt supports: the page gives more than one figure. - Whether Justt can hold a card or run a trial for your own customers: nothing on the page describes it. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/lemon-squeezy Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Lemon Squeezy vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Lemon Squeezy compared with TrialValid: 5% + 50 cents per transaction for ecommerce, with no monthly charge. Checked 2026-10-19. > Lemon Squeezy becomes the seller of record and charges 5% plus 50 cents per transaction, while TrialValid leaves you as the seller in your own Stripe account and covers only the trial card step. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Lemon Squeezy: 5% + 50 cents per transaction for ecommerce, with no monthly charge (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Lemon Squeezy | | --- | --- | | What it is | An all-in-one platform for selling digital products and subscriptions, acting as merchant of record with checkout, tax handling, fraud protection, license keys, affiliates and optional email marketing. | | Who it suits | Makers and software sellers who want one platform to take payments and handle sales tax for them. | | Starting price | 5% + 50 cents per transaction for ecommerce, with no monthly charge | | Free tier | The page says it is free to start with no trial and no contract, and email marketing is free for up to 500 subscribers. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Lemon Squeezy pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Ecommerce | 5% + 50 cents per transaction | No monthly charge; contact the company for volume-based pricing; some payments may carry additional fees | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Email marketing | $0 per month up to 500 subscribers | Charges rise with the number of subscribers | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | The Lemon Squeezy prices above come from www.lemonsqueezy.com, read on 2026-10-19. Lemon Squeezy can change them at any time. ## What Lemon Squeezy is An all-in-one platform for selling digital products and subscriptions, acting as merchant of record with checkout, tax handling, fraud protection, license keys, affiliates and optional email marketing. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Lemon Squeezy | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | different approach | [source](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Free trials on recurring subscriptions | yes | yes | [source](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Lemon Squeezy overlap Lemon Squeezy and TrialValid both lead to a recurring charge, but they decide who sells. Lemon Squeezy takes the role of merchant of record, with tax liability, fraud checks and checkout bundled into the transaction fee. TrialValid changes none of that ownership: your Stripe account keeps the subscription, and TrialValid adds the card hold before the trial and the capture before the first invoice. The practical question is where you want the sale booked. ## When to pick which ### Pick Lemon Squeezy when - You would like a merchant of record to calculate and pay sales tax for you. - You also sell license keys, downloads or email subscribers alongside subscriptions. - A flat 5% plus 50 cents per transaction with no monthly charge fits your volume. ### Pick TrialValid when - You want the sale to stay in your Stripe account under your own name. - You want a card held when the visitor signs up and captured shortly before the trial ends, with retries. - You want every signup to hold a record of the agreement shown, with its timestamp and terms version. - You would rather pay a flat monthly plan tied to connected MRR than a share of every sale. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Ecommerce is priced at 5% plus 50 cents per transaction with no monthly charges for ecommerce features. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | The page invites you to contact the company for volume-based pricing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | The page notes that some payments may be subject to additional fees and that transactions outside the US may encounter small extra fees. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | The page describes itself as free to start, with no trial, no contract and no risk. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Lemon Squeezy states it is your merchant of record, takes on tax collection and calculation liability and pays taxes on your behalf. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Recurring billing is offered on weekly, monthly or yearly schedules, with upgrades, downgrades, cancels, free trials and discounts. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | The page lists up to 21 payment methods, including PayPal, and support for up to 95 currencies. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | A recover lost payments feature is described as covering abandoned carts and failed payment recovery, beyond plain card retries. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | An AI fraud protection system is listed as part of the ecommerce fee. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | Email marketing is priced by subscriber count and is free for up to 500 subscribers. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | License key management and secure, throttled download links are listed as included features. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | | A banner on the page links to a 2026 update about Lemon Squeezy and Stripe Managed Payments. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### What does Lemon Squeezy charge? The page lists 5% plus 50 cents per transaction for ecommerce, no monthly charge, and volume pricing on request. ### Who is the merchant of record? Lemon Squeezy says it is, and that it takes on tax collection and calculation liability and pays taxes on your behalf. ### Do Lemon Squeezy subscriptions allow trials? Recurring billing lists weekly, monthly or yearly schedules together with free trials and discounts. ### Does Lemon Squeezy chase failed payments? A recover lost payments item covers abandoned carts and failed payment recovery. ### Does TrialValid suit a Lemon Squeezy store? TrialValid connects to a Stripe account you own, so it targets sellers who take payments through Stripe rather than through a merchant of record. ## What we could not verify - Whether a Lemon Squeezy free trial needs a card at signup: free trials are listed, but the mechanism is not. - What the 2026 Stripe Managed Payments update changes: only a banner link appeared on the page. - The volume-based rate: the page says to contact the company and prints no number. - Whether it stores agreement wording, descriptor rules or attribution per signup: none of this is described. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/memberstack Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Memberstack vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Memberstack works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Memberstack gives a website logins, gated pages and Stripe payments for members, while TrialValid adds a card hold and a first charge to a subscription in your own Stripe account, so a team could use them together. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Memberstack: Basic is $29 a month ($25 billed yearly) for up to 1,000 members, plus a 4% transaction fee on member sign-up payments and standard Stripe fees (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Memberstack | | --- | --- | | What it is | A membership platform that provides user accounts, social logins, gated pages, Stripe payments, a member database and email campaigns for websites, with pricing based on member count and a transaction fee. | | Who it suits | Founders, designers and agencies who build membership or gated-content sites and want accounts and payments without writing the backend. | | Starting price | Basic is $29 a month ($25 billed yearly) for up to 1,000 members, plus a 4% transaction fee on member sign-up payments and standard Stripe fees | | Free tier | Every feature can be tried on a test site for an unlimited time with no credit card, and you pay once the site goes live. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Memberstack pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Basic | $29 per month, $25 per month billed yearly | Up to 1,000 members, 4% transaction fee plus Stripe fees | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Professional | $49 per month, $39 per month billed yearly | Up to 5,000 members, 2% transaction fee plus Stripe fees | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Business | $99 per month, $79 per month billed yearly | 10,000 or more members, 0.9% transaction fee plus Stripe fees | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Established | $499 per month, $399 per month billed yearly | 10,000 or more members, no transaction fee, Stripe fees still apply | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | The Memberstack prices above come from www.memberstack.com, read on 2026-10-19. Memberstack can change them at any time. ## What Memberstack is A membership platform that provides user accounts, social logins, gated pages, Stripe payments, a member database and email campaigns for websites, with pricing based on member count and a transaction fee. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Memberstack | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | User accounts, logins and gated pages for a website | no | yes | [source](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Stripe subscriptions, one-time payments and trials | different approach | yes | [source](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Memberstack overlap The two meet at checkout. Memberstack supplies member accounts, gated pages and Stripe-based plans for a website, and its product list names trials as a payment type. TrialValid is narrower and sits wholly on the billing side: a card hold before the trial, a capture after it with retries, agreement text and first-touch attribution per signup. Sites that need accounts and gating would start with Memberstack, and sellers who already bill in their own Stripe account could add TrialValid for the trial. ## When to pick which ### Pick Memberstack when - You are building a membership or gated site and want logins and Stripe payments in one product. - You like pricing by member count, where the transaction fee falls from 4% on Basic to none on Established. - You want to build on a test site for as long as you wish before paying. ### Pick TrialValid when - You need a card held before the trial starts and captured when it ends. - Subscriptions should belong to your own Stripe account. - You want agreement wording stored with every signup, along with the time and the terms version. - You want to know which first touch led to each trial. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | All features can be tried on a test site for as long as you like with no credit card, and payment starts when the site accepts real members. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Basic costs $29 a month or $25 a month billed yearly and covers up to 1,000 members. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Professional costs $49 a month or $39 billed yearly and covers up to 5,000 members. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Business costs $99 a month or $79 billed yearly, and Established costs $499 a month or $399 billed yearly. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | The transaction fee is 4% on Basic, 2% on Professional, 0.9% on Business and none on Established, on top of Stripe processing fees. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | A transaction is counted when a member pays to sign up through Memberstack, and sites with only free members pay no transaction fee. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | The member limit counts live free and paying members and leaves out test mode members. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | An email is sent at 90% of the member limit, and Basic and Professional accounts are moved up a tier automatically at 100%. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Memberstack uses Stripe to process payments and for payouts, with earnings sent to the bank through Stripe. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Every plan lists social logins, Stripe payments, custom SSO, branded emails and email campaigns. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | Discount programs listed include 50% off for non-profits and a startup plan at $249 a month ($199 billed yearly) for companies that raised under $1M. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | | The product list on the page includes Stripe subscriptions, one-time payments and trials under payments and billing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.memberstack.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### Does Memberstack list trials? Its product list names trials under payments and billing, and every feature can be tried on a test site with no card. A card hold before a customer trial is not described. ### What do Memberstack plans cost? Basic is $29 a month, Professional $49, Business $99 and Established $499, with lower prices on yearly billing. ### What is the Memberstack transaction fee? It is 4% on Basic, 2% on Professional, 0.9% on Business and none on Established, plus Stripe processing fees. ### Do free members count toward the limit? Live free and paying members count toward the limit, while test mode members do not. ### Is it safe to run both? Both touch payments in Stripe, so check how each account connects before combining them. ## What we could not verify - Whether Memberstack can hold a card before a trial: trials are listed, but the mechanics are not. - Whose Stripe account owns the subscriptions: the page does not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/outseta Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Outseta vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Outseta works alongside TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Outseta bundles billing, accounts, a CRM, email and a help desk behind contact-based pricing, while TrialValid only does the card hold, trial and first charge, so a team may use either alone or both. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Outseta: Start is $37 a month billed yearly or $47 billed monthly for up to 1,000 contacts, plus a 2% transaction fee (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Outseta | | --- | --- | | What it is | An all-in-one platform for membership and SaaS businesses that combines Stripe payments and subscription billing, authentication, protected content, a CRM, email and a help desk, priced by contact count with a transaction fee. | | Who it suits | Founders of small SaaS products and communities who want billing, member data, email and support in one tool instead of several. | | Starting price | Start is $37 a month billed yearly or $47 billed monthly for up to 1,000 contacts, plus a 2% transaction fee | | Free tier | There is no free plan; every plan comes with a 14-day free trial that gives access to all features. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Outseta pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Start | $37 per month billed yearly, $47 per month billed monthly | Up to 1,000 contacts, 2% transaction fee | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Scale | $97 per month billed yearly, $127 per month billed monthly | Up to 10,000 contacts, 1% transaction fee | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Pro | $197 per month billed yearly, $247 per month billed monthly | Up to 25,000 contacts, 1% transaction fee | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Max | $697 per month billed yearly, $897 per month billed monthly | Up to 100,000 contacts, no transaction fee | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | The Outseta prices above come from www.outseta.com, read on 2026-10-19. Outseta can change them at any time. ## What Outseta is An all-in-one platform for membership and SaaS businesses that combines Stripe payments and subscription billing, authentication, protected content, a CRM, email and a help desk, priced by contact count with a transaction fee. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Outseta | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Stripe payments and subscription billing | different approach | yes | [source](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | CRM, email campaigns and a help desk in the same tool | no | yes | [source](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Outseta overlap Outseta replaces many separate tools with one platform where Stripe payments sit beside authentication, a CRM, email and a help desk. TrialValid has one job: hold the card before a trial, create the subscription in your Stripe account and capture when the trial ends, retrying if needed. Teams that move wholesale to Outseta may not need a separate trial step, while teams that keep their own Stripe setup could add TrialValid to it. ## When to pick which ### Pick Outseta when - You prefer one subscription over several separate tools for billing, member data, email and support. - Contact-count pricing with unlimited team seats suits you. - A transaction fee that falls from 2% on Start to none on Max is attractive. ### Pick TrialValid when - Your billing is already in your own Stripe account and only the trial and the first charge are missing. - You want the agreement text stored per signup with the time and the terms version. - You want capture before the trial ends, with retries, without migrating member data to a new platform. - You want first-touch attribution tied to each trial signup. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Every plan comes with a 14-day free trial that gives full access to the CRM, billing, email marketing, help desk and authentication. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Start costs $37 a month on yearly billing and $47 on monthly billing, and covers up to 1,000 contacts. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Scale costs $97 a month on yearly billing and $127 monthly, with up to 10,000 contacts. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Pro costs $197 a month on yearly billing and $247 monthly, with up to 25,000 contacts. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Max costs $697 a month on yearly billing and $897 monthly, with up to 100,000 contacts and no transaction fee. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The transaction fee is 2% on Start and 1% on Scale and Pro, charged on top of Stripe fees. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Yearly billing is advertised as saving about 25 percent. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | All plans list unlimited team seats, individual and group memberships, Stripe payments, authentication, protected content, a CRM, email, a help desk and webhooks. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | All plans list MCP and API access, human support and free data migrations. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The page says there are no per-user fees and that anyone you invite to your account costs nothing extra. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The page says there is no contract or long-term commitment and that monthly or annual plans can be cancelled at any time. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The page compares its price with a stack of separate tools and shows a total of $153 a month for five bills against $37 a month plus 2% for Outseta. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | ## Questions ### Does Outseta have a trial? Every plan comes with a 14-day free trial of all features. That is a trial of Outseta itself, and a card hold before trials of your own customers is not described. ### What does Outseta cost? Start is $37 a month on yearly billing or $47 monthly for up to 1,000 contacts, then Scale is $97, Pro $197 and Max $697 on yearly billing. ### What is the Outseta transaction fee? The page lists 2% on Start and 1% on Scale and Pro, with none on Max, on top of Stripe fees. ### Does Outseta charge per user? No. The page says there are no per-user fees and that invited team members cost nothing extra. ### Can Outseta and TrialValid be combined? They overlap at billing, so work out how the Stripe setup would fit together first. ## What we could not verify - Whether Outseta can hold a card before a trial starts: the pricing page does not describe trial mechanics for your customers. - Whose Stripe account the subscriptions live in: the page does not say. - What counts as a contact for the limit: the page lists limits but not the definition. - The contact count behind Max beyond 100,000: the page does not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/recurly Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Recurly vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Recurly compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19. > Recurly is a subscription billing platform with a published Starter price and volume-based higher tiers, while TrialValid only covers the card hold, the trial and the first charge in your own Stripe account. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Recurly: Starter: $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included at no charge (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Recurly | | --- | --- | | What it is | A subscription billing platform for direct-to-consumer and recurring revenue businesses, with churn-prevention tools, dunning campaigns, payment gateways, a Shopify product and separate engagement and revenue recognition products. | | Who it suits | Subscription businesses that want a billing system with dunning, churn tools and multiple payment gateways, from early stage to high volume. | | Starting price | Starter: $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included at no charge | | Free tier | There is no free plan, but the page offers a 90-day free trial of Starter and a free sandbox for All-Access. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Recurly pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $249 per month + 0.9% of billing volume | The first $40K of billings each month are included at no charge; offered with a 90-day free trial | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access | As low as under 1% of billing volume, billed annually | Aimed at a $1M billing volume minimum; request pricing details | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access for Shopify | As low as under 1% of billing volume, billed annually | Request pricing details; recurring revenue features inside a Shopify store | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | Engage | As low as $1,600 per month, billed annually | Based on prompt volume and capability needs | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | RevRec | As low as $850 per month, billed annually | Based on billing volume | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | The Recurly prices above come from recurly.com, read on 2026-10-19. Recurly can change them at any time. ## What Recurly is A subscription billing platform for direct-to-consumer and recurring revenue businesses, with churn-prevention tools, dunning campaigns, payment gateways, a Shopify product and separate engagement and revenue recognition products. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Recurly | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | Cancel-save flows and surveys | no | yes | [source](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | ## Where TrialValid and Recurly overlap Recurly runs the billing of a subscription, including invoices, dunning and gateways, and TrialValid only manages the stretch from card hold to first charge. They overlap on payment recovery in a loose way: Recurly lists dunning campaigns, while TrialValid retries the capture before the trial ends and leaves later failures to Stripe. A business that keeps billing in Recurly would use its own trial tools; a business that bills in Stripe would use TrialValid on top. ## When to pick which ### Pick Recurly when - You want a billing platform that includes dunning campaigns and multiple payment gateways. - You run a Shopify store and want subscription features inside it. - You want a published entry price of $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume with a 90-day trial. ### Pick TrialValid when - Billing already happens in Stripe and you want a card held at sign-up, then captured before the trial closes. - You prefer a flat plan tied to connected MRR over a percentage of billing volume. - You want each signup to keep the wording shown to the buyer along with time, IP and terms version. - You want trials tagged with first-touch attribution and a Slack alert when a high-value one starts. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Starter costs $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | The first $40K of billings each month are included at no charge on Starter. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | The Starter plan is offered with a 90-day free trial. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | Starter lists automated global subscription billing, static churn-prevention tools, one dunning campaign, 10+ payment methods and 20+ payment gateways. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access is described as ready for scale with a $1M billing volume minimum and a rate as low as under 1% of billing volume billed annually. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access adds multiple dunning campaigns, intelligent churn-prevention tools, payments orchestration across gateways, multicurrency and single sign-on. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access offers a free sandbox start button and a request-pricing-details button. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | All-Access for Shopify lists cancel-save flows and surveys, prepaid and gift subscriptions and a hosted subscriber portal with passwordless login. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | Engage is priced from $1,600 per month billed annually and lists cancel-save, upsell and cross-sell capabilities with A/B testing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | RevRec is priced from $850 per month billed annually and lists multi-GAAP compliance and an immutable audit trail. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | | The page offers a conversation to build bundled and custom pricing around your volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) | ## Questions ### How much does Recurly cost? Starter is $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included. Higher tiers are quoted. ### Does Recurly have a free trial? The page offers a 90-day free trial of Starter and a free sandbox for All-Access. ### Does Recurly include dunning? Starter lists one dunning campaign and All-Access lists multiple dunning campaigns. ### What is the volume minimum for All-Access? The page describes All-Access as aimed at a $1M billing volume minimum. ### Can TrialValid replace Recurly? No. TrialValid does not run invoicing or dunning campaigns. It handles the card hold, trial and first charge in your Stripe account. ## What we could not verify - Whether Recurly can hold a card at sign-up before a trial begins: not described on the pricing page. - Rates for All-Access, All-Access for Shopify and Engage beyond the stated floor: the page says to request details. - Whether Recurly can run trials on top of your own Stripe account: the page does not say. - Whether Recurly stores authorization wording, descriptor rules or signup attribution: nothing on the page covers it. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-billing Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Stripe Billing vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Stripe Billing compared with TrialValid: 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go, or from $620 per month on an annual contract paid monthly. Checked 2026-10-19. > Stripe Billing is the subscription engine inside a Stripe account, and TrialValid runs on top of it by placing the card hold and the trial subscription in that same account. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Stripe Billing: 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go, or from $620 per month on an annual contract paid monthly (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Stripe Billing | | --- | --- | | What it is | Stripe's subscription billing product: recurring billing, invoicing, automatic reminders, Smart Retries, recovery automations, a customer portal, quotes and subscription schedules, with usage-based billing handled by a related Stripe product. | | Who it suits | Businesses that already take payments with Stripe and want Stripe to run subscriptions, invoices and failed-payment recovery. | | Starting price | 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go, or from $620 per month on an annual contract paid monthly | | Free tier | The page lists no free plan; the pay-as-you-go option has no recurring fee and charges only on Billing volume. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Stripe Billing pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Pay as you go | 0.7% of Billing volume | No recurring fee; counts Billing transactions processed on and off Stripe and excludes one-off invoices | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Pay monthly, tier 1 | $620 per month | Billing volume up to $100,000 per month, one-year contract, 0.67% on extra volume | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Pay monthly, tier 2 | $1,500 per month | Billing volume up to $250,000 per month, one-year contract, 0.67% on extra volume | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Pay monthly, tier 3 | $2,950 per month | Billing volume up to $500,000 per month, one-year contract, 0.67% on extra volume | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Pay monthly, tier 4 | $5,750 per month | Billing volume up to $1,000,000 per month, one-year contract, 0.67% on extra volume | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Custom | Contact sales | Billing volume above $1,000,000 per month or unusual business models | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | The Stripe Billing prices above come from stripe.com, read on 2026-10-19. Stripe Billing can change them at any time. ## What Stripe Billing is Stripe's subscription billing product: recurring billing, invoicing, automatic reminders, Smart Retries, recovery automations, a customer portal, quotes and subscription schedules, with usage-based billing handled by a related Stripe product. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Stripe Billing | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | yes | [source](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | different approach | [source](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Smart Retries of failed payments | different approach | yes | [source](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Free trial that starts without a card | no | yes | [source](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | ## Where TrialValid and Stripe Billing overlap The two are layers of one setup rather than rivals. TrialValid asks the buyer for a card, holds the plan price, starts a trial subscription inside your Stripe account and captures shortly before the trial ends. After that, the subscription is an ordinary Stripe Billing subscription, so invoices, Smart Retries, the customer portal and recovery automations are Stripe's. If you prefer Stripe's own trial tools alone, you can start trials with or without a card and let Stripe charge at trial end. ## When to pick which ### Pick Stripe Billing when - You want subscriptions, invoices, reminders and retries run by the same company that processes your cards. - You are comfortable collecting the card yourself and letting Stripe charge the first invoice at trial end. - You want trials that start with no card at all, which Stripe's trial settings support. - You need usage-based billing, handled by a related Stripe product. ### Pick TrialValid when - You want a card checked with a hold before any trial begins, so a card that cannot be held never starts a trial. - You want the buyer wording recorded for each signup with time, IP and terms version. - You want first-touch attribution and a Slack alert for high-value trials tied to each signup. - You want the work done in your own Stripe account without handing TrialValid your money flow. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Pay as you go charges 0.7% of Billing volume with no recurring fees, and the page says it suits low or unpredictable volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | The pay-monthly plans are annual subscriptions billed monthly at $620, $1,500, $2,950 and $5,750, each covering a stated volume ceiling. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Volume above a pay-monthly tier is billed at 0.67%, and volume over $1,000,000 a month gets custom pricing through sales. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Recurring subscriptions, automatic reminders for missed or overdue payments, Smart Retries and a customer portal are all marked as included in Billing pricing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Smart Retries use machine learning to choose when to retry a failed payment. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Recovery and retention automations are included, with up to three automations such as custom retry policies per customer segment. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | A custom domain for the customer portal costs $10 per month extra. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | Card payments through Stripe Payments are priced separately at 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful charge, and ACH direct debit at 0.8% with a $5.00 cap. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/billing/pricing) | | A free trial can start without a payment method; the subscription then cancels, pauses or invoices when the trial ends, depending on a setting. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | | The free-trial guide warns that trials without a payment method can let spammers create many fake customers and subscriptions. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | | When a trial ends, Stripe generates an invoice and tries to charge it about an hour later. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials) | | Stripe now recommends trial offers over the older trial_end approach, and trial offers need a recent API version and flexible billing mode. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials) | | A paid trial under trial offers requires an immediate successful payment to begin. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials) | ## Questions ### Do I still need Stripe Billing if I use TrialValid? Yes. TrialValid creates the trial subscription in your own Stripe account, so the subscription is billed by Stripe from then on. ### How much does Stripe Billing cost? The pricing page shows 0.7% of Billing volume on pay as you go, or monthly plans from $620 with 0.67% on extra volume. Card payments are priced separately at 2.9% plus 30 cents. ### Can Stripe run a trial without a card? Yes. The free-trial guide describes starting a trial with no payment method and choosing whether the subscription cancels, pauses or invoices at the end. ### Does Stripe Billing retry failed payments? The pricing page lists Smart Retries and recovery automations as included in Billing pricing. ### Does Stripe warn about trial abuse? The free-trial guide notes that trials without a payment method can attract spammers who create fake customers and subscriptions. ### Does the 0.7% fee apply to card fees too? No. The page prices card payments separately from Billing volume. ## What we could not verify - Whether any Stripe page describes an authorization hold taken before a trial begins: the pages did not mention one. - What each Smart Retries attempt schedule looks like: the pricing page names the feature without a schedule. - How agreement records or statement descriptors are handled for trials: neither cited page covers them. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/stripe-radar Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Stripe Radar vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Stripe Radar compared with TrialValid: Radar Standard starts at $10 per month, or $0.05 per screened transaction on pay as you go. Checked 2026-10-19. > Stripe Radar scores and screens payments and, on its top tier, abuse such as free-trial abuse, while TrialValid takes a card hold that deters throwaway signups without scoring anyone. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Stripe Radar: Radar Standard starts at $10 per month, or $0.05 per screened transaction on pay as you go (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Stripe Radar | | --- | --- | | What it is | Stripe's fraud prevention product, sold in Standard, Plus and Pro tiers for businesses and a parallel set for platforms, plus a lighter Radar Lite included with standard Stripe payments pricing. | | Who it suits | Businesses that take payments on Stripe and want machine-learning fraud screening, custom rules, manual review and, on Pro, abuse signals. | | Starting price | Radar Standard starts at $10 per month, or $0.05 per screened transaction on pay as you go | | Free tier | Radar Lite adds AI-based card fraud prevention and fraud alerts at no extra charge for businesses on standard Stripe payments pricing. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Stripe Radar pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Radar Lite | No additional charge | For businesses on standard payments pricing | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Standard (for your business) | Starting at $10 per month | Includes 200 transactions, then $0.05 per additional screened transaction; or pay as you go at $0.05 per screened transaction with no recurring fee | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Plus (for your business) | Starting at $14 per month | Or pay as you go | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Pro (for your business) | Starting at $20 per month | Or pay as you go | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Standard (platforms and marketplaces) | Starting at $20 per month | Or pay as you go | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Plus (platforms and marketplaces) | Starting at $44 per month | Or pay as you go | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Pro (platforms and marketplaces) | Starting at $70 per month | Or pay as you go | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Enterprise | Contact sales | Custom pricing and tailored recommendations | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | The Stripe Radar prices above come from stripe.com, read on 2026-10-19. Stripe Radar can change them at any time. ## What Stripe Radar is Stripe's fraud prevention product, sold in Standard, Plus and Pro tiers for businesses and a parallel set for platforms, plus a lighter Radar Lite included with standard Stripe payments pricing. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Stripe Radar | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | Automatic recovery emails after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | | Free-trial abuse signal | different approach | yes | [source](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Risk scores, custom rules and manual review of payments | no | yes | [source](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | ## Where TrialValid and Stripe Radar overlap Both can reduce junk trials, but at different points. Radar looks at payments and, on Pro, at abuse patterns such as free-trial abuse, and lets you write rules. TrialValid asks for a card up front and places a hold before the trial begins, which makes a throwaway signup harder to complete but does not detect fraud or score anyone. A seller can use both: Radar screening the payments that reach Stripe, TrialValid deciding whether a trial starts at all. ## When to pick which ### Pick Stripe Radar when - You need risk scores, custom rules with backtesting or manual review of payments. - You want abuse signals such as free-trial, bot, multi-account or account-sharing signals. - You run a platform or marketplace and want the platform tiers. ### Pick TrialValid when - You want every trial to begin with a card that was successfully held. - You want the trial subscription and the capture to run in your own Stripe account. - You want the buyer wording stored per signup with time, IP and terms version. - You want a hold-based deterrent rather than a scoring product. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Radar Standard lists default rules, fraud analytics, card testing prevention, fraud alerts and default allowlists and blocklists. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Plus adds risk scores from 0 to 99, custom rules with backtesting, manual reviews, risk preferences and adaptive 3D Secure. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Plus also lists Smart Refunds, an assistant, advanced fraud analytics and agentic insights. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Pro adds dynamic risk thresholds on top of the Plus features. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | The abuse prevention section lists free trial, bot, multi-account, account sharing and pay-as-you-go signals, all only on Radar Pro. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | For a business, Standard starts at $10 per month, Plus at $14 and Pro at $20, each also available pay as you go. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | For platforms and marketplaces, the starting prices are $20, $44 and $70 per month for Standard, Plus and Pro. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | On pay as you go, Radar Standard for a business is $0.05 per screened transaction with no recurring fee; the monthly subscription at $10 includes 200 transactions and then charges $0.05 per additional screened transaction. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | Radar Lite gives AI-based prevention for card payments and card testing, plus fraud alerts, at no additional charge on standard payments pricing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | An enterprise route offers custom pricing and access to risk signals, including for payments not processed on Stripe. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | | The tiers include signals about fraudulent disputes and early fraud warnings from the card networks. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) | ## Questions ### Does a card hold stop fraud? No. A hold deters throwaway signups because a card must be real and have room for the plan price, but it does not detect or score fraud. Radar is built for scoring. ### Which Radar tier covers free-trial abuse? The pricing page lists a free trial signal only under Radar Pro. ### How much does Radar cost? For a business, Standard starts at $10 per month, Plus at $14 and Pro at $20, or pay as you go. Platforms start at $20, $44 and $70. ### Can I use Radar and TrialValid together? Yes. Radar screens payments that reach Stripe, while TrialValid decides whether a trial begins. ### Is there a free option? The page lists Radar Lite at no additional charge for businesses on standard payments pricing. ## What we could not verify - What the units are for the per-month starting prices: the page states them without further definition. - How Radar treats a card that was held but never charged: the pricing page does not say. - Which of the listed signals work on payments not processed on Stripe beyond the enterprise statement. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/comparison/zuora Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Zuora vs TrialValid: pricing and fit Zuora compared with TrialValid: Contact sales: no price is printed on the pages. Checked 2026-10-19. > Zuora is an enterprise quote-to-cash platform that prints no price and sells through its sales team, while TrialValid publishes a flat plan and covers only the card hold, the trial and the first charge. (2026-10-19) ## What each one costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Zuora: Contact sales: no price is printed on the pages (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below). | At a glance | Zuora | | --- | --- | | What it is | A quote-to-cash and subscription management platform covering pricing and packaging, usage monetization, subscriber management, collections and revenue recognition. | | Who it suits | Finance and pricing teams at larger companies that need one system for quoting, billing, usage and revenue. | | Starting price | Contact sales: no price is printed on the pages | | Free tier | No free tier appears on the pages; the calls to action are watching a demo or speaking to an expert. | | Date checked | 2026-10-19 | ## Zuora pricing | Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | All products | Contact sales | The home page and the pricing and packaging page print no price and offer a demo or a call with an expert | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/) | The Zuora prices above come from www.zuora.com, read on 2026-10-19. Zuora can change them at any time. ## What Zuora is A quote-to-cash and subscription management platform covering pricing and packaging, usage monetization, subscriber management, collections and revenue recognition. ## Feature comparison | Capability | TrialValid | Zuora | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none | | Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none | | Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none | | Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none | | Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none | | First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none | | Free trials as a promotion type | yes | yes | [source](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | not stated | none | ## Where TrialValid and Zuora overlap The two overlap only at the word trial. Zuora lists free trials among the promotions a pricing team can configure and uses entitlements to manage them. TrialValid is built for one job: put a hold on the buyer card, start the trial in your Stripe account and capture before the first invoice. Zuora spans quoting, usage rating and revenue recognition, which TrialValid does not touch. ## When to pick which ### Pick Zuora when - You need quoting, usage rating, collections and revenue recognition in one system. - Your pricing involves prepaid drawdown, minimum commitments or multi-attribute rules. - You are comfortable with a sales-led process and no printed price. ### Pick TrialValid when - You bill in your own Stripe account and only need the trial conversion step. - You want a published flat plan based on connected MRR. - You want a card held at sign-up and captured shortly before the trial ends, with retries. - You want the exact agreement text stored for every signup. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | The zuora.com pricing address redirected to a page about pricing and packaging for Zuora customers, and that page prints no Zuora price. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | The home page positions Zuora as a quote-to-cash platform and offers a demo and a conversation with an expert as the main calls to action. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/) | | The home page lists five solution areas: quote-to-cash, usage monetization, flexible pricing, subscriber management and AR automation. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/) | | The pricing page describes a single monetization catalog that feeds quoting, e-commerce, self-service and partner portals. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Core pricing methods listed include flat fee, per unit, tiered and volume, with usage options such as overage and high-water mark. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Prepaid with drawdown and minimum commitment with true-up are listed among the delivery pricing methods. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Billing can run monthly, annually or on custom schedules, in advance or in arrears, and proration rules handle mid-cycle changes. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Promotions can include percentage or fixed discounts, free trials and promo codes, with eligibility by segment or channel and automatic end dates. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Features and entitlements are described as a way to gate access by feature, unlock upsells and manage trials. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | Global price lists are described as supporting multi-currency pricing and reporting. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | | The pricing page promotes an AI monetization simulator for testing how pricing affects revenue. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://www.zuora.com/solutions/intelligent-pricing-and-packaging/) | ## Questions ### How much does Zuora cost? The pages print no price. The calls to action are a demo and a conversation with an expert. ### Does Zuora support free trials? The pricing and packaging page lists free trials among its promotions and mentions managing trials through entitlements. ### Does Zuora hold a card at sign-up? The pages do not describe card holds. ### What does Zuora cover? Its home page lists quote-to-cash, usage monetization, pricing and packaging, subscriber management and AR automation. ### Can TrialValid replace Zuora? No. TrialValid has no quoting, usage rating or revenue recognition. It handles a card hold, a trial and a first charge in Stripe. ## What we could not verify - Any Zuora price: no pricing table was printed on the pages. - Whether Zuora can place a card hold at sign-up: the pages do not describe it. - Whether Zuora works on top of a seller Stripe account for trial charges: not stated. - Whether Zuora recovers failed charges automatically: the pages do not say. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/switch-from/1capture Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Switch from 1Capture to TrialValid: moves and changes Move card-backed trials from 1Capture to TrialValid: what carries over, the setup steps and how plans differ. Checked 2026-10-23. > A move from 1Capture to TrialValid keeps your Stripe records where they are and rebuilds pages, variants, alerts and domain setup (2026-10-23). ## What it costs TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1. Above that the price follows your revenue band: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. 1Capture's pricing page lists $0 under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue ([1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing)) and one flat monthly price per band above it, from $95 ([1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing)). The plan table under What changes sets every band side by side. ## What moves over Both products run card-backed free trials inside your own Stripe account, so the move is a rebuild of the trial layer and not a transfer of customer data. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) Each row pairs something you run in 1Capture with where it lives in TrialValid. | In 1Capture | In TrialValid | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Stripe connection | Connect the same Stripe account with Stripe Connect OAuth in TrialValid. The connection can be revoked at any time. See [getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/integrations) | | Trial page built from a Stripe product | Create a trial page from one of your Stripe prices, set the trial length and write the page text. See [trial pages](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Page variants on an even traffic split | Add variants to the page. Traffic splits evenly between active variants, and a model can write a new variant that you review before it goes live. See [trial pages](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Your own domain | Serve pages from your own domain. See [trial pages](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Source data on each signup | First-touch UTM parameters, the referrer and the gclid and fbclid click ids are attached to each signup, with visits, signups, conversions and revenue per variant. See [attribution](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Slack notifications | Add a Slack incoming-webhook URL. Alerts cover high-value trials, failed captures, lost holds and disputes. See [alerts](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Card hold and capture before the trial ends | The same flow: a hold at signup, a trial subscription in your Stripe account and a capture shortly before the trial ends. The capture schedule and retries are in the [trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Customers, payments and subscriptions | These stay in your Stripe account, and TrialValid works in that same account. Nothing in the Stripe records needs a transfer. See [getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md). | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | ## What does not carry over directly - Google Analytics events: 1Capture can send trial-page events to your own Google Analytics property ([1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works)). TrialValid records first-touch attribution and per-variant numbers in its own reports, and its pages describe no Google Analytics feed. - Short links: 1Capture puts a page on a shared short-link domain first ([1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works)). TrialValid pages are served from your own domain, so plan the domain before you switch. - Reporting history: the numbers collected in 1Capture stay in 1Capture. Copy the figures you want to keep before you close the account, since the page lists an analytics export only among API features still in development ([1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/docs/api)). ## How long it takes TrialValid setup is 5 steps in the [getting started guide](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md), and the checklist below adds the work of rebuilding what you already run. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) Your own time depends on how many pages and variants you rebuild. Starter begins with a 14-day trial for $1, so you can run a first trial page before you choose a plan. ## Switching checklist 1. List what you run today in 1Capture: pages and their variants, the domain each page uses, the Slack channel for alerts, and the figures you want to keep. 2. Connect your Stripe account in TrialValid. Stripe Connect OAuth reads your active subscriptions to place you on a plan; Starter is the plan for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue. 3. Create a trial page for each Stripe price you sell, with the same trial length you use now. 4. Recreate the variants worth keeping, or have a model write new ones and review them. 5. Add your Slack webhook and set the trial value that should trigger an alert. 6. Point your domain at the new page, or serve it from a domain you already own. 7. Send new signups to the TrialValid page. Trials that already started in 1Capture are subscriptions in your Stripe account, so let them run to the end of their trial under the old setup. 8. Pick your plan: Starter starts online, and Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a booked call. See [pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md). ## What changes Prices below are read from our plan catalog and from 1Capture's pricing page. Both are shown by monthly recurring revenue band. | TrialValid plan | Connected-account MRR | TrialValid price | 1Capture price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $0 up to $10,000 | $29 per month | $0 per month | | Growth | $10,000 up to $50,000 | $95 per month | $95 per month | | Scale | $50,000 up to $150,000 | $295 per month | $295 per month | | Pro | $150,000 up to $250,000 | $595 per month | $595 per month | | Max | $250,000 up to $1,000,000 | $995 per month | $995 per month | | Enterprise | $1,000,000 and above | from $1,995 a month, arranged on a call | $1,995 per month | | Area | TrialValid | 1Capture | | --- | --- | --- | | First plan | Starter at $29 per month, starting with a 14-day trial for $1 | A $0 band under $10K of monthly recurring revenue, no card at signup. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Starting a larger plan | Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a booked onboarding call, then you pay. Enterprise is arranged on a call: [book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md). | A booked 30 minute onboarding session, then payment. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | How the plan is chosen | From the monthly recurring revenue of the connected Stripe account, read again about every 7 days when you view your plan. How it is counted is in [plans and MRR](https://trialvalid.com/docs/plans-and-mrr.md). | From the connected Stripe account, rechecked every week. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Refunds | A first paid month can be refunded within 7 days. Ask at hello@trialvalid.com and a person reviews the request. | Money back during the opening month of a paid plan when the buyer sees no meaningful improvement. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Cancelling | Monthly billing with no contract. | No contract and no cancellation fee on a paid plan. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Buyer cancels mid-trial | The subscription is canceled and the hold released. See the [trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md). | Nothing is collected. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Where pages live | Your own domain. | A shared short link first, then your domain. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | API | An HTTP API for pages, variants, trials, domains and alerts. See the [API overview](https://trialvalid.com/docs/api.md). | Pricing and article data as JSON today. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/docs/api) | ### Do my customers and subscriptions need to move? No. Your customer, payment and subscription records never leave Stripe, and TrialValid works against that same account. [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) ### What happens to trials that are already running? They are subscriptions in your Stripe account. TrialValid's pages describe trials it starts itself and say nothing about taking over a hold placed by another product, so let running trials finish and send new signups to the new page. ### What does TrialValid cost compared with 1Capture? The table above sets the two side by side. TrialValid starts at $29 per month with a 14-day trial for $1, and larger plans follow your revenue band. ### Can I keep my own domain? Yes. Pages can be served from your own domain. See [trial pages](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md). ### Can I talk to someone before I switch? Yes. [Book a call](https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call.md), or write to hello@trialvalid.com. ## What we could not verify - Whether a 1Capture dashboard can export your page history: the pages read do not say. - How 1Capture handles a hold that is still open when an account is closed: the pages read do not say. - How 1Capture counts monthly recurring revenue, beyond reading it from the connected Stripe account. ## Sources | Statement about 1Capture | Read on | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | 1Capture connects to Stripe through Stripe's own OAuth 2.0 sign-in, with no API keys to manage. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/integrations) | | A trial page starts from a Stripe product that you pick, and you can edit the page, set the trial length and preview it before publishing. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Page variants are drafted by AI on request, and visitors are divided equally between them as they test. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | A trial page goes live on a 1c.to link straight away, and you can point your own domain at it later. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | UTM parameters, the referrer and click ids are recorded on every trial signup. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Slack is a listed integration, and instant Slack notifications are part of the setup. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | At signup the card is checked and a hold for the subscription amount is placed. The hold is captured 2 hours before the trial ends, and a failed capture is retried up to 10 times. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | Customer, payment and subscription records are kept inside the Stripe account you already own. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Trial-page events can also be sent to your own Google Analytics property. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | The page describes its REST API, webhooks and SDKs as in development, lists an analytics export among them, and offers only pricing and article data as JSON today. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/docs/api) | | Under $10K of monthly recurring revenue every feature is available at $0, and signing up never asks for a card. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Above $10K of monthly recurring revenue there is one flat monthly price per revenue band, and each band has the same features. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | A paid plan starts with a booked 30 minute onboarding session, and payment follows the booking. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | Monthly recurring revenue is read from the connected Stripe account and rechecked every week, so the plan follows the band the business is in. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | The page promises money back during the opening month of a paid plan if the buyer sees no meaningful improvement. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | A paid plan has no contract and no cancellation fee. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/pricing) | | A buyer can cancel during the trial, and nothing is collected if they do. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | | The setup is three steps (connect Stripe, create the trial page, publish it) and the page gives about five minutes for the whole of it. | 2026-10-23 | [1Capture page](https://www.1capture.io/how-it-works) | > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Getting started](https://trialvalid.com/docs/getting-started.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/what-is-conversion-rate-optimization Last updated: 2026-10-19 # What is conversion rate optimization? A plain explanation of CRO for trial businesses: the four rates to track, how to rank fixes by customers gained, and how to test without noise. > Conversion rate optimization is the habit of measuring each step between a visitor and a paying customer, finding the step that loses the most people, and changing one thing at a time while counting results. For a free trial business that means four separate rates, and tests judged on paid customers rather than sign-ups. ## What conversion rate optimization means Conversion rate optimization, usually shortened to CRO, is described by [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_rate_optimization) as the systematic process of increasing the percentage of users or website visitors who complete a desired action, such as buying a product, subscribing to a service or submitting contact details. The word that carries the weight is systematic. A redesign is not CRO, and neither is a color change someone liked. CRO is a loop: measure a step, form a guess about why people leave it, change one thing, measure again, and keep the result only if the numbers say so. The same article traces the practice to e-commerce teams after the dot-com bust, when companies started spending more carefully on traffic and wanted the visitors they already had to do more. Testing tools that let marketers show two versions of a page to different visitors arrived around 2004, and a free tool from Google followed in 2007. Google later retired its successor, Optimize, in September 2023. The tools came and went; the loop did not change. Wikipedia also notes two schools of thought. One leans on testing as the way to find what works. The other spends most of its effort before any test, learning who the audience is and what they need, and only then tests. A software seller with a few hundred trials a month should lean on the second school, because the traffic needed to test your way to every answer is rarely there. Research tells you which two or three ideas deserve a test at all. ## The formula, and the denominator problem The formula is one line: conversions divided by the number of people who had the chance to convert. Wikipedia gives the textbook case of 200 visitors in a day and 30 newsletter sign-ups, which is a 15% rate. The trouble is never the arithmetic. It is the choice of denominator. Divide paying customers by site visitors and you get a tiny number; divide the same customers by trials and you get a number ten times larger. Both are correct, and they answer different questions. A trial business has at least four rates, and a useful CRO program gives each one its own name, its own denominator and its own time window. | Rate | Counts | Out of | The question it answers | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Visitor to trial | Trials started | Distinct visitors to the trial page | Does the page make starting feel worth it? | | Form completion | Trials that finished sign-up | People who began the form | Does the sign-up step, card field included, stop people? | | Trial to paid | Trials that became paying customers | Trials that started in the same cohort | Did the trial deliver enough value to keep? | | Month 2 retention | Customers still paying after the first renewal | Customers who paid the first invoice | Were they the right customers? | Time windows matter as much as denominators. [ChartMogul's 2026 conversion report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/) defines free-to-paid conversion as the portion of leads or free sign-ups that turn into paying customers inside six months. That is a long window, and it is one reason published benchmarks cannot be compared to a 14-day cohort without care. Whenever you quote a rate, say what it counts, what it is out of and how long you waited. ## A worked example with the arithmetic shown Example numbers, made up for illustration: a seller starts 400 trials in a month, 60 of them pay, and the plan costs $49.00 a month. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) gives a trial-to-paid rate of 15.0% and $2,940 of monthly recurring revenue from that cohort. Adding five percentage points would take the rate to 20.0%, which is 20 more paying customers, $980 of extra monthly revenue and $11,760 over twelve months. | Line | Value | | --- | --- | | Trials started | 400 | | Paying customers today | 60 | | Trial-to-paid rate | 15.0% | | Rate after +5 points | 20.0% | | Extra customers | 20 | | Extra MRR | $980 | Notice the phrase percentage points. Moving from 15% to 20% is five points, but it is a one-third increase in paying customers. People mix the two constantly, and a team that reports "we improved conversion by 5%" may mean either. Write points when you mean the arithmetic difference between two rates and percent when you mean growth relative to the old number. ## Choosing what to fix first The most common CRO error is working on the step that is easiest to change rather than the one that matters most. Size every candidate in customers per month, not in percent. The cheapest way to do that is to put the same funnel through two different improvements and compare the extra customers each would produce. Take a funnel with 10,000 visitors a month, a 4% visitor-to-trial rate and a 15% trial-to-paid rate. That is 400 trials and 60 paying customers. | Lever | Change | Trials after | Paying customers after | Extra customers | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Trial page | Visitor to trial up 1 point (4% to 5%) | 500 | 75 | +15 | | Trial experience | Trial to paid up 5 points (15% to 20%) | 400 | 80 | +20 | Both levers are plausible, and the second wins on arithmetic here because the trial-to-paid step has fewer people but each point of it is worth more. That ranking can flip with different numbers, which is exactly why you calculate it each time. Then divide by effort. A test that needs an engineer for a month and a test that needs an afternoon do not deserve equal rank even if they promise the same lift. ## Research before you test With a few hundred trials a month you cannot test your way to insight, so collect the evidence that costs nothing first. Each of the following takes less than a day and tells you which hypothesis is worth a test. - Read every support message and cancellation reason from the last two months and sort them into a short list of themes. Count the themes. - Watch ten recordings of trials that did not pay and ten of trials that did. Write down the first action the paying group took that the other group skipped. - Ask each person who cancels one question, with a free-text answer, in the cancellation flow itself. - Walk through your own sign-up on a phone, on a slow connection, with a card from a different country. Note every moment of doubt. - List every claim on your trial page and ask whether a stranger could verify it in under a minute. The output of research is not a to-do list. It is a ranked list of hypotheses written in a fixed form: "We believe that changing X for visitors of type Y will move rate Z because of evidence E." A hypothesis without evidence is a hunch, and a hunch is the most expensive thing to test. ## Testing without fooling yourself Wikipedia points out that statistical significance is what tells you a result is not just chance. You do not need a statistics degree to respect that idea, only a feel for how noisy small counts are. A rate measured on n people carries a standard error of roughly the square root of p times (1 minus p) divided by n. Here is that figure for a trial-to-paid rate near 15%, with the range inside which the true rate probably sits (two standard errors either side). | Trials measured | Standard error | Likely range for a measured 15% | | --- | --- | --- | | 100 | 3.6 points | 7.9% to 22.1% | | 400 | 1.8 points | 11.4% to 18.6% | | 1,600 | 0.9 points | 13.2% to 16.8% | | 6,400 | 0.4 points | 14.1% to 15.9% | At 400 trials the range is about 11.4% to 18.6%, so a single month of 400 trials cannot reliably tell 15% from 18%. A five-point improvement (from 15% to 20%) is about 2.8 standard errors on that sample, which is visible but not overwhelming. This is the practical reason to test big, clear changes first and to leave small copy tweaks until your volume is high enough to see them. - Judge a test on paid customers, not sign-ups. A variant can lift sign-ups while the extra people never pay. - Let every cohort finish its whole trial before you read it. A 14-day trial started today reports its answer in two weeks. - Change one thing per test, or you will not know which change did the work. - Decide the sample size and the stopping date before you look. Stopping the moment a number looks good is how noise gets promoted to a finding. - Record every test, including the ones that lose, with the hypothesis and the counts. A log of losers keeps you from repeating them. ## Mistakes that waste a quarter - Optimizing the rate that is easy to measure, usually visitor to trial, while the money sits in trial to paid. - Comparing your rate to a published benchmark without matching the denominator and the time window. - Running several overlapping tests on the same visitors and attributing the result to the wrong one. - Treating a lift in a single week as permanent. Seasonality, a newsletter mention or a pricing change elsewhere can all move one week. - Skipping the retention rate. A change that gets more people to pay and cancel at the first renewal has only borrowed revenue from next month. - Calling a test finished because the dashboard shows a color, not because the intended sample arrived. ## A four-week routine you can repeat 1. Week one: write down the four rates with their denominators, pull the last three months of each, and mark the weakest step by customers lost, not by percent. 2. Week two: do the research list above for that step only and turn what you learn into three written hypotheses. Rank them by evidence divided by effort. 3. Week three: build the top hypothesis, set the sample size and the end date, and launch it to a random half of new trials. 4. Week four: wait. Use the time to write down what you will do under each outcome, win, lose or flat, so the decision is made before the data arrives. When the test ends, update the log, change the number in your funnel table and start again with the next weakest step. The [trial-to-paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) glossary page defines the number you will watch most, and TrialValid's [card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) describe one structural change to the trial step itself. ### Is CRO only about websites? No. The loop applies to any step where people either complete an action or do not: a sign-up form, an onboarding checklist, a cancellation flow, a reminder email. A website is where the practice began, and trial products have several such steps after the page. ### How much traffic do I need before testing is worthwhile? It depends on the rate and the size of the change you hope to detect. At 400 trials measured, a 15% rate carries a standard error near 1.8 points, so only large changes show up within a month. Below that volume, spend your effort on research and on big, clearly different changes. ### Should I measure sign-ups or paying customers? Paying customers, with the trial cohort as the denominator. Sign-ups are a useful early signal, but a variant that adds sign-ups and no payments has not improved the business. ### What is the difference between percent and percentage points? Going from 15% to 20% is a five percentage point change and a one-third increase. Use points for the arithmetic difference between two rates and percent for growth relative to the old figure. ### How do I compare my rate to a benchmark? Match three things first: what is counted, what it is out of and how long the window was. Then compare. The free trial benchmarks guide on this blog lists the denominators and window of the 2026 ChartMogul study. ### Where should a small team start? Start with the funnel table and the trial-to-paid step. It has the fewest people, the largest value per point and a clear owner, and the trial conversion rate calculator turns any proposed gain into customers and revenue. ## Sources - [Wikipedia, Conversion rate optimization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_rate_optimization), read 19 Oct 2026 - [ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026)](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/free-trial-conversion-benchmarks-2026 Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Free trial conversion benchmarks for 2026 What ChartMogul's 2026 study of 200 products found about trial conversion, with good and great ranges, the card required gap and its limits. > The best public number for 2026 is ChartMogul's study of 200 B2B software products: median free-to-paid conversion of 8%, and 30% for free trials that ask for a credit card up front. Both are survey estimates measured over a six month window, so use them as a range to place yourself in, not a target. ## What the study measured [The SaaS Conversion Report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/) comes from Kyle Poyar, working with ChartMogul and ProductLed, and was published on 4 February 2026. It analyzes a January 2026 survey of 200 software products. A typical respondent sits between 1 and 10 million dollars of annual recurring revenue, charges 50 to 249 dollars a month per customer and grows 25% to 50% a year. By product type, 55% describe themselves as mostly SaaS, 30% as a hybrid of AI and SaaS and 9% as AI-native. The survey asked respondents to estimate, to the best of their ability, what share of their leads or free sign-ups become paying customers within six months. Those answers are the free-to-paid rate quoted everywhere below. It is a self-reported estimate with a long window, which shapes how far the numbers can be pushed, and a later section returns to that. ## The headline numbers | Figure | Value | Source and date read | | --- | --- | --- | | Median free-to-paid conversion rate across 200 products | 8% | ChartMogul report, stored 18 Oct 2026 | | Free-to-paid conversion of trials that require a credit card | 30% | ChartMogul report, stored 18 Oct 2026 | | Products with a free trial as the main way in | 57% | ChartMogul report, stored 18 Oct 2026 | | Free trial products that require a card up front | 20% | ChartMogul report, stored 18 Oct 2026 | | Products whose trial lasts 14 days | 62% | ChartMogul report, stored 18 Oct 2026 | The report itself warns that very few products actually sit at its 8% median. A median describes the middle of a wide spread, and the spread is the more useful part of this study. ## How products start new customers The most common first experience is a plain free trial: 57% of the 200 products, more than twice the 26% that lead with freemium. The remainder splits between reverse trials, where a free plan gets temporary premium access (7%), interactive demos with sample data (7%) and paid trials with a special introductory price (4%). Among SaaS products specifically, 61% lead with a free trial. | Primary way in | Share of products | | --- | --- | | Free trial | 57% | | Freemium | 26% | | Reverse trial | 7% | | Interactive demo | 7% | | Paid trial | 4% | Trial lengths bunch together. The 14-day trial leads at 62% of products, with 7 days at 14% and 30 days at 14%. The study also finds that these are not purely self-serve: 80% of free trial products bring in a salesperson or similar contact once an enterprise-sized user begins a trial. ## What good and great look like The author separates GOOD from GREAT for each model, based on the spread of results in the sample. These are his labels, drawn from the survey, and they are the most practical part of the report because they give you two bars instead of one average. | Model | Good | Great | | --- | --- | --- | | Freemium, self-serve | 3% to 5% | 8% to 12% | | Freemium with an ungated product | 7% to 9% | not stated | | Free trial | 4% to 6% | 10% to 15% | | Reverse trial | 4% to 6% | 8% to 12% | | Free trial that requires a card | 25% to 35% | 50% to 60% | | AI-native and AI plus SaaS hybrids | 6% to 8% | 15% to 20% | The reverse trial row comes from a small sample, and the report says its difference from the plain trial is not statistically significant. Treat it as a hint. B2B-focused products also converted somewhat better than B2C or mixed ones in the data. ## The spread behind the median Among products with a free trial, one in five converts below 2.5%, about three in ten land from 2.5% up to 7.5%, and roughly 23% sit above 25%. The report describes a tenfold difference between the top fifth and the bottom fifth of self-serve products. Freemium looks different at the top end: one in four sit between 10% and 15%, and it is rare to see anything above 15%. Two readings follow. First, a single median hides the fact that two very different kinds of product are being averaged, and the card-required split below explains much of that. Second, being below the median says little by itself. A product with a low rate and a huge top of funnel can still out-earn a product with a high rate and a trickle of sign-ups. ## Card required or not Free trials with a credit card requirement converted at 30% in the study, which the report calls more than five times the rate of trials that do not require one. That gap is the headline, but the report immediately adds the counterweight: a card requirement can blunt sign-ups, so a higher rate on fewer people does not automatically mean more customers. To show this, it counts both steps for every 1,000 website visitors. | Model | Sign-ups per 1,000 visitors | Paying customers per 1,000 visitors | Visitor to paid | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Freemium | 90 | 5 | 0.50% | | Free trial, no card | 45 | 3.6 | 0.36% | | Ungated freemium | 70 | 5.6 | 0.56% | | Free trial, card required | 35 | 10.5 | 1.05% | The arithmetic is easy to verify. Plain free trials see 45 sign-ups, and 8% of 45 is 3.6 paying customers. Card-required trials see 35 sign-ups, and 30% of 35 is 10.5. Fewer people start the card-required trial, yet in this sample about three times as many end up paying. The report's conclusion is not to copy either model blindly: pick the one that fits whether you want more people using the product or more people buying it. It also notes that for serious products, or ones touching sensitive information, buyers may expect to be asked for a card. How the card is used, and when, is explained in TrialValid's guide to [card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md). ## Reminders and trust around the card The report points to one behavior that goes with card-first trials done well: telling people plainly when and how they can cancel. It cites a design-software company that promises a reminder seven days before a trial of its paid plan ends. According to the report, businesses that skip this kind of transparency risk fewer trial sign-ups, weaker retention in months one to three and more refund requests from people who forgot to cancel. Those are the author's observations rather than a measured effect size, but they match common sense: the reminder removes the fear that makes people hesitate at the card field. The trial email sequence guide on this blog covers what to send and when. ## Putting your own numbers beside the benchmarks Example numbers, made up for illustration: a seller starts 300 trials and 24 pay at $39.00 a month. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) shows a rate of 8.0%, which equals the study's median. Four more points would be 12 more paying customers and $468 of extra monthly revenue. Before you read anything into that, check four things. Was your cohort the same size of company as the typical respondent? Do you count paid conversion within the same window, or only within the trial? Is your trial a free trial with or without a card, because the bars differ by five times? And did you divide by trials or by sign-ups? A seller who requires a card and converts at 12% is well below the study's card-required bar, while the same 12% for a no-card trial would sit inside the report's GREAT range of 10% to 15%. ## Limits of this data - It is a survey. Respondents estimated their own rates, and the report says they answered to the best of their ability. - The conversion window is up to six months, much longer than the trial itself. A 14-day cohort will read lower than a six-month figure. - The sample leans toward software companies between 1 and 10 million dollars of annual recurring revenue. A very small or very large product may differ. - Charts in the report may rest on fewer than 200 answers because not every question applied to every respondent. - The study measures association, not cause. Requiring a card did not produce the 30%; it describes products that did so. ## What to do with the numbers The report closes with three questions to answer before changing a trial. Do you want more people to use the product, or more people to buy it? At what point does a user reach the moment of value, immediately or only after real setup work? And what does each free user cost you? Answer those first, then look at the bars. If your rate is below the GOOD range for your model, find the weakest step with the method in the guide to [conversion rate optimization](https://trialvalid.com/blog/what-is-conversion-rate-optimization.md). If it is already in range, spend your time on retention instead. ### What counts as a good free trial conversion rate in 2026? In ChartMogul's study, a GOOD rate for a free trial was 4% to 6% and GREAT was 10% to 15%. For trials that require a card the GOOD range was 25% to 35%. The overall median across all models was 8%. ### Why is the card-required figure so much higher? Fewer people begin a trial when a card is required, and those who do are more committed. The report shows that sign-ups drop to about 35 per 1,000 visitors, against 45 for a no-card trial, while paying customers rise to about 10.5 against 3.6. ### Can I compare my 14-day trial result to these numbers? Only roughly. The survey asked about conversion within six months of sign-up. If you measure inside a 14-day trial, your figure will usually be lower than a six-month figure for the same cohort. ### Is the 8% median a target? No. The report itself notes that very few products convert at 8%. It describes the middle of a wide spread, with a tenfold gap between the top and bottom fifths. ### Where does this data come from? A January 2026 survey of 200 software products, published by ChartMogul on 4 February 2026. This guide quotes the headline records stored in our dated data file and the other figures read from the report on 19 October 2026. ### How often will this guide be updated? When ChartMogul publishes new data. The published date above never moves, and the updated date changes only when we re-read the source. ## Sources - [ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026)](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-email-sequence-templates Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial email sequence templates for SaaS A six email sequence for a free trial that starts with a card, with a dated schedule, templates ready to copy, sending rules and ways to measure the results. > A trial email sequence needs six messages: a welcome, a first step nudge, a progress note, a halfway check, a reminder before the first charge and a closing note. Each has one job, states the end date and the price in plain words, and stops sending the moment its goal is met. ## What a trial email sequence has to do A free trial is a short promise: you can try this, and on a specific day it becomes a paid plan unless you cancel. Email is how that promise stays visible. The messages carry three jobs. They help the person reach the first moment of value fast enough to remember why they signed up. They keep the end date and the price in front of them so the first charge is never a surprise. And they give a way out, which, oddly, is part of how a card-first trial earns trust. [ChartMogul's 2026 conversion report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/) makes that last point directly. It describes one software company that tells prospective trial users they will get a reminder seven days before the trial of its paid plan ends, and says businesses that skip this kind of transparency risk fewer sign-ups, worse retention in months one to three and more refunds from people who forgot to cancel. The author presents that as an observation, not a measured effect, but it is a sound reason to treat the reminder as the center of the sequence rather than an afterthought. ## The sequence at a glance The schedule below is for a 14-day trial that starts on Monday 2 Nov 2026 and ends on Monday 16 Nov 2026. The dates are computed from the start date, so you can replace it with your own and recount. The days are counted from sign-up, and the behavioral messages only send if their condition is true. | Day | Date | Email | Goal | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Day 0 | Monday 2 Nov 2026 | Welcome | Confirm what happens and when, and point to the first step | | Day 1 | Tuesday 3 Nov 2026 | First step nudge | Bring back people who have not reached the first useful action | | Day 4 | Friday 6 Nov 2026 | Progress note | Show what they have set up and the one step that is left | | Day 7 | Monday 9 Nov 2026 | Halfway check | Restate the end date and the price, and offer help | | Day 11 | Friday 13 Nov 2026 | Reminder before the first charge | Say exactly when the charge happens, what it is and how to cancel | | Day 14 | Monday 16 Nov 2026 | Receipt or cancellation note | Confirm what happened, with no surprises | Six emails over fourteen days is a ceiling, not a target. If a person reaches the first useful action on day one, the nudge never sends. If they have already added a teammate, the progress note changes shape. A sequence that adapts to what a person has done is worth more than one that is merely clever. ## Day 0: the welcome Send it within a minute of sign-up. It has to answer five questions: what did I just start, when does it end, what will it cost then, how do I cancel, and what should I do first. Everything else can wait. ```text Subject: Your {{plan_name}} trial is on until {{trial_end_date}} Hi {{first_name}}, Your trial of {{product_name}} started today and runs until {{trial_end_date}}. On that date your card is charged {{price}} for {{plan_name}}, unless you cancel first. You can cancel at any time from {{billing_page_link}}, and we will send a reminder before the charge. One thing to do first: {{first_step_label}}. It takes about {{first_step_minutes}} minutes: {{first_step_link}} Reply to this email if you get stuck. {{company_name}} ``` ## Day 1: the first step nudge This email is conditional. It goes only to people who have not completed the first useful action, and it should name that action exactly. "Finish setting up" is vague; "connect your Stripe account so the first alert can fire" is a step. If you cannot name one first action that predicts whether people stay, finding it is the best research task you have, and the [behavioral triggers guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/behavioral-triggers-complete-guide.md) explains how to look for it. ```text Subject: One step left before {{product_name}} starts working Hi {{first_name}}, You have {{days_left}} days left in your trial, and the one step that makes the rest useful is {{first_step_label}}. {{first_step_link}} If something is in the way, tell us what and we will help. {{company_name}} ``` ## Day 4: the progress note Use what the person has actually done. A message that says "you have created 3 pages and invited 1 teammate" proves the trial is theirs, and it makes the remaining step concrete. If they have done nothing, send a short plain note offering a call or a walkthrough instead of a summary of nothing. Never invent activity, and never congratulate a person for something they did not do. ## Day 7: the halfway check At the midpoint, restate the date and the price. This feels redundant, and that is the point: it keeps the first charge from feeling like a trap. Offer one clear way to get help, and ask a single question whose answer you will actually read, such as what they were hoping the product would do for them. ## The reminder before the first charge This is the email that matters most. Stripe documents an event, `customer.subscription.trial_will_end`, that your system can listen to before a trial ends, and the Billing settings can also send a reminder email on its own ([Stripe, free trial periods](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials)). Whichever route you take, the content must be explicit: the date, the amount, the plan, the card on file and a link that cancels in one step. ```text Subject: Your trial ends {{trial_end_date}}, and {{price}} is charged that day Hi {{first_name}}, A reminder that your {{plan_name}} trial ends on {{trial_end_date}}. On that day we will charge {{price}} to the card ending {{card_last4}}. Want to keep going? You do not need to do anything. Want to stop? Cancel here before then: {{cancel_link}} Want to change plan? {{plan_link}} {{company_name}} ``` Send it far enough ahead that a person can act on it and near enough that it is still fresh. For a 14-day trial, two to three days before the end is a reasonable starting point, and for a 30-day trial a week before gives more room. Test the timing against refunds and cancellations, not against opens. ## After the first charge: receipts and failed payments When the charge succeeds, send a receipt that restates what was bought and when the next charge falls. When it fails, the tone changes completely, because a failed payment is usually an expired or declined card, not a decision to leave. Say what happened, say that the account stays open while you retry, and link directly to the page where the card can be updated. Two figures help you set expectations. Stripe states an average recovery rate of 55% for businesses using Stripe Billing ([Stripe Billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 18 Oct 2026), and its documentation recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks for Smart Retries ([Stripe Docs](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 18 Oct 2026). Use the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) to turn your own failed-payment count into revenue at stake. ```text Subject: We could not charge your card for {{plan_name}} Hi {{first_name}}, The payment of {{price}} on {{charge_date}} did not go through. Your account is still active. The quickest fix is to update the card here: {{update_card_link}} We will try again automatically, so a new card now means no interruption. {{company_name}} ``` ## When someone cancels The cancellation confirmation is a message people screenshot. Confirm that they are cancelled, the date access ends and that no further charge will be made. Add one optional question about why, with a free-text field, and nothing else. Do not argue, offer a discount in the same message or make the reply link hard to find. Cancellation reasons are the best qualitative data a trial produces, and a respectful email gets more of them. ## Sending rules that apply to every message - One job and one call to action per email. If a message needs two buttons, it is two messages. - Put the end date and the price in the first three lines of every message after the welcome. - Use plain text or near plain text. Trial emails read as account messages, and heavy design makes them look like promotions. - Sign as the company, never as an invented person. - Stop a message the instant its condition is false. A nudge that arrives after the action is done teaches people to ignore you. - Cap the total. If a person has received five messages and opened none, send the reminder and stop. - Keep the cancel link working without a login wherever you can. ## Measuring whether the sequence works | Message | Measure | Read it against | | --- | --- | --- | | Welcome | Share of recipients who reach the first step within 24 hours | Trial to paid rate for the same cohort | | First step nudge | Share of nudged people who complete the step | People who were not nudged, if you hold some back | | Halfway check | Replies and help requests | Support load and cancellation reasons | | Reminder | Cancellations in the 48 hours after sending, and refund requests | Refunds in the first month | | Failed payment | Cards updated within 3 days | The failed payment recovery rate | Judge the whole sequence on paid customers and refunds, not on open rates. Example numbers, made up for illustration: a seller starts 250 trials, 40 pay and the plan is $29.00 a month. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) gives a rate of 16.0%. A two point change would be 5 more customers and $145 a month, which tells you how much effort a sequence rewrite deserves before you start. ### How many emails should a trial sequence have? Six at most for a 14-day trial: welcome, first step nudge, progress note, halfway check, a reminder before the first charge and a closing note. Fewer is fine if people reach the first action early. ### When should the pre-charge reminder go out? Far enough ahead to act on and near enough to be remembered. For a 14-day trial, two to three days before the end is a reasonable starting point. For a longer trial, a week is easier to act on. Measure refunds and cancellations to tune it. ### Should trial emails be plain text? Mostly, yes. They are account messages. Plain text keeps them readable and keeps attention on the single action in each one. ### What should a failed payment email say? What happened, that the account stays active while retries run, and a link that goes straight to the card update. Keep the tone neutral. Most failed payments are expired or declined cards. ### Do I need a person to sign these? No. Sign as the company. An invented sender name is a small lie in a message whose whole job is to build trust. ### How do I know the sequence is working? Read paid customers, refund requests and cancellation reasons for each cohort against the previous one. Open rates are a delivery check, not a result. ## Sources - [ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026)](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs, Use free trial periods on subscriptions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe, Billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 18 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs, Smart Retries](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 18 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/behavioral-triggers-complete-guide Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Behavioral triggers: a complete guide How to design behavioral triggers for a free trial: the three kinds, the six fields to write down, how to find events and how to measure them. > A behavioral trigger is a rule that sends a message or changes the product when a person does, or fails to do, something specific. A sound trigger names its event, its condition, one action, a limit on repeats and the moment it stops, and it is judged by paid customers against a group that did not receive it. ## What a behavioral trigger is Most trial messages are scheduled by the calendar: day one, day four, day seven. A behavioral trigger is scheduled by the person. It waits for an event, such as finishing sign-up, importing data or inviting a teammate, or for the absence of an event by a deadline, and then does one thing. The difference sounds small. In practice it separates a message that arrives when it helps from one that arrives when it annoys. Triggers are not a product by themselves. They are the plumbing that lets a trial respond to what a person is actually doing, and they are only as good as the events underneath. That is why the first section of any trigger project is about events, not copy. ## Three kinds of trigger | Kind | Fires on | Example | Where the event comes from | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Action | Something the person did | Created a first project, so offer a short guide to sharing it | Your own product events | | Absence | Something not done by a deadline | No teammate invited by day four, so explain why trials with teammates go further | A scheduled check on your own events | | Billing | A change in the subscription | The trial is about to end, or a payment failed | Payment provider events | Billing triggers are the most reliable because the provider sends them for you. Stripe documents a `customer.subscription.trial_will_end` event that fires before a trial ends, and suggests using it to send the customer a message, with a link to your site, when no payment method is on file ([Stripe, free trial periods](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials)). Action and absence triggers rely on events you define yourself, so they need more care. ## The anatomy of one trigger Write every trigger on one line before building it. If you cannot fill in all six fields, it is not ready. | Field | What it holds | Example | | --- | --- | --- | | Event | The thing that starts the clock | Trial started | | Condition | What must still be true when it fires | Billing account not yet connected after 24 hours | | Action | One message or one product change | Email naming the single next step, with a link straight to it | | Frequency cap | How often it may fire for a person | Once per trial | | Stop condition | What cancels it | Billing account connected, or trial ended, or person replied | | Measure | The number it must move | Paid customers per 100 trials against a holdout | The stop condition is the field teams forget. A reminder that arrives after the person did the thing teaches them to ignore the next one, and a stack of triggers that never cancel each other produces the notification storm every founder has complained about as a user. ## Finding the events that deserve a trigger The ChartMogul conversion report poses a question every trial owner should answer first: at what point does a user actually experience the aha moment, immediately or only after real setup work? Triggers should point people toward that moment. To find it, compare the people who paid with the people who did not and list the actions they took in the first days. Example numbers, made up for illustration: a seller starts 500 trials and 75 pay, a rate of 15.0% at $59.00 a month. Splitting the cohort by two early actions gives this picture. | Early action | People who did it | Paid | Rate | People who did not | Paid | Rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Connected their billing account | 350 | 66 | 18.9% | 150 | 9 | 6.0% | | Invited a teammate | 150 | 45 | 30.0% | 350 | 30 | 8.6% | Both actions line up with higher conversion, and that is a lead, not a conclusion. People who connect a billing account may simply be the people who were already serious. The difference is, though, an upper bound on what a trigger could win. Suppose a nudge got half of the 150 people who never connected to do so, and suppose they then paid like those who connected unaided. That would be about 9.6 extra paying customers on this cohort. The real number will be lower, and a holdout test is the only way to learn how much. ## A catalogue of triggers to start with | Trigger | Fires when | Action | Stops when | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | First step stall | No first step 24 hours after sign-up | One email naming the step, with a direct link | Step completed | | Setup gap | First step done, key setup step missing on day 3 | In-product prompt on next login | Setup step completed | | Teammate gap | No teammate invited by day 4 | Short email on what a second person unlocks | Teammate invited | | Return after silence | No login for 3 days | Email recapping what is already set up | Next login | | Pre-charge reminder | Provider signals the trial is about to end | Email with date, amount and cancel link | Trial ended or person cancelled | | Failed payment | Provider reports a failed charge | Email with a link to update the card | Payment succeeded | | Exit question | Person cancels during trial | One optional free-text question | Answered or ignored | ## Psychology, used with care Two ideas from behavioral economics show up in trigger design, and both are easy to misuse. The first is loss aversion. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion) defines it as a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse when framed as a loss rather than a gain, and notes that empirically losses tend to be treated as if they were about twice as large as an equivalent gain. For a trial, the honest application is to be specific about what the person has built and what happens to it when the trial ends: their saved setup, their imported records, their invited teammates. The second is the default effect. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_effect) describes it as the tendency to accept the default option, and says experiments and observational studies show that making an option the default increases the likelihood that it is chosen. For a trial, the honest application is to make the plan the person tried the plan they continue on, to show that plan and its price on every reminder, and to make cancelling as easy as continuing. A default that depends on people not noticing is not a nudge; it is a trap, and it produces refund requests and disputes. Neither idea licenses invented scarcity, countdown timers that reset or claims about how many other people are looking at the same plan. Those are not behavioral science. They are false statements, and a trial built on a card needs the buyer's trust more than most products do. ## Timing, priority and frequency - Billing messages outrank everything. If a pre-charge reminder and a feature nudge are due the same day, send only the reminder. - One message per person per day across all triggers, with a priority order written down. - Send in the recipient's own time zone when you know it, and avoid the middle of the night. - Give every trigger a frequency cap and a global cap per trial. Five unopened messages are a signal to stop. - Prefer an in-product prompt to an email when the person is already logged in. It is faster and costs a person nothing. ## Measuring a trigger Hold back a random share of eligible people from each trigger and compare paid customers, not clicks. Be realistic about sample size. In the example above, 150 people never connected a billing account, and 9 of them paid, which is 6.0%. A rate measured on 150 people has a standard error of roughly 1.9 points, so a difference of a couple of points between a trigger group and a holdout of that size tells you very little. You need either more people or a bigger effect, which is one more reason to start with the stalls that affect the most trials. Run each test across whole trial cycles, record the result whether it wins or loses and stop a trigger that shows no gain after a fair run. A trigger that survives is a small permanent improvement. One that does not is noise you removed. ## Mistakes to avoid - Building triggers on events nobody has checked are tracked correctly. Verify each event with a test account first. - Triggers with no stop condition, so messages arrive after the action is done. - Treating a correlation in the cohort table as proof that the action causes payment. - Writing urgency the product cannot back up, such as a deadline that moves. - Letting marketing and billing triggers fire independently, with no shared cap. - Counting clicks as success. A click is not a customer. For the number that all of this is meant to move, see the glossary entry for [trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md), and for the schedule that most of these triggers feed into, read the [trial email sequence templates](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-email-sequence-templates.md). To size a gain before you build, use the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). ### What is the difference between a trigger and a scheduled email? A scheduled email goes out on a date after sign-up whatever the person did. A trigger waits for an event or for the absence of one, and checks a condition before it sends. ### How many triggers should a trial have? Start with three: a stall on the first step, the pre-charge reminder and the failed payment message. Add more only when you can show a stall that affects many trials and a clear action that addresses it. ### Is loss aversion a good reason to add scarcity? No. Loss framing is honest when it describes real things the person has built and will lose access to. It is not honest when it invents deadlines, counters or limited seats. ### How do I prove a trigger works? Keep a random holdout of eligible people who receive nothing, run for whole trial cycles and compare paid customers per 100 trials. Small groups give noisy answers, so expect to need a sizeable effect. ### Which events should I track first? The first useful action, the main setup step, an invited teammate, the last login and the billing events from your payment provider. Verify each one before building anything on it. ### Can triggers run from my payment provider alone? The billing ones can. Stripe sends events such as the trial about to end. Action and absence triggers need your own product events. ## Sources - [ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026)](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs, Use free trial periods on subscriptions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Wikipedia, Loss aversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Wikipedia, Default effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_effect), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/reducing-failed-payments-smart-pre-authorization Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Pre-authorization to cut failed trial payments Place a hold on the card when the trial starts, capture before it lapses, and pair it with retries and emails for the declines a hold cannot prevent. > A card hold at signup shows you on day one whether the card can cover the plan price, so the first real charge stops being the first test. It does not stop hard declines, expired cards or a customer who changes their mind, which is why retries and customer emails stay in the plan. ## Where trial payments actually fail A free trial with a card on file has two moments of risk. The first is signup, when the card number is typed in and the issuer has never seen your business. The second is the end of the trial, when the first full charge runs weeks later against a card that may have expired, been replaced, hit its limit or been frozen after a suspicious purchase somewhere else. Most teams only instrument the second moment, because that is where the failed invoice shows up in the billing dashboard. By then the buyer has already used the product, mentally filed the trial as free, and may not read the email that tells them something went wrong. Two kinds of failure behave very differently, and mixing them up leads to the wrong fix. A soft decline is temporary: the issuer said no this time, perhaps because of a daily limit or a flag on an odd hour of the day, and a later attempt can succeed. A hard decline is final until the customer supplies a different card: a lost or stolen card, a closed account, a number that no longer exists. Retry schedules rescue soft declines. Only a conversation with the customer rescues a hard one. The [card decline rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate.md) and the [failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) glossary pages define how to measure each, so the numbers you track mean the same thing from month to month. Pre-authorization attacks a third kind of problem that sits before both: the card that was never good enough for the plan price in the first place. A card with a low limit, a prepaid card with a small balance or a card that the issuer declines for subscription-style charges will pass a simple card-validity check and fail the real charge. Finding that out on day one, while the buyer is still on your signup page and able to type another card, costs nothing. Finding it out on day fourteen costs a trial that looked healthy in every report until the moment it was supposed to convert. ## What a pre-authorization is When you create a card payment you can ask the processor to authorize it without capturing it. Stripe documents this as separating authorization from capture: the amount is reserved on the customer's card, the funds are not moved, and you capture later. The payment shows as uncaptured, and the capture request turns the reservation into a charge. Hotels use the same mechanism, reserving the room cost at booking and settling at checkout. The reservation does not last. If the authorization expires before you capture, the funds are released and the payment moves to canceled. Stripe lists the validity windows for card payments that are not in person, and they depend on the card brand and on whether the issuer treats the payment as started by the customer or by the merchant. | Card brand | Merchant-initiated window | Customer-initiated window | | --- | --- | --- | | Visa | 5 days (4 days and 18 hours exactly) | 7 days | | Mastercard | 7 days | 7 days | | American Express | 7 days | 7 days | | Discover | 7 days | 7 days | Stripe adds a caution that matters for trials: the card network and Stripe decide whether a payment counts as customer-initiated or merchant-initiated from signals of cardholder participation, not only from API flags. A payment flagged as off-session can still be treated as customer-initiated if the security code was present. Plan around the shorter window and treat the longer one as a bonus. ## What a hold tells you at signup, and what it does not Holding the real plan price, rather than a token amount, tests the exact thing you will need later: that this card, today, can cover this amount. Stripe notes that card networks may restrict authorizations of one dollar that you do not intend to capture, which is a second reason to hold the true price instead of a probe. A successful hold tells you the card number is valid, the card is active, the issuer has approved a purchase of the full amount and the funds exist right now. It does not tell you the card will still work in two weeks, and it is not a promise from the issuer about a later charge. A hold is a snapshot. Between the hold and the final charge the customer can spend the available funds, lose the card or cancel it, and the issuer can change its own risk decisions. Treat the hold as the best early signal you can get, not as proof of payment. ## Fitting a hold into a trial length The windows above are shorter than most trials. A hold placed at signup on a 14-day trial will expire halfway through. There are only a few ways to deal with that, and the table shows how far each trial length overshoots the 7-day customer-initiated window, and how many fresh merchant-initiated holds of 5 days would be needed to cover the rest. | Trial length | One hold covers it | Days past the 7-day window | Extra 5-day holds needed | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 3 days | Yes | 0 | 0 | | 7 days | Yes | 0 | 0 | | 14 days | No | 7 | 2 | | 30 days | No | 23 | 5 | - Capture shortly before the hold lapses and carry the money as a credit against the first invoice. This works when the trial is short enough for one hold, and it keeps the buyer from paying twice only if the credit is applied in the right order. - Replace the hold with a new one before it expires. This is the approach for longer trials, and it needs a saved card and a job that wakes up on time, because a missed renewal means the original hold simply lapses. - Skip the hold and rely on a card check at signup. This is simpler, and you give up the day-one test of the plan price. Stripe also documents that you can capture less than the held amount, in which case the remainder is released, and that most payments allow a single capture only. If you capture a partial amount you cannot go back for the difference, so decide the capture amount before you capture. TrialValid's [card holds](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) page describes how one implementation handles the capture, the credit and the renewal of a lapsing hold. ## The declines a hold cannot prevent Stripe lists the hard decline codes it will not retry: an incorrect number, a lost card, a pickup card, a stolen card, revoked authorizations, an authentication requirement, the highest risk level and a transaction the card is not allowed to make. Scheduled retries continue for these, but the payment only runs once a new payment method is present. India-issued cards, a disconnected Connect account and a customer with no payment method also stop retries. If you track only one number, track how many failed trial charges fall into this group, because that is the share no retry schedule can touch. Declines also come from your own side. Stripe's declines guide separates issuer declines from payments its fraud tooling blocks and from invalid API calls, and it points out that you should analyze unique declines rather than counting failed retries, which inflate the rate. A decline that arrives because your integration sent the wrong parameters will never be fixed by a smarter retry timetable. ## Retries for the soft declines Smart Retries uses signals such as the number of devices that presented a card recently and the best local time to pay for certain debit cards to choose retry moments. The setting Stripe recommends is 8 tries within 2 weeks. You pick a retry count and a window: one, two or three weeks, one month or two months. A custom schedule allows up to three retries, each a set number of days after the last one. When recovery fails you choose what happens to the subscription: cancel it, mark it unpaid, leave it past due or pause it when eligible. Stripe states an average recovery rate of 55% for businesses using Stripe Billing, on its billing product page read 18 Oct 2026. Treat that as a published average from the processor, not a prediction for your business; your own recovery rate depends on your mix of soft and hard declines. ## Emails that recover payments before a retry does Retries work without the customer. Emails work with them, and they are the only tool for a hard decline. Stripe's customer email settings cover the notices that matter for a trial: a failed payment email after each failed attempt, a trial ending reminder 7 days before the trial ends, a renewal reminder before the period ends, an email a month before a card on file expires and a confirmation request for payments that need extra authentication. Each carries a link to a page on which the customer can change the payment method, hosted by Stripe or by you. Write the failed payment email as a task, not an alarm. Say which plan, which amount, what the customer needs to do and how long the fix takes. A customer who can update a card in one click will do it. A customer who must log in, find billing settings and guess which card to update will not. ## What the money looks like: a computed example The [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) at its defaults assumes $2,500 of renewals a month fail on the first try, a 40% recovery rate today and a comparison rate of 55%. It returns $18,000 lost a year at today's rate and $4,500 saved a year at the comparison rate. Replace the defaults with your own failed payment rate and recovery rate before drawing any conclusion, because the result scales directly with both. | Step | Who acts | Soft decline | Hard decline | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Hold at signup | Processor, issuer | Surfaced early, buyer can retype a card | Surfaced early, buyer can retype a card | | Capture before the hold lapses | Your job | Usually succeeds | Fails and is reported | | Smart Retries | Processor | Often recovers | Does not run until a new card exists | | Failed payment email | Customer | Helps when the cause is a limit or expiry | The only route to recovery | | Expiring card email | Customer | Prevents the decline | Prevents the decline | ## A rollout order that does not need an engineer a week 1. Measure first: split last quarter's failed charges into soft and hard declines, and note how many were first-ever charges after a trial. 2. Turn on the customer emails Stripe already offers, especially the trial ending reminder and the expiring card notice. They cost nothing to enable. 3. Set the retry policy to the recommended default and read the result after a full cycle before changing it. 4. Add the day-one hold for new trials, holding the real plan price, once you know how many trials fail at the first real charge. 5. Review the numbers monthly and change one setting at a time, so a movement in the recovery rate has an explanation. ### Does a hold charge the customer? No. A hold reserves the amount on the card. Some issuers show the pending authorization in the banking app, which can confuse customers, so say on the signup page that nothing is charged today. ### How long can I hold a card for a trial? For card payments that are not in person, Stripe lists 5 to 7 days depending on brand and who started the payment. Longer trials need a renewed hold or a different approach. ### What if the hold fails at signup? The trial should not start. The buyer sees an error on the page and can try another card, which is far cheaper than a failed charge two weeks later. ### Do retries work on every failure? No. Stripe does not retry hard declines until a new payment method exists, and it does not retry when no payment method is available. ### Should I hold the full plan price or one dollar? Hold the real price. Card networks may restrict one dollar authorizations that are never captured, and a token amount does not test the amount you need later. ## Sources - [Stripe: Place a hold on a payment method](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/place-a-hold-on-a-payment-method), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Automate payment retries (Smart Retries)](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Revenue recovery](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Automate customer emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Declines](https://docs.stripe.com/declines), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) - [Card decline rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/card-decline-rate.md) - [Dunning: recovering failed payments](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-page-teardowns-what-top-saas-get-right Last updated: 2026-10-19 # A sourced checklist for your trial signup page Eight things a free-trial signup page needs, each tied to a public document or report so you can check it yourself before you change a pixel. > A trial page works when a visitor can answer four questions without scrolling: what do I get, for how long, what happens when it ends, and what do you need from me today. This checklist turns those questions into eight checks, each tied to a document you can open. ## How this checklist was built Teardowns of other companies' pages go stale within a quarter and tend to reward whoever redesigned most recently. This guide does something plainer. It lists what a trial signup page has to contain, and for each item it points to a public source: Stripe's documentation for the trial and payment mechanics, ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 software products for the market numbers, and web.dev's guide for the form itself. No company's page is judged, and no company is named as a good or bad example. If a check below does not fit your product, the source tells you why it exists so you can decide for yourself. The checks run in the order a visitor meets them. Use them as an audit: open your own page on a phone, tick or fail each row, and fix the failures from the top, because a problem near the top costs you more visitors than a problem near the bottom. | Check | What to look for | Where it comes from | | --- | --- | --- | | 1. The offer | Trial length, plan and what is included, in one sentence near the headline | Stripe trial documentation, ChartMogul trial length data | | 2. The card decision | A deliberate choice to ask for a card or not, with the end of trial behavior set to match | ChartMogul, Stripe Checkout free trials | | 3. Price and dates beside the button | The amount, the first charge date and how to cancel, where the eye lands | Stripe emails and reminders, ChartMogul | | 4. A short form | Only the fields you need, labels, autofill and the right keyboards | web.dev | | 5. Payment methods | Wallets and saved details offered where the buyer has them | Stripe Payment Element | | 6. Errors | Messages that say what to change, shown beside the field | web.dev, Stripe declines | | 7. The next screen and email | What happens now, and the first email before the first session | Stripe trial events and emails | | 8. A number to watch | Visitor to trial rate and trial to paid rate, defined and cohort based | Metrics glossary | ## Check 1: state the offer in a sentence A visitor should know the length of the trial and the plan it covers before reading anything else. Stripe allows trials of up to two years in Checkout but says most businesses choose shorter ones, and it names two problems with long trials: payment methods that expire before the first charge and lower conversion. ChartMogul's study gives the market picture. Among the products studied, a 14-day trial is the one most often picked, at 62% of products, ahead of 7 days at 14% and 30 days at 14%. Those figures describe what other products picked, not what converts best, so use them as a starting range and test from there. What matters on the page is that the number of days appears once, clearly, and that it is the same number the checkout and the confirmation email use. A page that says 14 days above the fold and a checkout that quotes 7 loses trust at the moment of payment. ## Check 2: make the card decision on purpose ChartMogul found that 20% of free trial products require a card up front and 80% do not. It reports a free-to-paid conversion of 30% for trials that require a card, against a median of 8% across all 200 products. The same report warns that a card requirement can reduce signups, so the right comparison is paying customers per thousand visitors, not conversion among those who signed up. The [trial to paid conversion rate guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate-ultimate-guide.md) works through that arithmetic. If you skip the card, Stripe makes you choose what happens when the trial ends without one. In Checkout and on subscriptions the missing payment method setting can cancel the subscription, pause it, or create an invoice that moves the subscription to past due if unpaid. Pick the behavior on purpose. A paused subscription keeps the relationship alive and lets the customer add a card later on a hosted page; a canceled one means starting over. ## Check 3: put price and dates beside the button The line directly above or below the signup button is the most read text on the page. It should carry the amount that will be charged after the trial, the date of the first charge and a way to cancel. Writing the actual date rather than "after your trial" removes arithmetic from the buyer. ChartMogul observes that the best companies earn trust by being open about how and when users can cancel, for example by promising a reminder 7 days before a trial ends. It adds that companies which are not open risk fewer trial signups, worse retention in months one to three and more refund requests from people who forgot to cancel. Back the promise with the mechanics. Stripe can send a trial ending reminder 7 days before the end, and the reminder can point to a page on which the customer adds or replaces a card. Stripe also emits a trial will end event a few days before the trial moves to active, which is your cue to confirm a payment method exists and to send your own notice. ## Check 4: keep the form short and let the browser fill it web.dev's payment and address form guide is a checklist in its own right, and most of it applies to a trial form unchanged. Use a real form element with a label on every field. Do not rely on placeholders as labels, because they vanish as soon as the person types. Use the autocomplete attribute with the right values so browsers can fill name, email and card details. Avoid number inputs for card numbers, and use a text input with a numeric input mode instead. Ask for a name in a single field, do not ask for data you do not need, disable the submit button after the first tap, and validate while the person types rather than only on submission. The guide also recommends descriptive button labels that show progress, and it advises testing in the field as well as in the lab, using page analytics, interaction analytics and real-user measurements across a range of browsers and devices. A trial form that works on your laptop and stalls on a mid-range phone is the most common hidden loss in a signup flow. ## Check 5: offer the payment methods people already have Stripe's Payment Element shows wallet options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay when the visitor has a card in that wallet, and it can offer saved details through Link. For a trial this is more than convenience, because a wallet payment replaces typing sixteen digits on a small screen. Stripe also notes that you can combine the Payment Element with an express checkout button, in which case wallets appear in the express button to avoid duplicates. Whatever you choose, confirm with your processor that every method you display can be used for a trial that charges later, because not every payment method supports a separate authorization or a saved charge. ## Check 6: write errors that say what to change A declined card on a trial page is a customer-facing event, not a log line. Stripe's decline guidance separates issuer declines from blocked payments and invalid requests, and the message you show should reflect the difference: a wrong security code is fixed in a second, an issuer decline needs another card, and a technical error needs a retry and a way to reach you. Put the message beside the field it concerns, keep the typed values in place, and never clear the form. If you hold the card at signup, a failed hold is your earliest and cheapest decline, so spend design time on it. The [failed payments guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/reducing-failed-payments-smart-pre-authorization.md) covers what to do after the trial starts. ## Check 7: plan the screen and email after the click The confirmation screen should repeat the offer in the same words as the page: plan, trial end date, first charge amount and date, and where to cancel. The first email should arrive before the first session and do two jobs, confirming the same facts and pointing to the one action that shows the product working. Everything after that belongs to onboarding, which is a separate subject, but the facts on the confirmation screen are part of the page, because they decide whether a buyer feels informed or tricked a fortnight later. ## Check 8: pick the number you will watch Two numbers describe a trial page. The [visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md) shows whether the page persuades. The [trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) shows whether the trial pays. Change the page and you will usually move both, in opposite directions if you add friction. Measure each by cohort, with the start week fixed, so a good week is not blended into a bad one. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) shows what a change is worth in customers. At its defaults it reads a rate of 15.0% and shows that adding 5 points would add 20 paying accounts and $980 of MRR a month. Enter your own trial counts and price to see your own version, and treat the output as arithmetic about your funnel, not as a forecast of what any page change will achieve. ## Putting the audit to work 1. Open your page on a phone and fail or pass each of the eight checks. Write the failures down in the order above. 2. Fix the offer sentence and the line beside the button first. They are cheap and touch every visitor. 3. Compare the form against the web.dev list and fix the missing labels, autocomplete values and input modes. 4. Decide the card question on paper, with the end of trial behavior, before you change the page. 5. Set up the trial ending reminder and the confirmation email so the promise on the page is kept. 6. Record the visitor to trial rate and the trial to paid rate by start week, and change one thing at a time. ### Is this a teardown of other companies' pages? No. It lists what a trial page needs and cites public documents for each point. It does not rate or name any company's page. ### Should every trial ask for a card? Not necessarily. The reported conversion is higher with a card, but signups can fall, so compare paying customers per thousand visitors before deciding. ### How long should the trial be? The most common length in the ChartMogul study is 14 days. That is a market fact, not a rule, so test lengths against your own time to first value. ### Where should the price and renewal date go? Directly beside the signup button, with the actual date of the first charge and a plain way to cancel. ### How often should I audit the page? After any change to the offer, the form or the payment methods, and on a calendar every quarter. ## Sources - [ChartMogul: The Conversion Report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Configure free trials for Checkout](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/checkout/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Configure free trials on subscriptions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Automate customer emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Payment Element](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/payment-element), read 19 Oct 2026 - [web.dev: Payment and address form best practices](https://web.dev/articles/payment-and-address-form-best-practices), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate-ultimate-guide Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial-to-paid conversion rate: the full guide How to define, measure and read your trial to paid rate, what a 200-product study found, and which numbers to check before you change anything. > Your trial to paid rate is the share of one start cohort of trials that became paying customers, measured over a fixed window. ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products found a median free-to-paid rate of 8% and 30% for trials that require a card, with a huge spread between products, so your own cohorts are the benchmark that counts. ## What the rate measures, and what it hides Divide the customers who paid by the trials they came from and you have the trial to paid rate. It is the number every trial business quotes, and it is easy to get wrong because three decisions hide inside the division: which trials count, which payments count and how long you wait. Change any of the three and the same business reports a different rate. The [glossary entry](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) gives the short definition; this guide is about the decisions behind it. ChartMogul's survey asked what portion of leads or free signups turn into paying customers inside six months, which is a long and generous window for a trial that lasts two weeks. If you compare your fourteen-day rate to a six-month figure, you are comparing different things. Before you read any benchmark, write down its window and its denominator, and compare only like with like. ## Pick the denominator before the number There are three common denominators, and each answers a different question. The table uses the calculator's default cohort, with an illustrative number of trials still running to show the effect. | Denominator | Trials counted | Paid | Rate | Question it answers | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Trials started | 400 | 60 | 15.0% | How well does the whole funnel turn starts into customers? | | Trials ended | 360 | 60 | 16.7% | How well do finished trials convert, ignoring ones still open? | | Trials that reached a first session | Your own count | Your own count | Your own rate | How well does the trial convert people who tried it? | Using trials started keeps the rate honest because nothing is excluded after the fact, but a young cohort will look worse than it is, since some of its trials have not ended. Using trials ended fixes that and is the better choice for a recent cohort. The third row is a diagnostic rather than a headline: it separates people who never opened the product from people who tried it and said no, which need different fixes. ## What a 200-product study found The ChartMogul Conversion Report, published on 4 February 2026 with analysis by Kyle Poyar, surveyed 200 B2B software products in January 2026. Free trials were the primary way new customers start at 57% of products, more than twice the 26% that lead with freemium. The median free-to-paid rate across all products was 8%, but the report stresses that very few products sit near the median: there is a 10x gap between the top fifth and the bottom fifth of self-serve products. | What the report shows | Figure | | --- | --- | | Median free-to-paid conversion, all 200 products | 8% | | Free trial products below 2.5% | 20% | | Free trial products between 2.5% and 7.5% | 30% | | Free trial products above 25% | 23% | | Good and great for a free trial that needs no card | 4% to 6%, 10% to 15% | | Good and great for a trial that requires a card | 25% to 35%, 50% to 60% | | Free-to-paid conversion of card-required trials | 30% | Read the spread before the medians. A product at 3% and a product at 30% are both inside the study, and both can be healthy for their model and audience. The honest use of a benchmark is as a sanity check: if your rate is far outside the ranges for your type of trial, look for a measurement problem before you look for a product problem. ## Why signups matter as much as conversion The report layers signup rates under conversion, and the result changes the question. For every 1,000 website visitors, it shows how many create an account and how many become paying customers under each entry model. The last column below is computed here: paying customers divided by visitors. | Entry model | Signups per 1,000 visitors | Paying customers per 1,000 visitors | Visitor to paying rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free trial, no card | 45 | 3.6 | 0.36% | | Free trial, card required | 35 | 10.5 | 1.05% | | Freemium | 90 | 5 | 0.50% | | Freemium without an account first | 70 | 5.6 | 0.56% | Two readings follow. A trial that needs a card collects fewer signups than one that does not, 35 against 45 in the report, and still produces more paying customers because the share of signups that pay is so much higher. And the highest conversion rate is not the highest number of customers. Judge a trial change by paying customers per thousand visitors, which is the only measure that already contains both effects. ## Where the rate leaks A trial to paid rate is the product of several smaller rates, and the one that moved is rarely the one you assume. Sketch the path your own customers take and measure each step. 1. Visitor to trial start: does the page persuade, and is the form easy? See the [visitor to trial rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md). 2. Trial start to first session: do people who sign up actually open the product within a day or two? 3. First session to the moment the product works for them: how long, and how many do not reach it? 4. Moment of value to the end of the trial: do they come back, or does attention fade? 5. End of trial to a successful charge: does the card work, and does the buyer still want to pay? The [failed payment rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/failed-payment-rate.md) captures the card part. Only the last step is a payments problem, and only the first is a page problem. The middle three are product and onboarding problems. A team that blames the checkout for a rate that actually breaks at the second step will spend weeks on the wrong fix. ## Reading cohorts without fooling yourself Group trials by the week they started, and follow each group for the same number of days. A group is mature once every trial in it has ended and the charge has had time to succeed or fail, which for a trial of any length means waiting past the end date plus your retry period. Stripe documents how its retry schedule runs over days or weeks, so a cohort that ended yesterday is not yet final. - Never compare a mature cohort with a young one. The young one will always look worse. - Report a rate with its cohort size. A rate of 20% from ten trials means nothing next to a rate of 15% from four hundred. - Split by acquisition channel when the sample allows. A blended rate can sit between a very good channel and a very poor one and describe neither. - Keep a changelog of page, price and onboarding changes next to the weekly rates, so a movement has a possible cause written down at the time. ## What a few points are worth The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) turns a rate into customers and recurring revenue. At its defaults, 60 paid out of 400 started is 15.0%. Adding 5 points would bring 20 more customers and $980 of extra MRR a month, and adding 10 points would bring 40 more customers and $1,960. Percentage points are not percent growth: the same points add more customers on a smaller base, which is why the calculator also shows growth in paying customers. Put the answer next to what a customer is worth over time with the [lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md). A rate improvement that brings customers who churn quickly is worth less than the same improvement that brings customers who stay, and the lifetime value figure is where that shows. ## Levers, by the stage they act on | Stage | Lever to examine | How you would know it worked | | --- | --- | --- | | Visitor to trial | Offer wording, form length, whether a card is asked | Visitor to trial rate and paying customers per thousand visitors | | Trial start to first session | Welcome email, first screen, a single next step | Share of trials with a session in the first two days | | First session to value | Setup steps, sample data, guided first task | Time to the first useful result | | Mid-trial | Reminders tied to what the person did, not to the calendar | Return sessions per trial | | End of trial | A clear charge notice, a reminder before the charge, a one-click card update | Failed charge rate and recovery rate | This table lists places to look, not promises. Neither the sources above nor this guide promise that any single lever lifts the rate by a set amount. Run one change at a time, keep the cohort comparison clean and let your own numbers decide. ## Mistakes that make the rate wrong - Counting a plan change or a reactivation as a new conversion. - Dropping trials that were refunded or whose first charge failed from the paid count without saying so. - Mixing monthly and annual buyers in one rate when they pay at different moments. - Comparing your trial rate to a freemium rate. They start from different pools of people. - Quoting a benchmark without its window, its denominator and its read date. ## A ninety-day plan 1. Weeks 1 to 2: define the rate in writing with its denominator and window, then rebuild the last twelve weeks of cohorts to match. 2. Weeks 3 to 4: add the stage rates from the leak list so you can see which step is weakest. 3. Weeks 5 to 8: change one thing at the weakest stage and compare against the previous cohorts, not against the middle of last quarter. 4. Weeks 9 to 12: check that paying customers per thousand visitors moved, not only the conversion rate, and keep or revert the change. ### Which trial to paid conversion rate counts as good? It depends on the model. The ChartMogul study puts a good rate at 4% to 6% for trials without a card and 25% to 35% for trials with one, with a very wide spread between products. ### Should I count trials started or trials ended? Trials ended is fairer for a recent cohort, because open trials cannot have converted yet. Trials started is simpler and fine once a cohort is mature. ### Does asking for a card raise the rate? The report shows a much higher rate for card-required trials, and also fewer signups. Compare paying customers per thousand visitors before deciding. ### How long should I wait before judging a cohort? Until every trial in it has ended and your retry period for failed charges has run out. ### Is the median rate the number to aim for? No. The report says very few products sit at the median. Use it as a sanity check, and your own cohorts as the target. ## Sources - [ChartMogul: The Conversion Report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Configure free trials on subscriptions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Revenue recovery](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Visitor to trial conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/visitor-to-trial-conversion-rate.md) - [Freemium conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/freemium-conversion-rate.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/free-trial-optimization-checklist Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Free trial optimization checklist A stage by stage checklist for a free trial with a card on file, from the decisions before launch to the first renewal, with one number to watch per stage. > Work down the trial in time order: decisions before launch, the first minutes, the first days, the middle, the days before the charge, the charge itself and the first renewal. At each stage fix what is broken, write down one number to watch, and move on. ## How to use this list Most trial advice is organized by tactic: urgency, social proof, emails. A checklist organized by time is more useful when something is already live, because it matches how a customer experiences the trial and makes gaps obvious. A gap at the start of the list is nearly always worth more than a polish at the end, since every later stage only sees the people who survived the earlier ones. Each stage below has a short list of checks, a reason for each and a measurement. You will not need all of it on day one. If you are short of time, do the stages in order and stop when you find the first thing that is plainly wrong. The [trial page checklist](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-page-teardowns-what-top-saas-get-right.md) goes deeper on the signup page, and the [failed payments guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/reducing-failed-payments-smart-pre-authorization.md) goes deeper on the charge. This guide ties the whole path together. ## Stage 0: decisions before launch 1. Write the one sentence that says what a person should have achieved by the end of the trial. Everything later is judged against it. 2. Choose the trial length from the time that sentence takes, not from habit. In the ChartMogul study of 200 products the most common length is 14 days, but that records what others picked. 3. Decide whether to ask for a card. If you do not, choose what the subscription does when the trial ends without one: Stripe offers cancel, pause or invoice. 4. Decide who gets a trial. A trial per company, per email domain or per card is a policy choice that you should make before the first abuse, not after. 5. Name the metric for the trial: paying customers per thousand visitors, with trial to paid rate by start week underneath it. The ChartMogul report is blunt about the reason for the third check: it recommends asking three questions before changing a trial, namely whether you want more people to use the product or more people to buy it, when users reach the first moment of value, and what each free user costs you. Write the answers down. They decide the rest. ## Stage 1: the first minutes after signup 1. The confirmation screen repeats the offer in the same words as the page, including the end date and the first charge date. 2. A welcome email arrives within minutes and contains one next step, not five. 3. The card, if taken, is checked at signup so a bad card fails here and not in two weeks. A hold of the plan price does this, as the [failed payments guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/reducing-failed-payments-smart-pre-authorization.md) explains. 4. The customer lands inside the product, not on a settings page. Measure the share of new trials that reach a first session within a day. If it is low, nothing downstream can be fixed with emails alone, because the people you would be emailing have not seen the product. ## Stage 2: the first days 1. Use sample data or a guided task so the product shows a result before the person has done any setup. 2. Mark the moment the product has done something useful, as an event you can count. 3. Send a message only when the customer has not reached that moment, and make the message point to the step they are missing. 4. Make help easy to reach from inside the product. The measurement here is time to that first useful result, and the share of trials that ever reach it. This is the stage where trials are won or lost for most products, and it is a product and onboarding problem, not a billing one. Onboarding is a subject of its own, and the point here is only to measure it. ## Stage 3: the middle of the trial 1. Tie messages to behavior. A person who invited a teammate gets a different message from a person who has not logged in since day one. 2. Show progress inside the product so the person can see what they have done with it. 3. Offer a short call to the people whose accounts look like a fit for your larger plans, and keep that offer plain. 4. Do not hide the end date. A person who knows when the trial ends makes a decision. A person who finds out from a charge makes a complaint. Count return sessions per trial and the share of trials that did the key action at least twice. A trial with one visit is a trial that will not convert, whatever the emails say. ## Stage 4: the days before the charge 1. Send a reminder that names the plan, the amount, the date and how to cancel. Stripe can send a trial ending reminder 7 days before the end and link it to a page where the customer updates a card. 2. Listen for the event Stripe sends a few days before the trial ends, and use it to confirm a payment method exists. 3. If you hold the card, make sure the hold will still be valid at capture. Stripe lists validity windows of days for card holds, and a trial longer than the window needs a renewed hold. 4. Send the expiring card notice, which Stripe offers a month before a card on file expires. 5. Make cancelling as easy as signing up. Anything harder produces refund requests and disputes. Measure the share of trials with a valid, usable card at five days out. That number tells you how many charges will fail before they have been attempted. ## Stage 5: the charge itself 1. Confirm the charge went through and tell the customer, with a receipt. 2. For a failure, branch by type. Soft declines go to retries. Hard declines go to a card update request, because Stripe does not retry them until a new payment method exists. 3. Set the retry policy deliberately. Stripe recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks for Smart Retries and allows a custom schedule of up to three retries. 4. Choose what happens to the subscription when recovery fails: cancel, mark unpaid, leave past due or pause. 5. Alert a person when a high-value trial fails, so someone can write to the customer. The numbers are the failed charge rate at first charge, the recovery rate within the retry window, and the share of failures that were hard declines. The [dunning](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) and [involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md) glossary pages define the terms so your team measures the same thing. The failed payment recovery calculator shows how much the recovery rate matters. Holding the other defaults fixed, the table varies only the share of failed renewals you win back. | Recovery rate | Recovered each month | Lost each month | Lost each year | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 20% | $500 | $2,000 | $24,000 | | 40% | $1,000 | $1,500 | $18,000 | | 55% | $1,375 | $1,125 | $13,500 | | 70% | $1,750 | $750 | $9,000 | | 85% | $2,125 | $375 | $4,500 | Use the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) with your own recurring revenue and failure rate to replace the defaults. The table shows the shape of the relationship, not your result. ## Stage 6: after the first renewal 1. Ask people who cancel in the trial why, with one question and a short list of answers, and read every response for a month. 2. Compare the first-month retention of trial customers against customers who bought without a trial. 3. Look at refunds in the first month. A high refund count points to a charge notice that was not clear. 4. Feed what you learn back to Stage 0. ## What to measure, in one table | Stage | Number to watch | Where it comes from | | --- | --- | --- | | 0 Before launch | Paying customers per thousand visitors | Visits, trials and payments by start week | | 1 First minutes | Trials with a session in the first day | Product events | | 2 First days | Time to first useful result | Product events | | 3 Middle | Return sessions per trial | Product events | | 4 Before the charge | Trials with a usable card at five days out | Billing records | | 5 Charge | Failed charge rate, recovery rate, hard decline share | Billing records | | 6 After | First-month retention and refunds | Billing records | ## A monthly review Once a month, put the seven numbers on one page by start week, read them from left to right and pick the earliest stage that moved the wrong way. Fix that one first. A rising failed charge rate while return sessions fall is not a billing problem; it is the same trial losing interest earlier, and the charge is where you notice it. ### Which stage should I fix first? The earliest one with a clear problem. Later stages only see the people who got through the earlier ones. ### Do I need all seven stages? No. Start at Stage 0 and work down. Stop at the first thing that is plainly wrong and fix it. ### How many numbers should I track? One per stage, so seven in all. More than that and nobody reads them. ### Does this apply to trials with no card? Mostly. Stages 0 to 3 apply as written. Stages 4 and 5 become a request to add a card before the end, and the end of trial setting decides what happens without one. ### Where do I get the retry settings? In your Stripe revenue recovery settings, where you pick Smart Retries or a custom schedule and what happens when recovery fails. ## Sources - [Stripe: Configure free trials on subscriptions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Automate payment retries (Smart Retries)](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Automate customer emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Revenue recovery](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe: Place a hold on a payment method](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/place-a-hold-on-a-payment-method), read 19 Oct 2026 - [ChartMogul: The Conversion Report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Dunning: recovering failed payments](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/dunning.md) - [Involuntary churn](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/involuntary-churn.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Alerts and statement descriptors](https://trialvalid.com/product/alerts.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/onboarding-best-practices-saas-trials Last updated: 2026-10-21 # Onboarding best practices for SaaS trials Get each trial user to one real result early: remove steps, time your messages, and measure the share who get there. > The answer: a trial converts when the buyer reaches one real result early, so remove every step between signup and that result, send a few timed messages that point at it, and measure the share of trials that get there. The median free-to-paid rate in ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products was 8%, which is the number to beat before you copy anyone's playbook. ## What onboarding has to do in a trial A trial is a short loan of your product, and the buyer has a clock running from the first minute. Onboarding is everything that happens between the signup button and the point where that buyer has seen the product do something useful for them. Nothing else on the list matters until that point is reached. A polished tour, a friendly welcome video and a checklist with ten items are all fine, but they are only worth building if they shorten the path to the first useful result. Two facts shape every onboarding decision in a trial. First, the buyer arrives with a question, not with curiosity about your feature list. They want to know whether this product solves the problem that made them search. Second, the trial has an end date that both sides can see. That date turns every day of delay into a cost. If a trial lasts 14 days and the buyer spends the first 5 of them stuck on setup, you have given away a third of the evaluation before they saw any value. This guide covers how to define the first result, how to remove steps, how to time your messages across the trial, how a card on file changes the picture, and how to measure the effect of a change with a calculator instead of a hunch. It is written for a founder or a small team running trials without a dedicated lifecycle marketer, so each section ends in something you can do this week. ## Start from the first result, not from the product tour Write one sentence that finishes the line "A trial user has succeeded when they have ...". For a reporting tool it might be "connected a data source and opened a chart built from their own numbers". For a scheduling product it might be "sent one booking link to a real contact". For an API it might be "made one successful call with their own key". The sentence must describe something the buyer did with their own data or their own context, because a demo with sample data proves very little about fit. Once you have the sentence, count the actions it takes to get there from the moment the account exists. Do this by walking through your own signup in a fresh browser, with a stopwatch, and writing down every screen, form field, email confirmation and permission prompt. Most teams find that the honest count is higher than the number they would have guessed, because the steps they added over the years never felt heavy one at a time. The first result is your destination, and the list of actions is the road. Everything in the next section is about shortening the road. ## Cut, defer or keep every step Take the list from your walkthrough and put each item into one of three groups. A step you keep is one the buyer cannot reach the first result without. A step you defer is one that matters later but not yet, such as inviting teammates, choosing a theme or setting up notifications. A step you cut is one that exists for your benefit and gives the buyer nothing back at this stage. | Common step | Question to ask | Usual verdict | | --- | --- | --- | | Profile and company questions | Does any answer change what the buyer sees next? | Cut, or defer until after the first result | | Email confirmation before first use | Can the buyer start while the email is unconfirmed? | Defer, and confirm before anything irreversible | | Inviting teammates | Does the first result need a second person? | Defer unless the product is collaborative at its core | | Connecting a data source | Is the first result impossible without real data? | Keep, and make it one click where the source allows it | | Choosing a plan or entering a card | Was it already collected at signup? | Keep once, at signup, and never ask again | | Product tour overlay | Does it point at the next real action? | Replace with one prompt on the screen where the action is | | Empty states | Does an empty screen tell the buyer what to do next? | Keep, and write them as instructions | Empty states deserve extra attention, because every trial user meets them. A blank dashboard with a sentence like "Nothing here yet" wastes the most valuable screen you have. A blank dashboard that says "Connect your first source to see this chart, it takes about a minute" and shows a single button turns the same screen into the next step. Write every empty state as if it were the only instruction the buyer will read, because for many of them it will be. ## Time your messages across the trial Email carries the part of onboarding that happens while the buyer is away from your product. Keep the sequence short and make each message do one job. The goal is not to fill an inbox. It is to bring a distracted buyer back to the one action that matters. Send fewer messages than you think you need, and make sure each one is useful even if it is the only one the buyer opens. | Moment | Message | Job | | --- | --- | --- | | Minutes after signup | Welcome with one link to the first action | Remove doubt about where to start | | Day 1, if the first result is not reached | A short note with the exact next step and a reply address | Recover people who stalled on setup | | Midway through the trial | One example of a result a similar buyer would see | Show what finished looks like | | Before the end, per the card network rules | Plain reminder of the trial end date, the amount and how to cancel | Meet the requirement and avoid surprise | | Last day | What happens next and how to keep or end the plan | Let the buyer decide with full information | The pre-charge reminder is not optional marketing. Stripe's compliance guide says trial offers must meet card network requirements, and its hosted reminder email goes out 7 days before a trial ends, or at the start when the trial is shorter than 7 days. The separate trial_will_end event fires on the schedule set in the Dashboard, which defaults to 3 days before the end, and it triggers immediately when the trial is shorter than that interval. If you send your own reminder, make it plain: the date, the amount and a working cancel link. A buyer who is told clearly rarely feels tricked, and a buyer who feels tricked is the one who files a dispute. ### Where the reminder falls for common trial lengths | Trial length | Stripe-hosted reminder sent on | Days of trial left after the reminder | | --- | --- | --- | | 3 days | Day 0, at the start | 3 | | 7 days | Day 0, at the start | 7 | | 14 days | Day 7 | 7 | | 30 days | Day 23 | 7 | The table is computed from the rule above, not from experience. It shows why onboarding for a 3-day trial looks nothing like onboarding for a 30-day one. In a short trial the reminder and the first result compete for the same inbox on the same day, so fold them into one message. In a long trial there is a quiet middle stretch where a useful example or a check-in carries more weight than any promotional email. ## Onboarding when a card is already on file If you collect a card at signup, onboarding changes in two ways. Fewer people start, and the ones who do have already made a small commitment. ChartMogul's Conversion Report reports that trials requiring a credit card converted at 30% in its January 2026 study, against a median of 8% for free-to-paid conversion across all 200 products. Those two figures describe different groups of products and different buyers, so do not read the gap as the effect of the card alone. What they do tell you is that card-required trials are a normal, measured model rather than an exotic one. A card on file raises the cost of a bad first week, because the buyer knows a charge is coming. That is a reason to be more careful with onboarding, not less. Tell the buyer what the first charge will be and when, make the first result easy to reach, and send the reminder on time. Our definition of the [trial-to-paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) explains how to count the cohort so the numbers stay comparable across weeks. ## Measure the effect with a worked example Suppose a product started 400 trials last month and 60 of them paid, at a monthly price of $49. These are example numbers chosen for round arithmetic, not a benchmark. The trial-to-paid rate is 15.0%. You change one onboarding step and want to know what a small improvement would be worth before you spend a week on it. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) answers that by turning extra percentage points into extra customers and extra recurring revenue. | Improvement | New rate | Paying customers | Extra customers | Extra MRR | Extra ARR | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2 points | 17.0% | 68 | 8 | $392 | $4,704 | | 5 points | 20.0% | 80 | 20 | $980 | $11,760 | | 8 points | 23.0% | 92 | 32 | $1,568 | $18,816 | Read the table as a way to rank work, not as a forecast. If a two-point gain needs a month of engineering and a five-point gain needs an afternoon of copy changes, the afternoon wins whatever the exact figures are. Percentage points are not percent growth, so the same extra points add more customers on a smaller base, which is why the calculator reports both. Keep the cohort fixed while you measure: compare trials that started in the same period, and count outcomes only after the longest trial in the cohort has ended. ## Mistakes that quietly cost trials - Asking for information the product does not use yet, so the buyer fills a form and learns nothing. - Using sample data in the first session and never moving the buyer onto their own data. - Sending a welcome email that links to the home page instead of the first action. - Counting logins as activity, when a login proves nothing about the first result. - Changing three onboarding steps in one release, which makes it impossible to tell which one helped. - Sending the pre-charge reminder late or hiding the cancel link, which turns a fair trial into a dispute. - Judging a change on trials that have not finished yet, so the paid count is still rising. ## A one-week plan 1. Write the first-result sentence and agree on it with whoever answers support. 2. Walk through signup with a stopwatch and list every step. 3. Mark each step keep, defer or cut, and remove the cuts. 4. Rewrite empty states as instructions. 5. Set up the short email plan from the table above, with the reminder first. 6. Record, for each new trial, whether it reached the first result and on which day. 7. At the end of the cohort, enter the counts into the calculator and compare with the cohort before. ### How many onboarding emails should a trial send? Start with the five moments in the table: welcome, a day-one nudge for people who stalled, a midway example, the pre-charge reminder and a last-day note. Add more only when your data shows a specific group of buyers who stall at a specific step and are not reached by those five. ### Should onboarding differ for trials that need a card? The steps are the same, but the tone about money is different. Say what the first charge is and when it happens, put the cancel link where the buyer can find it, and send the reminder required by card network rules. Stripe's documentation states that trial offers must meet those requirements. ### Which trial-to-paid rate is worth aiming for? ChartMogul's January 2026 study of 200 products found a median free-to-paid rate of 8% and 30% for trials that required a credit card. Your own rate depends on price, audience and traffic quality, so treat those as reference points and compare yourself with your own previous cohort first. ### How do I know whether onboarding or the product is the problem? Split trials by whether they reached the first result. If many never reach it, the road is too long or unclear, and onboarding is the place to work. If most reach it and still do not pay, the result itself is not convincing enough, and the problem sits in the product, the price or the fit of the traffic. ### Can I run an onboarding test with a small number of trials? You can, but with a few hundred trials a month small differences are noise. Make larger changes, run them for a full cohort, and use the counts for ranking ideas rather than for declaring a winner. The calculator shows what each possible gain would be worth so you can decide whether a test is worth the effort. ## Sources - [ChartMogul, The Conversion Report (4 Feb 2026)](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 18 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs: Configure trial offers](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs: Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/activation-and-time-to-value-in-trials Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Activation and time to value in SaaS trials Define the moment a trial user first gets value, measure how long it takes, and shorten it using your own cohort data. > The answer: activation is the moment a trial user first gets the result they came for, time to value is how long that takes, and the useful move is to measure your own median in hours and shorten it, not to chase a fixed promise such as ten minutes. We did not find a sourced standard for a universal number of minutes. ## Two terms, defined plainly Activation means a new account has done the one thing that shows the product working for them. Time to value means the time between signup and that moment. They are two views of the same event: activation is a yes or no per account, and time to value is the clock on how long the yes took. A team that tracks only one of them misses half the picture. An account can activate on day 12 of a 14-day trial, which counts as activated and still leaves almost no room to decide. The phrase "under 10 minutes" is a common promise in guides on this topic, and it is worth saying why this guide does not repeat it. How long the first result takes depends on what the product does. A tool that needs a connection to a billing system, an inbox or a warehouse cannot honestly promise ten minutes to every buyer, because the slowest step is often outside your control: a permission request, a security review, a teammate who holds the keys. A number that works for a link-in-bio page is not a number for an accounting integration. Measure your own and move it down. ## Choose an activation event you can defend A good activation event has four properties. It is an action, not a visit. It is something a paying customer also does regularly. It happens early enough to act on while the trial is still running. And it is specific enough that two people on your team would agree whether a given account has done it. "Used the product" fails all four. "Created a report from connected data and viewed it" passes. | Product type | Candidate activation event | What to check before you adopt it | | --- | --- | --- | | Analytics or reporting | Connected a real source and opened a chart on it | Do paying accounts do this in their first week? | | Scheduling or booking | Shared a booking link and received one booking | Can a trial user finish this inside the trial? | | Developer API | One successful call with their own key | Is the slowest step the key, the docs or the first request? | | Email or outreach | Sent a first real message to a real contact | Does domain setup block this for most buyers? | | Team collaboration | A second person took an action in the shared space | Is a solo buyer ever a good customer? | | Billing or finance tool | Imported live records and matched one to a payment | Which step needs an admin the buyer does not control? | Test a candidate by looking backward. Take the accounts that paid last quarter, and see what share did the event in their first week. Then take the accounts that left without paying, and see what share did it. If the event is common in both groups, it does not separate them and is a weak choice. If it is common among payers and rare among the rest, it is a strong candidate. This is a pattern in past data, so it suggests an event worth steering buyers toward but does not prove that the event causes payment. ## Read a cohort table before you change anything Group the trials that started in one period by how soon they reached the first result. The example below uses made-up numbers for a product that started 400 trials, and it is built so the arithmetic is easy to check. It is an illustration of how to read the table, not a set of expected rates. | Cohort | Trials | Paid | Trial-to-paid rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | First result on day 1 | 120 | 48 | 40.0% | | First result on days 2 to 7 | 100 | 22 | 22.0% | | Never reached the first result | 180 | 5 | 2.8% | | All trials | 400 | 75 | 18.8% | Three things stand out. The overall rate of 18.8% hides a very uneven picture. The group that reached the first result on day 1 pays at 40.0%, and the group that never reached it pays at 2.8%. And the largest single group, 180 of 400 trials, is the one that never got there. That group is where the work is. You do not need to persuade anyone in it, you need to remove whatever stopped them. ## What the cohort table does not prove The motivated buyers are probably the same buyers who activate fast. A person who signed up with a deadline and a budget will push through setup, while a person who was browsing will not, and both would have behaved differently with or without your onboarding. So the gap between the day-1 group and the never group is partly the product and partly the people. Treat the table as a map of where to look and run a change as the test. Change the onboarding for new trials, then compare the next cohort with the last one, using the same definition of the first result. A fair way to size the prize, while keeping the caution in mind, is to ask what happens if some of the stalled trials behaved like the fast ones. Suppose 60 of the 180 trials that never reached the first result had reached it on day 1 and then paid at the day-1 rate. That adds about 22.3 paying customers, which moves the overall rate from 18.8% to 24.3%. At an example price of $49 a month, rounding down to 22 paying accounts, that is about $1,078 of extra monthly recurring revenue. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) lets you try your own counts and your own price, and the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) shows what those customers are worth if they stay. ## Ways to shorten time to value - Pre-fill whatever you can learn from the signup itself, such as a company domain, so the buyer starts with something already in place. - Offer a sample workspace as a fallback, but clearly label it, and put a prompt on it that leads to the buyer's own data. - Replace a multi-page setup with one screen that does the minimum, and move the rest into settings the buyer can reach later. - Ask for a permission or a teammate at the start of the trial when one is needed, not on day 5, so slow approvals run while the buyer does other things. - Offer a short guided session to buyers who stall on a hard step, and record what they get stuck on. - Write the success state down: a screen or message that tells the buyer they have done the thing, and what to do next. Notice that most of these remove waiting rather than adding help. Time to value is mostly waiting: waiting for an email, for an approval, for an import, for a teammate. A product that shortens the wait gets credit for being easy, even when its feature set is the same as a competitor's. ## How a card on file interacts with activation If the trial collects a card, the end date is a firm deadline, and the buyer will be charged unless they cancel. Stripe documents that you can set what happens when a trial ends with no payment method on file, and that the subscription events it sends when a trial pauses or ends can be used to revoke access. That makes the time between signup and the first result part of a decision with money attached. A buyer who has not seen value by the reminder date is more likely to cancel than to wait, and that is the right outcome for a product that has not yet shown its worth. The aim is to give the buyer a fair chance to see value before the reminder, not to hide the reminder. ## Metrics to track weekly | Metric | How to count it | What a change tells you | | --- | --- | --- | | Activation rate | Trials that did the event divided by trials started in the same period | Whether the road to the first result is getting shorter | | Median time to first result | Median hours from signup to the event, for activated trials | How long the slowest typical step takes | | Share stuck at each step | Trials whose last step was step N, divided by trials started | Which single step to fix next | | Activated-to-paid rate | Paid trials among activated trials | Whether the result itself persuades | | Trial-to-paid rate | Paid trials divided by trials started, per cohort | The overall outcome, compared cohort to cohort | Report the median rather than the average. A few trials that activate on the last day, or a few that take a week because a procurement team held them up, can drag an average far from what a typical buyer experiences. If you have too few trials for a stable median, report the share that activated within one day, which is a simple count that moves when you improve things. ### Is there a standard time to value for SaaS trials? We did not find a published, sourced standard, so we do not state one. The right number depends on what your product does and what the buyer must connect or approve. Track your own median in hours and try to lower it. ### How is activation different from the trial-to-paid rate? Activation is an early behavior that happens during the trial, and the trial-to-paid rate is the outcome at the end. Activation is useful because you see it within days and can act on it, while paid conversion takes the full length of the trial to appear. ### What if my activation event is rare even among paying customers? Then it is the wrong event, or it comes too late in the customer journey to be useful during a trial. Look for an earlier action that most paying customers also took in their first week, and test that instead. ### Should I count a sample-data session as activation? Usually not. A session on sample data shows the buyer how the product works, but not that it works for them. Keep it as a separate step and count activation only when the buyer's own data or context is involved. ### How many trials do I need before the cohort table means anything? A few hundred trials per period give a rough picture, and fewer can only show large gaps. With small numbers, combine two or three weeks into one cohort and focus on the biggest differences between groups. ## Sources - [Stripe Docs: Configure trial offers](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Attribution and analytics](https://trialvalid.com/product/attribution.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/ethical-urgency-and-scarcity-in-saas-trials Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Ethical urgency and scarcity in SaaS trials Use real deadlines, state them plainly, and measure cancellations and disputes next to conversion, not only signups. > The answer: use urgency that is true, such as the real end date of a trial, a real limit on seats or a real price change, state it plainly, and never invent a deadline. A trial already has an honest deadline built in, so most of the work is making that date clear rather than adding pressure. ## Why urgency and scarcity work, and where they stop People decide faster when they know a choice has a deadline, and they value things more when supply is limited. Marketers have known this for a long time, and it is why countdown timers and "only 3 left" banners are everywhere. The mechanism is real, but it has a hard limit: it works only as long as the buyer believes it. A buyer who finds out a timer resets on reload, or that the limited offer is always available, does not just ignore the next banner. They stop believing the rest of the page, including the parts that are true. In a trial business this matters more than in a one-off sale, because the relationship continues after the first purchase. A buyer who feels pushed into a charge becomes a customer who cancels in month two, asks for a refund, or disputes the payment with their bank. Each of those costs more than the conversion was worth. So the question for a SaaS team is not how much pressure the buyer can tolerate, but which deadlines are real and how clearly to state them. ## The deadline you already have: the trial end date A trial's end date is a true deadline, set by you and visible to the buyer. It deserves clear, repeated mention. Show the date on the signup page, in the welcome message, inside the product and in a reminder before the first charge. Stating a real date several times is not manipulation, because it gives the buyer the information they need to decide. It also removes the most common source of anger in this model, which is the buyer who forgot a trial was running. Card networks expect this. Stripe's documentation says trial offers must comply with card network requirements, and its compliance guide describes reminder emails sent 7 days before a trial ends, or as soon as the trial begins when it is shorter than 7 days. The receipts for card payments carry the trial information and a cancellation link, and customers can manage or cancel a trial in the customer portal. The guide also covers statement descriptors: a statement descriptor has a 22 character limit, and when trial text is appended, anything after the 10th character can be overwritten with "* TRIAL OVER", so the first characters of your descriptor should already be recognizable. | Honest deadline | How to state it | What to avoid | | --- | --- | --- | | Trial end date | The exact date and time zone, in the signup form and every reminder | A vague "ending soon" with no date | | First charge amount and date | Amount, date and a working cancel link in the reminder | Burying the amount in a footer | | Seat or capacity limit | The real number remaining, read from your own system | A fixed "3 spots left" that never changes | | Launch or intro price ending | The date the price changes and the new price | A rolling deadline that restarts for each visitor | | Cohort start date | The real date of the next onboarding cohort | An invented "last chance" with no cohort behind it | ### Where the reminder lands for common trial lengths | Trial length | Stripe-hosted reminder timing | Days between reminder and end | | --- | --- | --- | | 3 days | As soon as the trial begins | 3 | | 7 days | As soon as the trial begins | 7 | | 14 days | 7 days after the start (7 days before the end) | 7 | | 30 days | 23 days after the start (7 days before the end) | 7 | For a short trial, the reminder and the signup confirmation arrive almost together, so write the first message to serve as both. For a long trial, the reminder is a real second contact point, and it is the right place for a plain statement of what happens next. The separate trial_will_end event that Stripe sends is configured in the Dashboard and defaults to 3 days before the end, so you can send your own, more specific message on that schedule too. ## Tactics that cross the line Some tactics are manipulation whatever the intent, because they create a false belief. A timer that counts down to a deadline you will extend is one. A scarcity message that is not tied to any real inventory is another. A cancel flow that is far harder than the signup flow is a third: it does not create urgency, but it exploits the buyer's inertia, and it tends to show up later as a dispute. Rules differ by country and state, so check those that apply to you, but the working test is simple. If the buyer learned how the message worked, would they feel informed or tricked? - Countdown timers that reset on reload or differ between visitors. - Scarcity counters that are generated or never change. - Pre-checked boxes that add a paid upgrade. - Reminders that omit the amount or the cancel link. - Cancel paths that need an email or a call when signup took one click. - Messages that hint at a deadline without stating a date, so the buyer cannot plan. ## What a surprise charge costs The cost of getting this wrong is concrete. Stripe lists a $15.00 per dispute dispute fee on its US pricing page, read on 18 Oct 2026. For a plan priced at an example $49 a month, a lost dispute costs the $49 payment plus the fee, which is $64 in total. Ten of those in a month is $640, and that figure ignores the time spent gathering evidence and the damage to a payment relationship with the bank. The numbers here are example inputs, but the arithmetic is the point: one clear reminder email costs almost nothing, and one avoided dispute pays for a lot of reminders. A clear reminder also helps your retention numbers. A buyer who is charged with notice and keeps the plan is a customer who chose to stay, and it is worth tracking whether those customers stay longer than the ones who were surprised. Use the [churn rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) to see what a modest drop in early cancellations is worth over a year, and the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) to see how a small change in the share who pay turns into recurring revenue. ## Copy patterns that stay honest | Situation | A line that informs | A line that pressures | | --- | --- | --- | | Day before the trial ends | Your trial ends tomorrow at 9:00 UTC. You will be charged the plan price unless you cancel. | Last chance, this is your final hour. | | Seat limit | There are 6 seats left in this cohort, which starts on the date shown. | Hurry, spots are going fast. | | Price change | The intro price ends on the date shown, then the standard price applies. | Offer expires soon. | | Cancel link | Cancel here in one click. | To cancel, contact our team. | The informative lines are not weaker. They give the buyer something to act on, they work for people who plan, and they make it safe to say yes. The pressure lines work only on the people who panic, and those are the people most likely to regret the purchase. ## How to test urgency without tricking anyone 1. Pick one real deadline, such as the trial end date shown on the signup page. 2. Write two versions of the copy that state the same facts, one short and one with a plain sentence about what happens at the end. 3. Split new signups evenly between the two and run it for a full cohort. 4. Count three outcomes per version: trials that paid, cancellations in the first month after the first charge, and disputes. 5. Keep the version that does well on all three, not only on paid conversion. 6. Re-check the copy every time a price, a limit or a date changes, so the text stays true. Counting cancellations and disputes alongside paid conversion is the key discipline. A tactic that lifts paid conversion by confusing people looks good for one week and then shows up in the cancellations column. Judging on all three outcomes catches that early. ### Is a countdown timer ever acceptable? Yes, when it counts down to a deadline that is real and the same for everyone, such as a price change on a stated date. It becomes manipulation when it resets, differs by visitor, or leads to an offer that is still available afterward. ### Do I have to send a reminder before a trial ends? Stripe's documentation says trial offers must comply with card network requirements and describes reminder emails for that purpose. Rules also vary by place, so check the ones that apply to you. Sending a clear reminder with the amount, date and cancel link is good practice either way. ### What is the most honest source of urgency for a SaaS trial? The trial end date itself. It is real, it is set by you, and the buyer can plan around it. Stating it clearly and often is more effective than adding artificial pressure on top. ### How can I tell if my urgency copy is hurting retention? Compare cancellations in the first month after the first charge and disputes between versions, along with paid conversion. If one version wins on conversion but loses on early cancellations or disputes, it is moving the problem later rather than solving it. ### What if my competitors use fake scarcity? You do not have to match them. A buyer comparing two products may well trust the one that states its terms plainly, and you avoid the cost of disputes and early cancellations that come from tricked customers. ## Sources - [Stripe Docs: Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe Docs: Configure trial offers](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026 - [Stripe pricing (US dispute fee)](https://stripe.com/pricing), read 18 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial reminders and records](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-reminders.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/social-proof-for-b2b-saas-trials Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Social proof for B2B SaaS trials Collect real customer proof with permission, place it where buyers hesitate, and build trust honestly before you have customers. > The answer: proof earns trust only when it is real, specific and permitted, so collect it from actual customers with a plain request, show it where the buyer hesitates, and when you have none yet, show your method and your own numbers instead of invented praise. ## Why proof matters more in a B2B trial A business buyer evaluating a trial is taking a small professional risk. If the product fails, the person who picked it is the one who has to explain the wasted time. Social proof lowers that risk by showing that others in a similar position chose the product and kept it. It does not replace the trial, which is the real test, but it helps the buyer decide whether the trial is worth starting and whether to continue at the end. B2B proof also has a different job from consumer proof. A consumer wants to know if a product is liked. A business buyer wants to know whether it worked for a company like theirs, in a situation like theirs, for a reason like theirs. A vague "great product" from an unnamed user does little, while a short statement of what a specific type of team did with the product and what changed carries real weight. That is why specificity is the main quality to aim for. ## The rule that decides what you can show Before choosing a format, know the legal floor. The US Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews and customer quotes took effect on October 21, 2024. According to the FTC's own question and answer page, which we read on 19 Oct 2026, the rule authorizes courts to impose civil penalties for knowing violations, and it covers fake or false reviews and customer quotes, among other conduct. A business that puts customer quotes on its own website is disseminating them, not just hosting them, so if those quotes are fake or false, the business could be liable. The same page gives several practical points. The rule does not prohibit giving incentives for reviews, but you cannot suggest that a review must be positive to earn the incentive, even implicitly. Businesses should look for red flags that a quote is fake, and should not write the text of a customer quote without a reasonable basis to believe it is truthful about the person's experience. A generalized email to all recent customers asking for a review is treated differently from asking insiders to write reviews. And AI-generated avatars posing as customers can count as a customer quote under the rule and deceptive under other law. This is guidance on a rule, not legal advice, and the rules differ in other countries, so check the ones that apply to you. The practical conclusion is short. Do not invent a customer, a quote, a logo, a number or a star rating. Do not write a quote and attach a real name to it unless that person said it and agreed to it. Do not use a stock photo as a customer. A trial page full of invented praise is a legal risk and a trust risk, and the second one arrives first. ## Kinds of proof and what each needs | Kind of proof | What you need first | Where it works best | | --- | --- | --- | | A named customer quote | The exact words, the person's written permission to use them and their name | Next to the signup button and in pricing | | A short case story | A real customer who agreed to be described and checked the facts | A page linked from the trial page | | A customer logo | Written permission to display the mark | A strip under the main headline | | A usage number | A figure you can compute from your own system on a stated date | The trial page and the footer of emails | | A third-party review profile | A real profile you did not write and a link to it | Pricing and comparison pages | | A public changelog | Dated entries you actually shipped | The product page and the docs | | A use-case story, labeled as such | A clear statement that it describes a typical workflow, not a named customer | Early on, when real customers are few | ## Collect real proof without pressure Most teams do not lack proof, they lack a habit of asking. The best moments to ask are the ones where a customer has just got what they wanted: after a first successful result, after a support conversation that ended well, or at a renewal. Send a short, plain request to all customers who reached that moment, rather than cherry-picking people you expect to be positive. Ask a specific question such as "What were you doing before, and what changed?" instead of "Would you leave us a review?", because a specific question produces a specific answer. Get permission in writing, and keep it. Say exactly where the words will appear. If you edit for length, send the edited version back and get a yes on that version. Do not offer an incentive that depends on the answer being good. If you do offer something for taking part, offer it to everyone who replies, say so, and disclose it where the quote appears if the incentive could affect how a reader sees it. Never remove or hide negative feedback you collected through the same request, since the rule also covers suppressing reviews. ### What a collection round yields The numbers below are an illustration with made-up rates, meant to show the shape of the funnel and why you should ask early and ask many people. They are not a benchmark. | Stage | Customers | Share of those asked | | --- | --- | --- | | Asked | 100 | 100.0% | | Replied | 20 | 20.0% | | Gave written permission to use the words | 15 | 15.0% | | Specific enough to publish as written | 9 | 9.0% | At these example rates, asking 100 of your customers produces about 9 quotes you can actually use. If you wait until you have a handful of customers and ask only the happiest few, you may end up with none. Ask continuously, keep a log of who said what and when they agreed, and rotate which quotes you show so the page stays current. ## Place proof where the buyer hesitates Proof is most useful at the points of doubt. On a trial page, the doubt is usually "is this worth giving my details and my card for?" and a short, specific quote next to the button speaks to it. On a pricing page, the doubt is "will this pay off?" and a use case with a clear before and after helps. Inside the product during the trial, the doubt is "am I doing this right?" and a note that shows what a finished setup looks like helps more than a quote does. Put each kind of proof next to its question, and do not stack them all in one block at the bottom of the page. To judge whether a change is worth a week of work, use the arithmetic rather than a hope. With example numbers, 400 trials, 60 paying, at $49 a month, a gain of two points on the trial-to-paid rate means 8 extra customers and $392 of extra monthly recurring revenue, or $4,704 over a year. Try your own figures in the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). Whether a proof element delivers any such gain for you is something only your own test can show, and we make no claim that it will. ## When you have no customers yet A new product has nothing to quote, and the temptation to fill the gap is strong. Resist it. There are honest ways to build trust before the first customer quote. Show how the product works with real screens. Publish the method behind your numbers. Keep a dated changelog. Offer free tools that let the buyer judge your quality before signing up. Write use-case stories that say plainly they describe a typical workflow for a type of buyer, not a named customer, and describe the steps and the result the product delivers without inventing a person, a company or a figure. Be clear about the label. A use-case story that reads like a real customer account is a customer quote by another name, and it carries the same problems. Open it with a plain sentence such as "This is a typical workflow, not a named customer." Replace each story with a real one as customers arrive and agree to be described, and say so in your own process so none of the placeholders linger. ## Mistakes to avoid - Writing a quote yourself and attaching a name, a role or a company logo to it. - Showing a stock photograph as if it were a customer. - Quoting a rating or a count of reviews that you cannot link to a real profile. - Asking only the customers you expect to be positive, and dropping neutral replies. - Keeping a quote on the page after the person has left the company or withdrawn permission. - Using the same single quote on every page, so the proof never matches the doubt. - Treating a logo wall as proof of fit when the logos belong to users of a free plan. ### Can I use quotes from a customer email without asking? Ask first. A private email is not an agreement to be quoted, and the FTC's guidance says a business should not provide quote text without a reasonable basis to believe it truthfully reflects the person's experience. Send the exact words back and get a yes in writing. ### Can I offer a discount for a review? The FTC's question and answer page says the rule does not prohibit incentives for reviews as long as the review is not required to be positive, expressly or by implication. Offer it to everyone who takes part, word the offer neutrally, and disclose it where the review appears. ### What proof is safe when I have no customers? Facts about your own product that you can show: real screens, a dated changelog, your methodology and free tools. Use-case stories are fine when labeled plainly as typical workflows, not customer accounts, and when they contain no invented names, quotes or numbers. ### Do team members count as customers for customer quotes? No. The FTC's guidance covers insider reviews, and says the rule's disclosure requirements relate to company insiders. If an insider writes a review, the relationship must be disclosed clearly, and it is simpler to leave insider praise off the page. ### How often should I refresh the proof on my trial page? Review it every quarter and whenever a price, a feature or a customer's situation changes. Remove anything a customer has asked to take down, and replace outdated numbers with ones computed from your own system on a stated date. ## Sources - [FTC, The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/consumer-reviews-testimonials-rule-questions-answers), read 19 Oct 2026 ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Trial to paid conversion rate](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate.md) - [Trial pages and variants](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-pages.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/pricing-tests-during-trials Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Pricing tests during free trials How to test a price on new trials: the revenue break-even, the sample size each arm needs, the Stripe setup and how to read the result. > Test a price on new trials only, assign each sign-up to one price at random, decide the sample size before you start, and judge the result by paying customers and revenue after the first successful charge, never by trial starts. ## What a price test during a trial can tell you A trial has more than one price in it. There is the price during the trial, which is free for most products and a small amount for a paid trial, and there is the price the customer moves to when the trial ends. Stripe models these as two separate recurring prices on one trial offer, and its documentation gives a trial of 1 USD for the first week as a typical shape. A pricing test during a trial changes one of those two numbers, or the length of the period between them, and watches what the buyer does next. The test answers a narrow question: among people who start a trial, does a different price change how many of them pay, and does the revenue per hundred trials go up or down. It does not tell you about people who never started a trial because the page scared them off, unless the price is shown on the page they saw before sign-up and you also count visitors. Decide which of the two questions you are asking before you set anything up. ## Choose one variable and write the question down The common variables are the post-trial monthly price, the trial price (free against a small paid amount), the trial length and the billing interval. Change one per test. If the price and the trial length move together, a difference in paying customers has two possible causes and you cannot separate them afterwards. - Post-trial price: does a higher monthly price lose more buyers than it earns in revenue per buyer? - Trial price: does asking for a small payment at sign-up change who starts and who stays? - Trial length: does a longer or shorter period change the share that pay at the end? - Interval: does offering a yearly price beside the monthly one change the mix of what people choose? For the trial price, the ChartMogul conversion report counts trials by type across 200 products and finds a paid trial as the main entry point for 4% of them. The report gives no conversion figure for paid trials alone, so there is no published number to borrow here. If you want to know how a small paid trial behaves for your product, you have to test it. ## The revenue arithmetic before you test anything A higher price wins when the revenue per buyer it adds outweighs the buyers it loses. The price increase calculator shows this for an existing base: at a current price of $49, a new price of $59 and 400 paying accounts with 5% leaving because of it, 380 accounts stay and MRR moves to $22,420 from $19,600, a net change of +$2,820 a month. The break-even share of customers who can leave is 16.9%, which is the old price over the new price, taken away from 1. The same logic works per cohort of trials. Suppose 100 trials convert at 15% at $49 a month. That is 15 paying accounts and $735 of monthly revenue. The table shows the conversion rate each other price needs just to match that revenue. A price that needs a rate below what you already see is worth testing, and a price that needs a rate above anything you have seen is not. | Post-trial price | Conversion rate needed to match the revenue | Paying customers per 100 trials | | --- | --- | --- | | $39 | 18.8% | 18.8 | | $49 | 15.0% | 15 | | $59 | 12.5% | 12.5 | | $79 | 9.3% | 9.3 | Read the middle column as a hurdle, not a forecast. At $59 the rate can fall from 15% to 12.5% before monthly revenue per hundred trials drops. Whether it does fall that far is what the test measures. You can try your own numbers in the [price increase calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) and the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). ## How many trials each price needs Small differences in conversion are hard to see in a small number of trials. The table uses the normal approximation to the binomial, the method class the NIST handbook derives for a single proportion, extended to two arms: two-sided 5% significance and 80% power, with the trial count in each arm fixed before the test starts. The arithmetic is ours and is easy to check with any sample size calculator that uses the same settings. | Rate today | Rate you want to detect | Trials in each arm | Trials in total | Time at 100 new trials a week | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 8% | 10% | 3,213 | 6,426 | 65 weeks | | 15% | 18% | 2,402 | 4,804 | 49 weeks | | 30% | 35% | 1,377 | 2,754 | 28 weeks | | 30% | 40% | 356 | 712 | 8 weeks | Two things follow. A rate that starts high needs fewer trials to see the same gap in points, so a product with a card required at sign-up can test sooner than one near the 8% median the ChartMogul report gives for free-to-paid conversion across all products. And a gap of a couple of points at a low rate can take most of a year at a modest trial volume. If the table says the test would run for longer than you can hold the page steady, either test a bigger change or use a different method, such as a before and after comparison over matched cohorts, and say plainly that it is weaker evidence. ## Running the test in Stripe Stripe has a few rules that shape how a price test is built. A price amount cannot be edited. To test a new amount you create a new price, and a lookup key can be moved from the old price to the new one so your pricing page code does not change. Existing subscriptions stay on the price they started on. Archiving a price stops it being used for new subscriptions without touching the old ones. | What you need | How Stripe handles it | | --- | --- | | Change a price amount | Create a new price. The amount on an existing price cannot be changed. | | Point a pricing page at the new amount | Move a lookup key to the new price with `transfer_lookup_key`. | | Keep current subscribers where they are | Existing subscriptions keep their price until you change them. | | Free or paid introductory price | A trial offer pairs a trial price with a post-trial price and a duration. | | Change a trial offer's length | Not possible after creation. Create a second offer for the second arm. | | Free trial by days | Set `trial_period_days` or `trial_end`. A trial offer and a free trial period cannot be combined on one subscription. | Trial offers need a subscription in flexible billing mode, and the free trial period route works with classic or flexible mode. Revenue from items in a trial does not count toward MRR in Stripe's billing analytics while the trial runs, so a dashboard will show a dip in MRR for the arm with the longer or paid-at-zero trial even when nothing is wrong. Compare arms by customers who paid, not by that MRR line. ## Assigning arms and reading the result Assign the arm when the person signs up, by a stable hash of their account id, and store the arm on the Stripe customer or subscription as metadata. Run the arms at the same time. Two prices run in different weeks differ in the traffic, the season and the campaigns as well as in the price. Decide when a cohort is closed before you look. A trial cohort is not finished when the trial ends, because the first charge can fail and then be retried. Stripe's recommended Smart Retries default is 8 tries within 2 weeks, so a cohort is complete about two weeks after its last trial ends. The ChartMogul report defines free-to-paid conversion as paying within six months of sign-up, which is a longer window than most trial tests can wait, so state the window you used. Read three numbers for each arm: the share of trials that made a first successful payment, the revenue per hundred trials, and a guard measure such as the share of first charges that failed or the number of support conversations. A price that wins on revenue and doubles failed first charges has moved cost somewhere else. ## Mistakes that make a price test mislead - Counting trial starts as a win. A cheaper or free entry raises starts and says nothing about payers. - Stopping when one arm is ahead. Decide the trial count first, as in the table, and read the result once. - Changing the page copy, the offer and the price in the same week. - Leaving existing customers in the numbers. Only people who signed up during the test belong to it. - Reading a short-term revenue gain as proof the higher price is right, without watching cancellations over the next few billing cycles. ## Questions about pricing tests ### Can I test prices if I only get a few trials a month? You can run it, but the table shows the cost: a gap of a few points needs hundreds or thousands of trials per arm. With a small volume, test a large change, use matched cohorts and treat the answer as a hint. ### Should the trial be free or paid in a price test? That is a separate test. Run it by itself, because a paid trial changes who starts as well as who pays, and the ChartMogul report gives no conversion figure for paid trials to borrow. ### Do existing subscribers see the new price? Not in Stripe unless you move them. Existing subscriptions keep their price, so a test on new sign-ups does not touch them. ### How long should I wait before reading the result? Until the last trial in the cohort has ended and the failed first charges have had their retry window, about two weeks with the recommended retry setting. ### Is a bigger price always riskier? The break-even share tells you how much risk. A rise from $49 to $59 breaks even when about one customer in six leaves, so the question is whether you expect more than that. ## Sources - Stripe documentation, Configure trial offers on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Compare trial offers and free trial periods: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/compare](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/compare), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Use free trial periods on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Create and manage prices: [https://docs.stripe.com/products-prices/manage-prices](https://docs.stripe.com/products-prices/manage-prices), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate payment retries: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026. - ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026): [https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026. - NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, 7.2.4.2 Sample sizes required: [https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc242.htm](https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc242.htm), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Price Increase Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/price-increase-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/startup-trial-optimization-guide Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial optimization for startups A practical order of work for a small SaaS team: cohort tracking, free recovery settings, exit conversations and one large change a month. > A startup with a few hundred trials a month cannot run clean split tests, so it should count trials by cohort, switch on the free recovery settings, fix the one obstacle that leavers name, and compare one change per month against the last. ## Why a small product optimizes differently Most advice about trials comes from products with thousands of sign-ups a month. At that volume you can split traffic, wait a week and read a clean answer. At 120 trials a month you cannot, and pretending you can produces confident nonsense. The ChartMogul conversion report is a useful reminder of how wide the spread already is: across 200 products the median free-to-paid rate is 8%, yet the report finds a tenfold gap between the top fifth and the bottom fifth of self-serve products. A median is not a target. Your own cohort is the only baseline that matters. The same report says that about a third of its respondents, 34%, were under 1 million dollars of annual recurring revenue, so small products are well represented in its data. The advice here keeps to what a one or two person team can do without a data team. ## Step 1: count trials by start cohort Group trials by the month they started. Count a trial as converted when the first successful charge lands, not when the customer enters a card, because a card that fails on day one is not a customer. Close a cohort only after its last trial has ended and the failed charges have had their retries. With the recommended Smart Retries setting that is about two weeks after the last trial ends. A concrete month looks like this. 120 trials started, 12 paid, price $29 a month. The [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) gives a rate of 10.0% and $348 of monthly revenue from the cohort. Write that down every month in one spreadsheet row. After three months you have a range, and a range is something you can judge a change against. ## Step 2: price the prize before you chase it Percentage points of conversion sound large and are worth very different amounts at different volumes. The table uses the same cohort and shows what extra points are worth in customers and revenue. | Gain | New rate | Extra customers a month | Extra MRR | Extra ARR | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +1 point | 11.0% | 1 | $29 | $348 | | +2 points | 12.0% | 2 | $58 | $696 | | +3 points | 13.0% | 4 | $116 | $1,392 | | +5 points | 15.0% | 6 | $174 | $2,088 | A customer is worth more than their first month. With a gross margin of 80% and monthly churn of 5%, both what-if inputs, the [customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) gives a lifetime value of $464 for a $29 plan. 4 extra customers a month from three more points is therefore worth far more than the $116 of extra monthly revenue it shows on day one. Put your own churn in before you decide how much effort a point deserves. ## Step 3: switch on the free recovery settings Some improvements cost nothing but a settings page, and they belong first because they do not need traffic to justify. Stripe's documentation lists them, and it publishes an average recovery rate of 55% of failed payments for businesses using Stripe Billing. That is Stripe's own figure for its whole customer base, not a promise for your account, and it should be read as a reason to turn the features on rather than as a forecast. | Setting | What the documentation says | Effort | | --- | --- | --- | | Smart Retries | Recommended default is 8 tries within 2 weeks. Stripe does not retry a hard decline such as a lost or stolen card. | One setting | | Failed payment emails | Stripe emails the customer after each failed payment with a link to update the card. | One setting | | Trial ending reminder | A reminder goes out 7 days before a free trial ends. A trial shorter than 7 days sends it at the start. | One setting | | Expiring card emails | An email goes out one month before the card on file expires. | One setting | At startup scale the money is small, and it is worth saying so. If the 12 paying accounts above pay $29 a month, MRR is $348. With a 5% first-try failure rate and a 40% recovery rate, the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) puts the unrecovered loss at $125.28 a year. That is a real amount for a small business, it grows with every customer you add, and the settings take minutes. It is not the biggest lever you have yet. ## Step 4: ask the people who left With few trials, one conversation teaches more than a dashboard. Contact people whose trials ended without payment within a few days, while they remember, and ask what they were trying to do and what stopped them. Five to ten answers will usually show one obstacle that comes up repeatedly: a setup step nobody finished, a missing integration, a price they did not expect. The ChartMogul report ends with three questions to answer before changing a trial, and they work as a diagnostic for a small team: do you want more people to use the product or more people to buy it, at what point does a user reach the moment that shows the value, and what does each free user cost you. The report gives no numbers for them. They are prompts for your own data. ## Step 5: change one thing a month and compare cohorts A split test needs more trials than you have. The table uses the same method as the pricing test guide, two-sided 5% significance and 80% power, for a product starting at 10% and 120 trials a month. | Change to detect | Trials in each arm | Time to collect both arms | | --- | --- | --- | | 10% to 13% | 1,774 | 30 months | | 10% to 20% | 199 | 4 months | | 10% to 30% | 62 | 2 months | A gain of three points would take years to confirm. A gain of ten points, which is a big change, takes months. So make one large change per month, keep everything else steady, and compare the new cohort with the last two or three. Say in your notes that this is weaker evidence than a split test, and revisit a result if a later cohort disagrees. One change is big enough to see even at this volume: asking for a card before the trial starts. The report lists 45 sign-ups and 3.6 paying customers per 1,000 visitors for free trials, against 35 sign-ups and 10.5 paying customers for trials that require a card, and a 30% conversion rate for card-required trials. Those are survey averages across different products, so your result will differ, but a gap that wide would show up in a few months of cohorts. ## A 90 day order of work 1. Weeks 1 and 2: set up the monthly cohort sheet and back-fill the last three months if you can. 2. Weeks 3 and 4: turn on retries, failed payment emails, the trial reminder and expiring card emails. 3. Month 2: talk to ten people whose trials ended without payment and fix the obstacle that appears most. 4. Month 3: make one large change, such as the card requirement or the length of the trial, and compare cohorts. ## Questions from small teams ### How many trials do I need before any of this works? Cohort tracking and the free settings work at any size. A split test of a small gain needs thousands of trials per arm, as the table shows, so below that use big changes and cohort comparisons. ### Should I copy the benchmark rate? No. The 8% median covers 200 different products, and the report finds a tenfold gap between the best and worst fifth. Compare against your own earlier cohorts. ### Is requiring a card right for a new product? It is a trade. The report shows fewer sign-ups and more payers per 1,000 visitors on average, and it notes that a card requirement can reduce sign-ups unless the product warrants the friction. ### What should I measure first? Trials started, paid on first charge, and failed first charges, each by start month. ### When should I move to proper split tests? When the arithmetic in the table says a test for the change you care about fits in a few weeks of your own traffic. ## Sources - ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026): [https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate payment retries: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate customer emails: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Revenue recovery: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe Billing product page: [https://stripe.com/billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 19 Oct 2026. - NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, 7.2.4.2 Sample sizes required: [https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc242.htm](https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc242.htm), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Customer lifetime value calculator](https://trialvalid.com/customer-lifetime-value-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/payment-timing-psychology Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Payment timing and the buyer's mind What payment systems fix about trial timing, what behavioral research does and does not say, and which timing choices to test. > When a buyer is asked to pay is part of the offer. The sources support a known charge date, a reminder before it and a card that works, while the behavioral research describes decisions in general, so each psychological idea here is a hypothesis to test on your own trial. ## Timing is part of the offer A free trial with a card has five moments where money and the buyer meet: the card entry at sign-up, the days of the trial, the reminder, the first charge and the line on the card statement. Each has a date, and the buyer either knows it or is surprised by it. Most payment timing advice online argues about the psychology of those moments. Before getting to that, it helps to see what is fixed by the payment system, because the mechanics limit what the psychology can do. | Moment | What Stripe documents | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Card entry | A free trial can start with or without a payment method. Without one, the trial can cancel, pause or invoice when it ends. | Free trial documentation | | Reminder | With customer emails on, a reminder goes out 7 days before the trial ends. A trial shorter than 7 days sends it at the start. | Trial reminder documentation | | Reminder event | The `customer.subscription.trial_will_end` event fires 3 days before the end by default. | Trial offer documentation | | First charge | An invoice is created when the trial ends and Stripe attempts the charge about an hour later. | Free trial documentation | | Statement line | Trial wording is added to the statement descriptor, and text after the 10th character can be overwritten by it. | Trial reminder documentation | The first charge is therefore not a surprise for the system. The date is set the moment the trial starts. Whether it is a surprise for the buyer depends on whether you showed it to them, reminded them and made the statement line recognizable. ## What the behavioral research says, and what it does not The Nobel committee published a popular summary of the work of Richard Thaler, which is a convenient, authoritative statement of several ideas people borrow for pricing. It covers mental accounting, reference points, loss aversion, the endowment effect and the tension between a planning self and a doing self. It is written about household money, savings and markets. It does not mention subscriptions or trials, and neither do the other sources used here report a measured effect of any of these ideas on trial conversion. That does not make the ideas useless. It means the honest way to use them is as sources of hypotheses with a plan for testing each one. The table keeps what the summary says apart from what it might mean for a trial. | Idea | What the summary says | A hypothesis for trials | How to check it | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reference points | People judge a price against a reference such as the price they last saw or the lowest they found. | The full monthly price shown beside the trial price becomes the reference for the first charge. | Compare cohorts that saw the later price before the card step and after it. | | Loss aversion and ownership | Giving up something already owned feels worse than gaining the same thing. In a 1990 experiment, people given a mug valued it more than people without one. | A buyer who has set something up in the product feels cancelling as giving it up. | Compare cancellation among trials that finished setup and those that did not, and treat it as correlation. | | Present and future costs | Costs and gains close in time take more of our awareness, and a thousand krona next year feels like less than today. | A charge 14 days away feels small at sign-up and large on the day it lands. | Track refund requests and complaints by days since the charge, with and without a reminder. | | Mental accounts | People split money into separate accounts in their minds and judge each decision against its own account. | A small monthly charge sits in a different account from a large yearly one. | Offer the yearly price beside the monthly one and compare the mix chosen. | | Defaults | The default option decides the outcome when people do not actively choose something else. | The plan preselected at the card step is the one most people keep. | Change which plan is preselected for half of new sign-ups and compare. | ## Asking for the card moves the decision earlier One timing choice has published numbers behind it, though they are survey averages and not a controlled test. For every 1,000 website visitors, the ChartMogul report lists 45 trial sign-ups and 3.6 paying customers when no card is asked for, against 35 sign-ups and 10.5 paying customers when the card comes first. Its conversion rate for card-required trials is 30%, and 20% of the free trial products in the study ask for a card up front. Read that as a statement about timing. Asking for the card at sign-up moves the buying decision to the start of the trial, so fewer people enter and a larger share of those who enter pay. Asking at the end spreads the decision across the whole trial and loses people at the moment they are asked. The report also warns that a card requirement can cut sign-ups unless the product warrants the friction, which is why the choice depends on how serious the buyer is. ## Where the card network limits the timing Some products place a hold on the card at sign-up to check that it can cover the price. Stripe documents how long a hold lasts. For card payments made online the hold is typically 7 days. For a Visa payment started by the merchant it is 5 days, with an exact window of 4 days and 18 hours. A trial longer than one window cannot be covered by a single hold, so the hold has to be renewed or the card checked again before the charge. | Trial length | Windows spanned at 7 days | Windows spanned at 4 days 18 hours | | --- | --- | --- | | 7 days | 1 | 2 | | 14 days | 2 | 3 | | 30 days | 5 | 7 | The 14 day trial, which 62% of the products in the ChartMogul report use, spans at least two windows. That is a mechanical fact about card networks and is independent of any psychology. TrialValid handles it by placing a fresh hold before an old one lapses, as the [trial holds page](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) describes. ## The reminder and the date The best-supported piece of payment timing advice is also the plainest: tell the buyer the date and remind them before it. Stripe sends a reminder 7 days before a trial ends when customer emails are on, and it exposes an event three days out for those who send their own. The ChartMogul report points to a 30 day trial from a large design tool that promises a reminder 7 days before the end, and its author writes that companies without such a reminder risk fewer sign-ups, weaker retention in months one to three and more refund requests. That is the author's reading, not a measured result, so treat it as a reason to test a reminder, not as a number to expect. ## Timing choices worth testing - When the card is asked for: at sign-up, mid-trial, or at the end. Measure sign-ups and payers per 1,000 visitors together, as the report does. - Where the post-trial price appears: before or after the card step. - Whether a reminder goes out and how many days ahead. Measure cancellations in the days after it and refund requests after the charge. - How the charge appears on the statement. Measure the share of disputes and questions that mention an unrecognized charge. - Which plan is preselected at the card step. Test one at a time and size the test first, as the [pricing test guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/pricing-tests-during-trials.md) describes. Use the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) to turn each result into customers and revenue. ## Claims to leave alone Be wary of articles that give an exact day or hour as the best moment to charge, or a percentage by which a timing trick raises revenue. None of the sources here reports one, and a specific number with no study behind it is a guess. The same goes for claims that a buyer's brain does something specific at a certain moment. The research available supports general ideas about how people weigh costs and gains. It does not give a schedule. ## Questions about payment timing ### Is it better to charge at the start or the end of a trial? The published figures favor asking for the card first on average, with fewer sign-ups and more payers per 1,000 visitors. They are survey averages across many products, so test it on yours. ### Does a hold on the card keep the money reserved for the whole trial? No. A hold lasts a number of days that depends on the card network, so a 14 day trial spans more than one window. ### How far ahead should a reminder go out? Stripe defaults to 7 days before a trial ends for its hosted emails. No source here compares other lead times, so treat 7 days as a starting point. ### Do loss aversion and mental accounting apply to my trial? They are general findings. No source here measures them on trials, so form a hypothesis and test it. ### Should the price be shown before the card is entered? Showing the later price early is the safest default, because it gives the buyer the real reference point. Test it against showing it after. ## Sources - Nobel Prize committee, Popular information on the 2017 economics prize (Richard Thaler): [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2017/popular-information/](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2017/popular-information/), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Place a hold on a payment method: [https://docs.stripe.com/payments/place-a-hold-on-a-payment-method](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/place-a-hold-on-a-payment-method), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Configure trial offers on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Use free trial periods on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate customer emails: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026. - ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026): [https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Card holds for free trials](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/how-trials-leak-revenue Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Where free trials leak revenue The five joints where a card-backed free trial loses revenue, which ones the sources let you size, and how to measure each in your own data. > A trial can lose revenue at the card step, at the end of a trial with no card, at the first charge and in the way the first invoice is built. The sources let us size the first three, and each one has a setting or a measure you can act on. ## The path a trial takes to a first payment Think of a trial as a pipe with joints. Revenue does not drain out of the middle of a good trial. It drains at the joints, where one system hands the buyer to another: the page hands them to a form, the form to a card network, the trial to an invoice, the invoice to a bank. Each joint has its own failure and its own repair, and each is easier to fix than the broad question of why trials do not convert. | Joint | How revenue leaks there | What the sources give | | --- | --- | --- | | Sign-up form | Friction before the trial starts | Sign-ups and payers per 1,000 visitors, by trial type | | Trial without a card | The trial ends and no payment method is on file | Three documented end behaviors | | First charge | The card is declined | Hard declines are not retried; a recommended retry schedule | | First invoice | The amount or date is not what the buyer expected | Billing anchor behavior after a trial | | Reporting | Trial revenue does not appear in MRR | Stripe analytics exclude it while a trial runs | ## Joint one: the sign-up form The ChartMogul conversion report converts its survey answers into a per-visitor view, and the view shows a leak that is also a gain. Each row below starts with 1,000 website visitors. The revenue column is ours: the paying customers in the row times a price of $49 a month, an illustrative price. | Trial type | Sign-ups | Paying customers | Paying share of sign-ups | Monthly revenue at $49 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | No card before the trial | 45 | 3.6 | 8.0% | $176.40 | | Card before the trial | 35 | 10.5 | 30.0% | $514.50 | The card step costs 10 sign-ups per 1,000 visitors in this data. It adds 6.9 payers. The leak is real, and so is the larger gain next to it, which is why it is worth counting both before you decide to remove a form field. These are average figures from 200 products in a survey. Your own numbers can sit anywhere, so use your analytics to fill the same two columns. ## Joint two: trials that end with no card on file If your trial starts without a card, which 80% of the free trial products in the report do, a trial ends one of three ways in Stripe. You choose which when you set up the subscription, and the choice is a revenue decision as much as a technical one. | End behavior | What happens | When it suits | | --- | --- | --- | | Create an invoice | An invoice is created at trial end. If it cannot be paid, the subscription moves to past due. | You want the standard dunning path to chase the buyer. | | Cancel | The subscription cancels immediately when the trial ends with no payment method. | You prefer a clean stop and a fresh sign-up later. | | Pause | The subscription pauses and creates no invoices. It can stay paused indefinitely and resume when a card is added. | You want a one-click way back for someone who liked the product. | Pausing keeps the door open for the buyer who meant to pay and did not get around to it. Stripe documents a hosted page where the customer can activate a paused subscription by adding a payment method, and the reminder email links to it. Stripe also warns that a free trial with no card lets spammers create fake customers, and recommends an account and a captcha before the trial starts. ## Joint three: the first charge fails A trial that ends well still has to be paid by a card that works. Stripe retries a failed subscription payment automatically, and its recommended Smart Retries default is 8 tries within 2 weeks. It does not retry a hard decline, which covers lost, stolen and pickup cards, an incorrect number, a revoked authorization and a payment that needs authentication. For those, the retries are scheduled but only run once the customer supplies a new payment method. That is why the email asking them to update the card matters as much as the retry. Stripe publishes an average recovery rate of 55% of failed payments for businesses on Stripe Billing. Treat that as the vendor's own average across its base. As an illustration, take a month of trials like the calculator's default cohort, $2,940 of first-month revenue. If 8% of that value fails on the first try, a what-if input, and you recover 40% of it today, the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) shows $235.20 failing each month and $141.12 lost, which is $1,693.44 a year if every cohort looks the same. Recovering at Stripe's average instead would save $423.36 a year. ## Joint four: the first invoice does not match the expectation When a trial offer ends, Stripe lets you choose what happens to the billing cycle. By default it resets the billing anchor to the moment the trial ends, so the buyer gets a full billing period from that date and a full-amount invoice with no proration. With the setting left unchanged, the original anchor stays and the time between the trial end and the next anchor date is prorated. Both are valid. A buyer who expected one and received the other is the one who writes in about the charge. Decide which you intend, say it on the page and in the reminder, and check one real test subscription end to end before launch. A mismatch between the promised and the actual first invoice is the leak that costs trust as well as revenue. ## Joint five: the report that hides the trial This leak does not lose money, but it hides it. Stripe's billing analytics do not count revenue from items in a trial toward MRR while the trial runs, for both free trial periods and trial offers. A growing trial base therefore looks like a flat MRR line for the length of the trial. If you read that line without knowing, you may blame a conversion problem for what is only a delay. Track trials started and trials paid on their own, as in the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md), alongside the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). ## A leak ledger for your own trials Keep one row per leak and fill it from your own data. Stripe sends events for most of these, so the ledger can run from your webhook log. | Leak | What to count | Where it comes from | | --- | --- | --- | | Sign-up friction | Visitors, sign-ups and payers per 1,000 visitors | Your analytics and your subscription list | | No card at trial end | Trials that ended cancelled or paused, by cause | Subscription deleted and paused events | | Hard declines | First charges that failed with a hard decline code | The payment failed event and its decline code | | Retry outcomes | First charges recovered after each attempt | The attempt count on the payment failed event | | First invoice surprises | Support contacts about the first charge | Your inbox, tagged | After a month you will know which row is largest. Fix that one first. The order the sources suggest for most products is card step, first charge and end behavior, and the [guide to ranking levers by evidence](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-conversion-levers-ranked-by-evidence.md) explains why. ## Questions about trial leaks ### What is the single biggest leak? It depends on your product. The only sizing in these sources is the card step, where the report shows fewer sign-ups and more payers per 1,000 visitors on average. Fill your own ledger to find yours. ### Does Stripe retry every failed payment? No. A hard decline is not retried until a new payment method is on file, so the customer email with a link to update the card does real work. ### Should a trial without a card pause or cancel at the end? Pausing keeps a one-click path back for someone who liked the product. Cancelling gives a clean stop. Neither has a published conversion figure in these sources, so pick one and measure. ### Why does my MRR look flat when trials are growing? Stripe does not count revenue from items in a trial toward MRR while the trial runs, so growth shows up when trials convert. ### Is the 55% recovery rate something I should expect? It is Stripe's published average for businesses on Stripe Billing. Use it as a reference for the calculator, not as a forecast. ## Sources - ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026): [https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Use free trial periods on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/free-trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Configure trial offers on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Compare trial offers and free trial periods: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/compare](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/compare), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate payment retries: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate customer emails: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe Billing product page: [https://stripe.com/billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [SaaS metrics glossary](https://trialvalid.com/saas-metrics.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-conversion-levers-ranked-by-evidence Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Trial conversion levers ranked by evidence Seven ways to convert more trials, ranked by the strength of the published evidence, with a plain note where no source gives a number. > Ranked by the strength of the evidence in sources we read, the order is: a card before the trial, recovery of failed first charges, a reminder before the first charge, and then a group of levers where the sources give no number at all. ## How this ranking works Most lists of conversion tactics rank by how clever the tactic sounds. This one ranks by what the sources we read can support, and it says plainly where they support nothing. Each lever gets one of three grades. Grade A means a published measurement exists, even if it is a survey average and not a controlled test. Grade B means the vendor documents the behavior or publishes an average over its own customers, with no comparison group. Grade C means the sources describe the lever and give no figure for its effect. The ranking is ours, it covers only the sources listed at the end, and it will change when better data appears. It is also not a ranking of size. A lever with strong evidence of a small effect can sit above one with a rumored large effect, because the point is knowing what you are buying before you spend a month on it. ## The ranking at a glance | Rank | Lever | Grade | What the sources show | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Ask for a card before the trial | A | Survey: 30% free-to-paid for card-required trials, and 10.5 payers per 1,000 visitors against 3.6 without a card | | 2 | Recover failed first charges | B | Stripe publishes 55% average recovery and recommends 8 tries within 2 weeks | | 3 | Remind the buyer before the first charge | C | Stripe sends a reminder 7 days ahead by default; no source measures the effect | | 4 | Choose the trial length | C | 14 days is the most common length; no source compares lengths | | 5 | Use a paid or small-price trial | C | 4% of products lead with one; no conversion figure is published | | 6 | Shorten the path to first value | C | The report asks when users reach the moment of value; no figure | | 7 | Change the price | C | No source reports an effect; arithmetic and your own test are the only guides | ## Rank 1: ask for a card before the trial (grade A) The ChartMogul conversion report is the strongest public evidence on this question that we found. It surveyed 200 products in January 2026 and reports 30% free-to-paid conversion for trials that require a card, more than five times the rate of trials that do not. The median across all products is 8%. The per-visitor view adds the cost, which is fewer sign-ups. | Entry model | Sign-ups per 1,000 visitors | Paying customers per 1,000 visitors | Paying share of sign-ups | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Card required before the trial | 35 | 10.5 | 30.0% | | Ungated freemium (use before sign-up) | 70 | 5.6 | 8.0% | | Freemium | 90 | 5 | 5.6% | | Free trial, no card | 45 | 3.6 | 8.0% | By this table a card-required trial produces about 2.9 times the paying customers per 1,000 visitors of a trial with no card, and more than either freemium row. Three cautions apply. The data is self-reported in a survey. The products that ask for a card may be the ones where buyers are more serious, so the card may not be the whole cause. And the number of people using the product, which matters for products that grow by word of mouth, is highest for the ungated model. The report itself says that if adoption is the goal, opening the product up may serve better, and if conversion is the goal, requiring a card is likely better. ## Rank 2: recover failed first charges (grade B) Stripe documents Smart Retries with a recommended default of 8 tries within 2 weeks, and publishes 55% as the average share of failed payments recovered by businesses on Stripe Billing. Neither is a controlled comparison, and the second is Stripe's own figure, so the grade is B. The lever only touches the share of charges that fail. Using the [failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) with $147 failing each month from a $2,940 cohort at a 5% failure rate and a 40% recovery rate today, the unrecovered amount is $1,058.40 a year. That is a bounded prize, and the setting is free, so it earns second place. ## Rank 3 and below: where the evidence is absent The levers below are common in advice and well supported as mechanisms. The sources we read give no number for their effect on conversion, so each is grade C. That does not mean they do not work. It means a claim of a specific percentage gain from any of them has no support here. ### A reminder before the first charge Stripe sends a reminder 7 days before a trial ends when customer emails are on, and exposes an event three days out for products that send their own. The report's author argues that a reminder lowers the risk of fewer sign-ups, weaker early retention and more refund requests, and points to a 30 day trial that promises one. It is an argument with an example, not a measurement. The reminder costs little to turn on. ### The length of the trial The report lists how common each length is among the products it surveyed and gives no conversion by length. Choose a length from how long your product takes to show its value, then watch your own cohorts. | Trial length | Share of products using it | | --- | --- | | 14 days | 62% | | 7 days | 14% | | 30 days | 14% | ### A paid or small-price trial Stripe supports paid trials, with its documentation giving 1 USD for the first week as a typical shape. The report counts 4% of products as leading with a paid trial and gives no conversion rate for them. A paid trial may filter for intent like a card does, but this is a hypothesis. ### Shortening the path to first value The report closes with three questions for anyone changing a trial. The second is at what point a user reaches the moment of value, immediately or after real setup. It publishes no figure, and this is probably the lever with the largest range of outcomes, because it depends entirely on the product. Measure the share of trials that reach your own first-value event and compare those who do with those who do not. ### Changing the price No source here reports the effect of a price change on trial conversion. The arithmetic of break-even is exact, and the sample size needed to test it is calculable. Both are in the [pricing test guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/pricing-tests-during-trials.md). ## How to use the ranking 1. If you do not ask for a card, decide whether the extra payers per 1,000 visitors are worth the lost sign-ups for your product, using your own numbers in the table above. 2. Turn on the free recovery settings whatever you decide above, because they cost a few minutes. 3. Turn on the trial reminder, then watch cancellations and refund requests around the first charge. 4. Pick one grade C lever per month, say in advance what you expect it to change, and compare cohorts. 5. Replace this ranking with your own as soon as your cohort data disagrees with it. To put a number on any of these, use the [trial conversion rate calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). A single point on a cohort of 400 trials at 15% and $49 is 4 extra customers and $196 of extra monthly revenue. ## Questions about the ranking ### Why is the card requirement first if it reduces sign-ups? Because it is the only lever with a published per-visitor comparison, and the comparison shows more payers per 1,000 visitors on average despite fewer sign-ups. ### Does grade C mean a lever does not work? No. It means the sources we read give no figure for its effect, so any specific gain claimed for it is unsupported here. ### Can I trust the survey numbers? Treat them as averages from a self-reported survey of 200 products. They are a reasonable prior and not a promise for your product. ### Which lever is cheapest to try? The recovery settings and the trial reminder, which are configuration in Stripe and need no development. ### Will this ranking change? Yes. It will change when a better source appears, and it should change when your own cohorts say something different. ## Sources - ChartMogul, The SaaS Conversion Report (Kyle Poyar, 4 Feb 2026): [https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe Billing product page: [https://stripe.com/billing](https://stripe.com/billing), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate payment retries: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/smart-retries), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Automate customer emails: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/revenue-recovery/customer-emails), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Manage compliance requirements for trials and promotions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials/manage-trial-compliance), read 19 Oct 2026. - Stripe documentation, Configure trial offers on subscriptions: [https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials), read 19 Oct 2026. ## Related - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Failed payment recovery calculator](https://trialvalid.com/failed-payment-recovery-calculator.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/chartmogul-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # ChartMogul review: pricing and who it suits ChartMogul turns billing data into MRR, churn and LTV reports. It is free to $10K MRR; paid plans start at $57 a month billed yearly. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with ChartMogul, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from ChartMogul's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | Subscription analytics. It calculates MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value from your billing data and adds a built-in CRM and scheduled reports. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Free up to $10K MRR. Starter runs $57 to $707 a month billed yearly ($69 to $849 billed monthly). Pro runs $99 to $1,199 billed yearly. Enterprise starts at $19,900 a year. | | Who built it, per its own company page | ChartMogul, which calls itself independent and profitable, more than 11 years old, with around 60 people. | | Who it suits | SaaS founders and operators who bill through Stripe, Chargebee or a similar system and want subscription numbers they can defend without a spreadsheet. | | Verdict | A free entry point for early revenue, then a price that follows the recurring revenue it tracks. Worth testing once hand-built metrics start to cost real time. | ## What ChartMogul is ChartMogul reads the subscriptions and invoices in your billing system and works out the numbers a subscription business is judged on: monthly and annual recurring revenue, churn, expansion, contraction and customer lifetime value. The pitch on its pricing page is one source of truth for those figures, even when billing is messy. It sits beside your billing system rather than replacing it. You connect a source such as Stripe or Chargebee, or send your own data through the API, CSV uploads, Google Sheets, n8n or Zapier, and ChartMogul does the reconciliation that would otherwise live in a spreadsheet. The page also lists a CRM inside the product, so conversations and deals can sit next to the revenue they relate to. That is the part that separates it from a pure reporting dashboard. ## Features worth knowing - MRR, ARR, churn and lifetime value calculated automatically, with customer-level movement history showing expansion, contraction and churn. - Segmentation of any metric by plan, country or cohort, and saved custom reports. - Scheduled email and Slack updates, and shareable report snapshots. - A revenue forecast model and industry benchmarks for companies at a similar stage. - Billing sources from ChartMogul itself, such as Stripe and Chargebee, plus partner-built ones such as Paddle and Xero, and any number of custom or third-party sources on the paid ladder. - A REST API, an MCP server and CSV exports; data migration and onboarding help is offered on top. ## Who is behind it ChartMogul's company page says the company exists to help SaaS businesses measure, understand and improve their subscription performance. Its team is about 60 people spread over North America, Europe and Asia, with operations in the UK, Germany, Canada and South Korea. The same page describes the company as independent, seed-strapped and profitable, in operation for more than 11 years. It also says it publishes reports and research for SaaS founders, which is where the conversion benchmark quoted further down comes from. ## Pricing as the vendor states it ChartMogul prices by the annual recurring revenue it tracks. The page shows a slider and seven price steps for Starter and for Pro, each in a monthly and a yearly billing version. We read the page on 19 Oct 2026 and list the first, middle and last step below; the text we read does not tie each step to an ARR figure, so none is assumed here. | Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | What the page lists | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | $0 | Up to $10K MRR (the plan table says up to $120K ARR), unlimited team members, 1 billing source | | Starter, step 1 of 7 | $69 | $57 | Up to 3 team members, 1 billing system plus 2 custom or third-party sources | | Starter, step 4 of 7 | $295 | $245 | Same feature set as step 1 | | Starter, step 7 of 7 | $849 | $707 | Same feature set as step 1 | | Pro, step 1 of 7 | $119 | $99 | Unlimited team members, several billing systems in one view, two-way CRM sync, warehouse push | | Pro, step 4 of 7 | $539 | $449 | Same feature set as step 1 | | Pro, step 7 of 7 | $1,439 | $1,199 | Same feature set as step 1 | | Enterprise | From $19,900 a year | Annual contract | For companies over $10M ARR; adds BI workflows and dedicated expert support | The yearly saving works out to 17.4% on the first Starter step and 16.7% on the last Pro step, in line with the 17% the page advertises. The FAQ describes a startup program that gives $50 off each month of a paid plan for 12 months, $600 in all. When tracked ARR grows past a plan's limit, the page says you move to the next tier. ## Alternatives Baremetrics, the revenue reports inside Stripe, and a spreadsheet you maintain yourself are the usual comparisons. Our [comparison pages](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) cover tools that touch trial billing directly. ## Who ChartMogul fits - A founder with a few paying customers who wants real MRR and churn numbers while revenue is still inside the free tier. - A small team that bills through one system and needs reports for a board or an investor without building them by hand. - A company with several billing systems or one-off payments, where the Pro tier lets multiple systems feed one view. - Not a fit if you only want a handful of numbers once a quarter; a spreadsheet costs less. ## Is it worth it The free tier removes the risk of testing it on early revenue, and the paid ladder is tied to recurring revenue tracked, so the bill rises as the business grows rather than as the team does. Starter caps the team at 3 people; Pro lifts that. The harder question is whether you will use the extras. A built-in CRM and warehouse sync matter to some teams and are noise to others. If the need is just reliable MRR and churn, the lower Starter steps are the comparison point. ## ChartMogul and a card-backed trial ChartMogul's own free trial runs 14 days and, per its FAQ, needs no credit card. The company's published Conversion Report, which we keep in our benchmarks file, found a median free-to-paid rate of 8% across 200 products and 30% for trials that require a card (read 18 Oct 2026). Those are different groups of products, so treat them as context and not as a forecast for yours. A metrics tool reports on trials after they exist. A card hold decides who starts one: [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) places the hold at sign-up and begins the trial only when the card can cover the price. To turn your own numbers into a trial-to-paid rate, use the [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | The Free plan covers up to $10K MRR, with unlimited team members | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Starter lists 7 price steps, $57 to $707 a month billed yearly | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Pro lists 7 price steps, $99 to $1,199 a month billed yearly | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | Enterprise starts at $19,900 a year on an annual contract | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The 14-day free trial needs no credit card | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing FAQ](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The startup program gives $50 off each month of a paid plan for 12 months | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul pricing FAQ](https://chartmogul.com/pricing/) | | The company describes itself as independent, profitable and more than 11 years old, with around 60 people | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul company page](https://chartmogul.com/company/) | | It has operations in the UK, Germany, Canada and South Korea | 19 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul company page](https://chartmogul.com/company/) | | Median free-to-paid 8%; card-required trials 30% (200 products, January 2026 study) | 18 Oct 2026 | [ChartMogul Conversion Report](https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-conversion-report/) | ## Questions ### Is ChartMogul free? There is a Free plan for companies up to $10K MRR, which the plan table also states as up to $120K ARR. Paid plans start once tracked revenue passes that limit, and a 14-day trial of the paid plans needs no card. ### How does ChartMogul decide which plan I pay for? The page says pricing follows the annual recurring revenue tracked in the product, calculated from active subscription data. When that figure grows past a plan limit you are moved to the next tier. ### Does ChartMogul replace my billing system? No. It connects to a billing source such as Stripe or Chargebee, or to your own data through the API or CSV, and reports on it. The billing itself stays where it is. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/outseta-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Outseta review: pricing and who it suits Outseta bundles Stripe billing, a CRM, email, gated content and a help desk. Plans run $37 to $697 a month billed yearly. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with Outseta, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from Outseta's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | An all-in-one back office for membership and subscription businesses: Stripe payments, sign-in and gating, a CRM, email and a help desk in one account. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Start $37, Scale $97, Pro $197, Max $697 a month billed yearly ($47, $127, $247, $897 billed monthly). Plans differ by contact count and by a transaction fee of 2%, 1%, 1%, 0%. | | Who built it, per its own company page | Outseta, a small, independent and fully remote company founded by co-founders who had worked together at an earlier software company. | | Who it suits | Founders of membership sites, communities and small SaaS products who would rather run one tool than stitch together five. | | Verdict | A coherent bundle with no per-seat charge. Price it against the separate tools it replaces, and check the transaction fee against your payment volume. | ## What Outseta is Outseta is a single account that holds the pieces a small subscription business usually buys separately. You connect Stripe to take payments, protect pages or app areas behind sign-in, keep every customer in a CRM, send marketing and transactional email, and answer customers through a help desk. The pricing page frames it as paying for one tool instead of five. The company sells to people launching a community, a membership site or a software product. Its page lists use cases such as associations, protected-content sites, clubs and communities, non-profits and SaaS and digital products. ## Features worth knowing - Subscription billing on Stripe, with individual and group memberships. - Authentication and protected content, so paid areas open only for the right accounts. - A CRM that tracks prospects and customers next to their subscription status. - Email for campaigns and automations, plus transactional messages. - A help desk, webhooks and API access, with an MCP option listed on every plan. - Unlimited seats for your team on every plan, and free data migrations. ## Who is behind it The company page describes a deliberately small, independent team that works fully remote. It states that everyone earns equity at the same rate, that pay is standardised across the team, and that the company runs without budgets, forecasts or performance targets. It names three co-founders, two of them engineers and one in marketing, who had worked together at an earlier software company before starting Outseta, and it lists the rest of the small team by role. ## Pricing as the vendor states it Outseta sells four plans, each with a monthly and a yearly price and a contact limit. Prices below are as shown on 19 Oct 2026; the yearly column is the per-month figure when billed annually. | Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Contacts | Transaction fee | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Start | $37 a month | $47 a month | Up to 1,000 | 2% | | Scale | $97 a month | $127 a month | Up to 10,000 | 1% | | Pro | $197 a month | $247 a month | Up to 25,000 | 1% | | Max | $697 a month | $897 a month | Up to 100,000 | None | The page labels the yearly option as roughly 25% cheaper. On the listed prices the difference works out to 20% to 24% depending on the plan. Outseta's fee is charged on top of Stripe's, which the page puts at typically 2.9% plus 30 cents in the US. On a $29.00 charge that is $1.14 to Stripe and $0.58 to Outseta on Start, $0.29 on Scale and nothing on Max, so the all-in cost is $1.72, $1.43 and $1.14. The [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) runs the Stripe half for your own prices. Scale costs $60 a month more than Start billed yearly and halves the fee, so the fee saving alone pays for the difference at about $6,000 of monthly payments ($8,000 on monthly billing). Scale also lifts the contact limit from 1,000 to 10,000, which may matter first. ## Alternatives Memberstack and Memberspace, both named on Outseta's own page, plus Whop, Chargebee and a self-assembled stack of separate tools. See our [comparison index](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) for tools that cover trial billing. ## Who Outseta fits - A creator or small team selling paid memberships who wants billing, gating and email in one place. - A SaaS founder with a small team who values unlimited seats, since the page says there are no per-user fees. - A community or association that needs a member database with payments attached. - Not a fit if you already run best-in-class tools for each job and only need one of them. ## Is it worth it The bundle is the appeal. If you would otherwise pay for a CRM, an email tool, a gating tool and a help desk, one flat price per plan with no seat charges is easy to compare. The yearly prices start low enough to test with a first product. The decision turns on volume. The transaction fee adds to Stripe's own, so a business processing a lot of payments should compare plans on fees as well as contacts, as the break-even figure above shows. ## Outseta and a card-backed trial Outseta describes a 14-day free trial with access to every feature, after which you choose whether to subscribe. That is a trial without a payment step up front. If you sell your own product on Stripe and want a card on file before access starts, that is a separate layer from the back office. [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) places a hold on the card at sign-up and starts the trial only when the hold succeeds. A billing and membership tool and a hold-based trial can sit in the same stack because they do different jobs. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | Four plans: Start, Scale, Pro, Max | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Start is $37 a month billed yearly or $47 billed monthly, for up to 1,000 contacts | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Max is $697 a month billed yearly, for up to 100,000 contacts, with no transaction fee | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The transaction fee is 2% on Start and 1% on Scale and Pro, charged on top of Stripe's fees | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing FAQ](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | Every plan includes unlimited seats and there are no per-user fees | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing FAQ](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The free trial lasts 14 days with access to every feature | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta pricing FAQ](https://www.outseta.com/pricing) | | The team is small, independent and fully remote, with equal equity for everyone | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta company page](https://www.outseta.com/company) | | Pay is standardised across the team and the company runs without budgets or forecasts | 19 Oct 2026 | [Outseta company page](https://www.outseta.com/company) | ## Questions ### Does Outseta charge per user? No. The pricing page says seats are unlimited on every plan and that you can invite your whole team without paying more. ### What is the Outseta transaction fee? It is 2% on Start and 1% on Scale and Pro, with no fee on Max, and it is charged in addition to the payment processor's standard fees. ### Does Outseta need a contract? The pricing page says there are no contracts and that monthly or annual plans can be cancelled at any time. A 14-day free trial of every feature comes first. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/supabase-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Supabase review: pricing and who it suits Supabase is a hosted Postgres platform with auth, storage and functions. A free tier exists; Pro is $25 a month plus usage past the included amounts. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with Supabase, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from Supabase's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | A hosted backend built on Postgres: a dedicated database per project, sign-in, file storage, realtime, edge functions, vector search and scheduled jobs. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Free at $0 with two active projects. Pro from $25 a month with usage billed past the included amounts. Team from $599 a month. Enterprise is custom. | | Who built it, per its own company page | Supabase Inc, a fully remote company that describes itself as one of the fastest growing open source communities. | | Who it suits | Developers and small teams who want Postgres with auth and storage handled, from a weekend prototype to a production app. | | Verdict | A low entry price with a $10 compute credit on paid plans. The bill follows usage, so estimate monthly active users and egress before you commit. | ## What Supabase is Supabase gives each project its own Postgres database and wraps the pieces an application keeps rebuilding around it: user sign-in, file storage, realtime subscriptions, serverless functions, vector storage and scheduled jobs. The product list on its pages names database, auth, functions, compute, realtime, storage, vector and cron. For a SaaS founder the practical meaning is a backend you can stand up in an afternoon and keep as the product grows. The pricing page describes the path as starting free, collaborating with a team, then scaling. ## Features worth knowing - A dedicated Postgres database for every project, with unlimited API requests on the free plan. - Auth that is priced by monthly active users: 50,000 on Free and 100,000 on Pro, with social sign-in and custom SMTP on the free plan. - File storage, a basic CDN, realtime messaging and edge functions, each with included amounts on every plan. - Compute add-ons from Micro at $10 a month up to 64 vCPUs and 256 GB of memory, billed hourly. - A spend cap that is on by default for Pro, so costs stay within the included quota until you switch it off. - Paid add-ons listed on the page include a custom domain from $100 a month and point-in-time recovery. ## Who is behind it The company page presents Supabase as part of one of the fastest growing open source communities and lists its investors and press coverage. It says the company is fully remote, with a strong affinity for open source maintainers and former founders. It describes an engineering team drawn from AWS, Google, Palantir, Stripe and other Y Combinator companies. We read no more than the page states and make no further claim about the company. ## Pricing as the vendor states it Supabase has four plans. Free and Pro show their included amounts below as listed on 19 Oct 2026; overage rates apply after the included amount on Pro. | Plan | Price | Included | After the included amount | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 a month | 50,000 monthly active users, 500 MB database, 5 GB egress, 1 GB storage | Projects pause after 1 week of inactivity; limit of 2 active projects | | Pro | From $25 a month | 100,000 monthly active users, 8 GB disk, 250 GB egress, 100 GB storage, $10 compute credit | $0.00325 per user, $0.125 per GB disk, $0.09 per GB egress, $0.0213 per GB storage | | Team | From $599 a month | Everything in Pro plus SSO for the dashboard, priority email support with SLAs, longer backup and log retention | See the vendor page | | Enterprise | Custom | Technical account management, premium support, a private Slack channel | Contact sales | Compute is billed per project: Micro $10, Small $15 a month, with larger sizes listed up to 16XL. Because paid plans include a $10 credit, a single Micro project on Pro costs the plan price alone. Three worked months on Pro, built from the listed rates (our own examples, not Supabase figures): Pro plan: $25.00; Compute: 1 Micro project, less the $10 credit: $0.00; Auth: 20,000 monthly active users (100,000 included): $0.00; Disk: 3 GB (8 GB included): $0.00; Egress: 40 GB (250 GB included): $0.00. Total $25.00. Adding a second Micro project takes it to $35.00. A growing app at 120,000 monthly active users, 12 GB of disk and 300 GB of egress on one Micro project: Pro plan: $25.00; Compute: 1 Micro project, less the $10 credit: $0.00; Auth: 120,000 monthly active users (100,000 included): $65.00; Disk: 12 GB (8 GB included): $0.50; Egress: 300 GB (250 GB included): $4.50. Total $95.00 a month, almost all of it from users past the included 100,000. ## Alternatives Firebase, Neon, a managed Postgres from a cloud provider, and running Postgres yourself. Supabase's own site offers pages for switching from Firebase and from Neon. ## Who Supabase fits - A solo founder or small team that wants Postgres, sign-in and storage without assembling them. - A product whose user count is easy to forecast, so the per-user charge past the included amount is predictable. - A team that wants to start free and add paid features only when the product earns them. - Less suited to a product with a very large free user base, because the monthly-active-user rate is the line that grows. ## Is it worth it At the entry point the price is modest for a first product: free to start, then $25 a month with a compute credit that covers one small instance. The cost to watch is auth, since the rate per extra monthly active user is the biggest line in the growing-app example above. The free plan pauses a project after a week of inactivity, so use it for building and testing and move to Pro before real customers depend on it. ## Supabase and a card-backed trial Supabase offers a free plan rather than a timed trial, so there is no card-backed step to compare. What matters for a seller is the product you build on top of it: a sign-up flow that stores users in a database like this one and a billing step that runs on Stripe. [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) covers the billing step. It places a hold on the buyer's card at sign-up and starts the trial only when the hold succeeds, in your own Stripe account. Your database choice and your trial design are independent decisions. For the infrastructure side of margin, try the [gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md). ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | Free is $0 a month, with 50,000 monthly active users and 500 MB of database per project | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity, with a limit of 2 active projects | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | Pro starts at $25 a month and includes 100,000 monthly active users, then $0.00325 per user | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | Paid plans include $10 a month of compute credit, enough for one Micro instance | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | Compute sizes run from Micro at $10 a month, billed hourly | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | Team starts at $599 a month | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | The Pro plan has a spend cap on by default | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase pricing](https://supabase.com/pricing) | | The company is fully remote and describes an open source community | 19 Oct 2026 | [Supabase company page](https://supabase.com/company) | ## Questions ### Is Supabase free? There is a free plan with 50,000 monthly active users, a 500 MB database and 1 GB of storage. It allows 2 active projects and pauses a project after a week without activity. ### What does Supabase Pro cost? It starts at $25 a month for the first project, and paid plans include a $10 monthly compute credit. Usage past the included users, disk, egress and storage is billed at the listed rates. ### Can I cap my spending on Supabase? The pricing page says the Pro plan has a spend cap turned on by default. You can switch it off to pay for resources beyond the included quota. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Gross margin calculator](https://trialvalid.com/gross-margin-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/trustmrr-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # TrustMRR review: pricing and who it suits TrustMRR lists software startups with revenue read from a payment provider. Listing starts free, marketplace plans from $29, and a sale costs 3% plus escrow. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with TrustMRR, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from TrustMRR's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | A marketplace and database of software startups where revenue is pulled from a connected payment provider, with offers, documents and escrow handled in one deal workspace. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Adding a startup to the revenue database is free. Marketplace listings run $29, $199 or $499 once. A sale carries a 3% platform fee plus Escrow.com fees, split between buyer and seller. | | Who built it, per its own company page | A solo founder, who says the site is independently owned and operated with no venture capital funding. | | Who it suits | Founders thinking about selling a small SaaS, AI product or mobile app, and buyers who want financial evidence on the page before they talk. | | Verdict | A clear fee schedule and a low cost to list. Treat the verified revenue as a head start and still run your own diligence, as the site itself says. | ## What TrustMRR is TrustMRR is two things on one site. The first is a database of startup revenue: a founder connects a payment provider and the revenue shown comes from that provider instead of a screenshot. The second is a marketplace on top, where those same startups can be put up for sale at a price the seller chooses. The pitch on its about page is that a polished website and a convincing revenue screenshot take minutes to fake, while a connected payment account is harder to dress up. Buyers browse by category, compare revenue, growth, asking price and multiple, then message the founder. ## Features worth knowing - Revenue read from a connected provider. The pages name Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Paddle, RevenueCat and others, connected with a read-only or scoped key. - Sellers set their own asking price, and the site says no minimum monthly revenue is needed to list. - A multiple on every listing, defined on the FAQ as the asking price divided by the last 30 days of revenue times 12. A $48,000 ask on $2,000 of monthly revenue is a 2.0x multiple. - A deal workspace with a mutual NDA, a letter of intent and an asset purchase agreement, then Escrow.com for payment. - Alerts for new listings, and an API and an MCP server for reading startup data. ## Who is behind it The about page says TrustMRR is built by a solo founder who has built and sold startups before and who uses the marketplace himself. It states that the business is independently owned and operated, with no venture capital funding. It also gives a snapshot dated 24 September 2026: 175 acquisitions in the preceding 365 days and an average of 23 days from listing to acquisition. We report those as the page states them and have not checked them. ## Pricing as the vendor states it TrustMRR has no separate pricing page; fees sit on its fees page and listing prices on its FAQ. We read both on 19 Oct 2026. Listing options are one-time payments unless noted. | Item | Price as stated | What it covers | | --- | --- | --- | | Revenue database listing | Free | Adding a startup to the verified revenue database | | Marketplace listing: Starter | $29 | A basic listing on the marketplace | | Marketplace listing: Growth | $199 | 5x visibility, a custom card colour and a newsletter feature | | Marketplace listing: Scale | $499 | 20x visibility, newsletter feature, pinned placement for 30 days and buyer matching | | Dofollow authority link add-on | $19 | Optional one-time upgrade | | AI visibility boost add-on | $79 | Optional one-time upgrade | | Side-panel sponsor spot | From $399 for 7 days | Optional sponsorship | | Buyer alerts | $199 a year | Filter-based or AI alerts for new listings | | Closing fee | 3% of the sale | Split equally between buyer and seller, plus Escrow.com fees | Escrow.com's fee falls as the deal grows: 2.60% for $0 to $5,000, 2.40% for $5,001 to $50,000, 1.90% for $50,001 to $200,000, 1.50% for $200,001 to $500,000. Adding TrustMRR's 3% gives the all-in closing cost. On a $20,000 sale that is $600.00 to TrustMRR and $480.00 to escrow, $1,080.00 in all (5.4%), or $540.00 for each side. On a $150,000 sale it is $7,350.00 (4.9%), or $3,675.00 each. These are our calculations from the listed rates. ## Alternatives Acquire.com, Flippa, Empire Flippers and Microns, all four named on TrustMRR's own about page, plus selling privately. ## Who TrustMRR fits - A founder with a small SaaS, AI or mobile product who wants buyers to see recorded revenue without a long back-and-forth. - A buyer looking for operating software businesses with financial evidence already attached. - A founder who is not selling yet but wants to see what comparable products ask, by revenue and multiple. - Not a fit if your business does not run through a supported payment provider, since the listing needs that connection. ## Is it worth it The cost of trying it is low: the revenue database is free and the lowest marketplace plan is $29 once, with no monthly listing bill. The closing fee is the real cost, and the schedule is published in full, so you can work out your own number before listing. The verification helps but does not finish the job. The about page says the platform puts financial verification up front and that buyers still review code, expenses, ownership and deal terms. Read the listing as the first step of diligence, not the last. ## TrustMRR and a card-backed trial TrustMRR is not a trial product, but it is a place where trial economics show up. A buyer looking at a subscription business will ask how many people who start a trial go on to pay, and how recurring revenue holds from month to month. If you run trials on Stripe, a card on file before the trial starts changes who enters it. [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) holds the plan price at sign-up and starts the trial only if the hold succeeds. To see your own funnel in numbers a buyer would recognise, use the [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) and the [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md). ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | Marketplace listing plans are $29, $199 and $499 | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR FAQ](https://trustmrr.com/faq) | | Adding a startup to the verified revenue database is free | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR FAQ](https://trustmrr.com/faq) | | Add-ons are $19 for a dofollow link, $79 for the AI visibility boost and from $399 for a 7-day sponsor spot | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR FAQ](https://trustmrr.com/faq) | | The closing fee is a flat 3%, split equally between buyer and seller, with Escrow.com fees on top | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR fees](https://trustmrr.com/fees) | | Escrow.com's fee is 2.60% on deals up to $5,000 and 2.40% from $5,001 to $50,000 | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR fees](https://trustmrr.com/fees) | | Revenue is read from a connected payment provider such as Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar or Paddle | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR about page](https://trustmrr.com/about) | | The multiple is the asking price divided by the last 30 days of revenue times 12 | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR FAQ](https://trustmrr.com/faq) | | The site says it is independently owned and operated with no venture capital funding | 19 Oct 2026 | [TrustMRR about page](https://trustmrr.com/about) | ## Questions ### Is TrustMRR free to use? Adding a startup to the verified revenue database is free. Selling on the marketplace starts at a $29 one-time listing, and a completed sale carries a 3% platform fee plus Escrow.com fees. ### How does TrustMRR verify revenue? The founder connects a supported payment provider with a read-only or scoped key, and the revenue shown comes from that provider. The site separates this provider data from descriptions and seller-reported information. ### Who pays the closing fees? Buyer and seller split both TrustMRR's 3% fee and the Escrow.com fee equally, and both are paid at closing through escrow. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [MRR calculator](https://trialvalid.com/mrr-calculator.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/kit-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Kit review: pricing and who it suits Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is email marketing for creators. It is free to 10,000 subscribers; paid plans start at $33 a month billed yearly. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with Kit, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from Kit's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | An email marketing platform for creators, formerly named ConvertKit, with landing pages, forms, automations, paid newsletters and a store for digital products. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Free for up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator is $33 a month billed yearly and Pro is $66, both shown for 1,000 subscribers. A 14-day trial of the paid plans needs no card. | | Who built it, per its own company page | Kit, a company that says it has 114 team members across 86 cities. | | Who it suits | Newsletter writers, course creators, coaches and other solo or small-team sellers who run their business through an email list. | | Verdict | A generous free tier for list building. Automations and sequences start on the first paid plan, so price that tier for your list size. | ## What Kit is Kit is a tool for building an audience and selling to it by email. You put sign-up forms and landing pages in front of readers, tag and segment the people who join, send broadcasts, and set up automations that run on their behaviour. The same account can charge for a paid newsletter, sell digital products and take recurring subscriptions. The name changed: the pricing page footer reads "Formerly ConvertKit". The page speaks to creators, with use cases for authors, bloggers, coaches, course creators, marketers, musicians, newsletter creators, podcasters and YouTubers. ## Features worth knowing - Unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts on all plans, free included. - Audience tagging and segmentation, so one list can be split by interest, source or action. - Visual automations and email sequences, which the page places on Creator and above. - Paid newsletters, digital product sales and recurring subscriptions, with the processing fee included in one rate. - A recommendations network and a newsletter sponsorship marketplace for growing and monetising a list. - A Kit MCP server, an API and an app store of integrations; free migration from another platform is offered. ## Who is behind it Kit's about page opens with the line that your business is its mission and says the company is spread across the globe, with 114 team members in 86 cities. It lists staff by role, from engineering and design to customer support and deliverability. The page links to the company mission and values, and the footer of the pricing page carries the former name. We read nothing further about ownership or finances and make no claim about them. ## Pricing as the vendor states it Kit prices by subscriber count and shows each paid plan for 1,000 subscribers. The figures below are as listed on 19 Oct 2026 with the pay-yearly option on. | Plan | Price as listed | What the page lists | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0, up to 10,000 subscribers | Unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, selling digital products and subscriptions | | Creator | $33 a month, $390 billed yearly | Everything in Free plus unlimited visual automations and sequences, A/B tested subject lines, polls, Kit branding removed, SMS, integrations, 24/7 email and chat support | | Pro | $66 a month; first-year offer $50 a month | Everything in Creator plus unlimited users, engagement analytics, deliverability reporting, subscriber scoring, newsletter referral system and priority support | | Sales fee | 3.5% plus 30 cents | On digital products and subscriptions, with card processing included; Kit puts its own share at 0.6% | | Paid Recommendations fee | 23.5% | Kit's fee on earnings paid through Paid Recommendations | The Creator saving of $78 a year on a $390 yearly bill implies a monthly-billing price of about $39, which is our arithmetic and not a figure the page prints. The Pro first-year offer is $593 for the year, a listed saving of $355, and the page says the plan renews at the standard rate afterwards. On a $29.00 digital product sale, the listed rate of 3.5% plus 30 cents comes to $1.32, or 4.6% of the sale, covering Kit and card processing together. ## Alternatives Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite and Beehiiv, the four comparison pages Kit itself lists, plus sending through a plain mailing tool without the commerce features. ## Who Kit fits - A newsletter writer or creator who wants to start free and keep unlimited forms and landing pages. - A course creator or coach who wants email, sales pages and checkout under one login. - A small team that needs automations and sequences, which means the Creator tier at least. - Not a fit if you send transactional product email for a software app; Kit is built around audiences and campaigns. ## Is it worth it The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, which is a long runway for list building. The question is when you need automations: the page puts them on Creator, so the first paid plan is where the price really starts for most sellers. Because paid prices follow list size, read the price for your own subscriber count rather than the 1,000-subscriber headline. The all-in sales fee is simple to model, and the paid-recommendations fee is worth reading before you rely on that income. ## Kit and a card-backed trial Kit offers a 14-day trial of its paid plans that does not ask for a card, plus the free plan. It is an example of the no-card approach to getting people into a product. For software sold on Stripe, the alternative is a trial that starts only after a card hold. [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) does that, and Kit-style email sits next to it: the sequence that welcomes and reminds a trial user can go out from an email platform while the hold and capture run on Stripe. The [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) turns your sign-up and paid counts into a rate. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | Creator is $33 a month, $390 billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | Pro is $66 a month, with a first-year offer of $50 a month | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | The paid plans have a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | The fee on digital products and subscriptions is 3.5% plus 30 cents, with card processing included | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | Kit's fee on Paid Recommendations earnings is 23.5% | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | The company was formerly named ConvertKit | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing) | | The company lists 114 team members across 86 cities | 19 Oct 2026 | [Kit about page](https://kit.com/about) | ## Questions ### Is Kit the same as ConvertKit? Yes. The pricing page footer says Kit was formerly ConvertKit. ### How many subscribers can I have for free? The free plan runs up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. Automations and sequences are listed from the Creator plan. ### Does the Kit trial need a credit card? No. The pricing page says the 14-day free trial of the paid plans needs no card and that free migrations are included. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [Churn Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/churn-rate-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/lemlist-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # lemlist review: pricing and who it suits lemlist runs cold outreach across email, LinkedIn, calls and SMS. Plans run $55 to $87 a month billed yearly, with add-ons for lead data. > TrialValid has no affiliate, referral or other commercial relationship with lemlist, and nobody paid for this review. Every price and statement below was read from lemlist's own pages on 19 Oct 2026. | At a glance | Detail | | --- | --- | | What it is | An outbound sales platform: a lead database, email and phone finders, multichannel sequences, a deliverability hub and AI agents for research and personalisation. | | What it costs (checked 19 Oct 2026) | Email plan at $55 a month on yearly billing ($69 billed monthly). Multichannel $87 ($109 monthly). Enterprise is custom. Lead data and intent signals are paid add-ons. | | Who built it, per its own company page | lemlist, a company that says it chose not to raise funding and builds in public. | | Who it suits | Founders, sales reps and small outbound teams who want to find prospects and contact them by several channels from one tool. | | Verdict | A clear two-plan ladder with the data sold separately. Work out your user count and credit use first, since both change the monthly bill. | ## What lemlist is lemlist is built for outbound: finding people who might buy and reaching them. The pricing page groups the product into four jobs. You find prospects through a lead database and email and phone finders, you automate outreach across email, LinkedIn, calls, WhatsApp and SMS, you protect inbox delivery across your mailboxes and domains, and you use AI agents for research and personalisation. It is a tool for the top of a sales funnel. Its place in a trial funnel is before sign-up: it helps get the right people to look at your offer. What they find when they arrive is a separate question. ## Features worth knowing - A lead database listed at 650M+ contacts, with an email finder and verifier and a phone number finder. - Multichannel sequences across email and LinkedIn, plus an in-app dialer and SMS; a WhatsApp option is listed as an add-on. - A deliverability hub with monitoring and alerts, for teams running several mailboxes and domains. - AI features including a research agent called lemAgent, intent signal agents and message personalisation. - A unified inbox, CRM integrations, an API, a CLI and an MCP server. - Data credits that are charged only for successful results and roll over while the subscription stays active. ## Who is behind it The company page is a careers page, and it is the closest thing to an about page that we could read: lemlist's own about path answers not found. It says the company did not raise funding, built in public and invested in personal branding. It lists five values, among them shipping fast, delivering a standout experience, working with ownership instead of supervision, writing its own rules and being open about results. We read no ownership or financial detail beyond that, and make no further claim. ## Pricing as the vendor states it lemlist shows two engagement plans, an Enterprise tier and two data add-ons. The monthly, quarterly and yearly toggle changes the figures; those below are the monthly and yearly prices as listed on 19 Oct 2026. | Plan or add-on | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | What the page lists | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Email | $69 | $55 | Unlimited users and senders, 50,000 emails a month, finders, lead database, AI agents, MCP and CLI, deliverability hub | | Multichannel | $109 | $87 | Email plan features plus 5 senders per user, unlimited emails and messages, LinkedIn and SMS automation, call dialer | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Multichannel features plus custom roles, a dedicated account manager, custom terms, SSO and priority support; handled through sales | | Lead data enrichment | $20 | $16 | 2,000 credits a month (400 emails or 100 phones) | | Buying intent signals | $29 | $21 | 100 signals a month | The page offers 10% off for quarterly billing and 20% off for yearly. On the listed prices the yearly saving is 20.3% on Email, 20.2% on Multichannel and 27.6% on intent signals (our arithmetic). The FAQ says pricing is based on the number of users. If the $87 Multichannel price is per user, a team of three on yearly billing would pay $261 a month, and $277 with one lead data add-on. The Email plan lists unlimited users, so $55 stays flat as the team grows, within its email volume. Check the user selector on the page before you budget. The 14-day free trial includes the Multichannel features except in-app calls, plus 200 free credits. A banner on the page the day we read it advertised an extended 30-day trial through a referral, so the offer you see may differ. ## Alternatives Apollo, Instantly, Smartlead and Reply for outbound email; a CRM with its own sequences if you only need light outreach. ## Who lemlist fits - A founder doing early sales who wants prospect data and outreach in one place. - A small sales team that contacts people by email and LinkedIn and wants one inbox for replies. - A company that runs many mailboxes and cares about inbox delivery monitoring. - Less suited to a team that only wants a lead list, since the data sits behind credits, or to one that never does outbound. ## Is it worth it The plan structure is easy to read: pick Email for volume with unlimited users, or Multichannel when LinkedIn, calls and SMS matter. The lead data is billed separately in credits, which keeps the base price low and makes the add-on the number to estimate. Before you commit, count the users and estimate your monthly lookups against the 2,000 credits in the data add-on. The page says credits are charged only for successful results and roll over while you stay subscribed, which limits waste. The [ROI calculator](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) can show whether a monthly tool cost clears a target return. ## lemlist and a card-backed trial lemlist sits upstream of a trial. It helps you find and contact the people you want in a trial, and its own trial runs 14 days as described on its page. Once those people reach your offer, the trial design takes over. [TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) holds the plan price on the buyer's card at sign-up and starts the trial only if the hold succeeds, in your own Stripe account. An outbound tool and a card-backed trial cover different steps of the same path. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | The Email plan costs $55 a month on yearly billing or $69 billed monthly, with 50,000 emails a month | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | The Multichannel plan is $87 a month billed yearly or $109 billed monthly | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | Enterprise has a custom price and is sold through the sales team | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | Lead data enrichment is $16 a month billed yearly for 2,000 credits | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | Buying intent signals are $21 a month billed yearly for 100 signals | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | The free trial runs 14 days and includes 200 free credits | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing FAQ](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | Credits are charged only for successful results and roll over while the subscription is active | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist pricing FAQ](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing) | | The company says it did not raise funding and builds in public | 19 Oct 2026 | [lemlist company page](https://www.lemlist.com/join-lemlist) | ## Questions ### How much does lemlist cost? The Email plan lists $55 a month billed yearly and Multichannel $87. Enterprise is custom, and lead data and intent signals are separate paid add-ons. ### How do lemlist credits work? Credits pay for data features such as finding contact details and receiving buying signals. The page says you are charged only for successful results and unused credits roll over while your subscription is active. ### Is there a free trial? Yes. The FAQ describes a 14-day trial with the Multichannel features except in-app calls and 200 free credits. > Spotted a figure that has changed? Email hello@meralume.com with the page link and we will update this review. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [ROI Calculator for Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/roi-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/sparktoro-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # SparkToro review: pricing and who it suits A dated look at SparkToro, the audience research tool: what a report contains, the plan prices as listed, usage limits and who it suits. > No affiliate, sponsorship or commercial relationship exists between TrialValid and this vendor, and nothing here was paid for. Prices and statements are the vendor's own, read on the date shown. | At a glance | SparkToro | | --- | --- | | What it is | An audience research tool that takes a plain-language description of an audience and reports where that audience spends time online. | | What it costs | Free for 3 previews a month. Paid plans are listed at $38 (Personal, annual only), $150 (Business) and $300 (Agency) per month. Checked 2026-10-19. | | Who built it | Per its own about page: founded by Casey Henry and Rand Fishkin, a software company based in Washington State. | | Who it suits | Marketers and founders who want a list of sites, podcasts, channels and keywords an audience already uses. | | Verdict | Priced by reports per month, so cost per report falls sharply on the larger plans. Worth it only if you will use the reports. | ## What SparkToro is SparkToro answers a narrow question: given a described audience, where do those people read, watch, listen and search? You type a sentence about the audience and it builds a report from the data types the pricing page lists. The point is targeting. A founder can use the output as a shortlist of publications to pitch, podcasts to appear on, channels to sponsor and keywords to write for, rather than defaulting to the same two ad networks. It sits upstream of a trial page: it helps decide where to send people, not what happens after they land. ## Features worth knowing - Audience search from a sentence, with demographics such as age, seniority, company size and location. - Lists of social accounts, social networks, websites, publications, podcasts, YouTube channels and subreddits the audience engages with. - Search keywords, bio keywords and a view of how the audience talks to AI tools. - An MCP server on paid plans, so reports can be run from an AI assistant. - Take Action and Persona Builder on the Business and Agency plans. - A separate public API sold on credit bundles, outside the subscription. ## Who is behind it The about page says SparkToro was founded by Casey Henry and Rand Fishkin, who worked together earlier at Moz, and that the company is based in Washington State. It lists Rand Fishkin as CEO and co-founder, Casey Henry as CTO and co-founder and Amanda Natividad as chief evangelist. The page states a mission of making audience research available to organizations without large budgets, and says the company is not seeking to raise additional capital and pursues profitable growth. Those are the company's own statements, quoted here as such. ## Pricing as stated | Plan | Per month as listed | Reports per month | Users | Notes from the page | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 3 previews | 1 | Preview data only | | Personal | $38 | 4 | 1 | Annual plan only; all data types; MCP access | | Business | $150 | 25 | 10 | Page notes a $456 yearly saving; adds Take Action and Persona Builder | | Agency | $300 | 250 | 100 | Page notes a $900 yearly saving; adds single sign-on and SCIM | Source: [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing), read 2026-10-19. The page has a monthly and annual toggle, and the figures above are the ones shown with the page's saving notes. It says a plan can be cancelled or changed at any time, stays active to the end of the billing cycle, and that partial use is not refunded except where an access problem was caused by SparkToro. My arithmetic, assuming every report in the plan is used: Personal works out to $9.50 a report, Business to $6.00 and Agency to $1.20. If you would run four reports a month, the Personal plan is the match; if you would run ten, the Business plan carries unused room. ## Alternatives Other tools in the audience and market research space include Similarweb, Audiense, BuzzSumo and SEMrush, and manual research on Reddit and podcast directories. ## Who it fits - A founder choosing where to spend a first marketing budget and wanting a list of specific places. - A small agency that researches several audiences a month and can use the 25-report plan. - A content team looking for podcasts, publications and keywords for an audience it already knows by description. - Not a fit: someone who needs one report a quarter, where the free previews may be enough. ## Is it worth it The free tier shows previews only, so the way to judge fit is to run a few previews against an audience you already understand and see whether the lists match what you know. If they do, the paid plan buys full data types and room to run more. Value depends on volume. A plan priced per report favours people who research often; a solo founder running a handful of reports a year is closer to the free tier. The stated rule that partial use is not refunded makes it sensible to start on the plan that matches the number of reports you will really run. ## How it relates to a card-backed trial SparkToro uses a free tier of three previews a month rather than a timed trial. The buyer can see the shape of the output without a card, and a paid plan unlocks full data. That is a freemium on-ramp, closer to a sample than to a trial of the full product. A seller who wants buyers to try the real product, not a sample, can pair a trial with a card check, as [TrialValid card holds](https://trialvalid.com/product/trial-holds.md) do, and then watch how many trials end as paying customers on a [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md). ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | SparkToro was founded by Casey Henry and Rand Fishkin and is based in Washington State. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/about](https://sparktoro.com/about) | | The company states it is not seeking to raise additional capital. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/about](https://sparktoro.com/about) | | The free plan allows 3 previews a month for one user, with preview data only. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | | Personal is $38 a month, annual only, with 4 reports a month and one user. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | | Business is $150 a month with 25 reports and 10 user seats; Agency is $300 a month with 250 reports and 100 user seats. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | | An MCP server is included free with any paid plan; the public API is sold separately on credit bundles. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | | A plan can be cancelled or changed at any time and stays active to the end of the billing cycle. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | | Partial use is not refunded except for problems caused by SparkToro. | 2026-10-19 | [sparktoro.com/pricing](https://sparktoro.com/pricing) | ## Questions people ask ### Does SparkToro have a free plan? Yes. The pricing page lists a free plan with 3 previews a month for a single user and preview data only. Full data types start on the Personal plan. ### Can I run SparkToro reports from an AI assistant? The pricing page says an MCP server is included free with any paid subscription, and a separate credit-based API is available for building it into your own software. ### Can I get a refund if I stop using it? The page says a plan can be cancelled at any time and runs to the end of the billing cycle. It does not refund partial use, except where SparkToro caused an access problem. > Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/visualping-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Visualping review: pricing and who it suits What Visualping charges for web page change alerts on its free, Personal and Business tiers, who runs it, and who should pay for it. TrialValid has no affiliate or commercial relationship with Visualping, and this page earns us nothing if you sign up. Every figure below comes from Visualping's own pricing page and company footer, read on 2026-10-19. ## At a glance | Question | Visualping | | --- | --- | | What it is | A service that checks web pages on a schedule and sends an alert when something on the page changes. | | What it costs (checked 2026-10-19) | A free tier, Personal plans from $14 a month, Business plans from $140 a month, and a custom quote for its Solutions tier. | | Who built it | WebMonitoring Technologies Inc., named in the footer of its own site. | | Who it suits | Anyone who needs to know when a competitor price, a job post, a policy page or their own site changes. | | Verdict | Easy to try because the free tier is real and the Business trial asks for no card. Pay only when the page count or check speed runs out. | ## What Visualping is Visualping watches pages for you. You give it a web address, choose how often it should look, and it compares each new copy with the previous one. When the page changes it sends an alert that includes a highlighted screenshot, and its pricing page says an AI summary tells you whether the change looks important. The detection modes named on the pricing page are visual, text and element change. That matters in practice: a visual check suits a page layout you care about, a text check suits a policy or a price list, and an element check lets you watch one part of a long page instead of all of it. ## Features worth knowing - Every plan, including the free one, lists visual, text and element change detection plus AI change summaries and an important-or-not flag on each change. - A REST API and an MCP server are listed on all plans, free included, though API calls draw on the plan's normal check quota. - Actions let a check log in, click, type or run a script before it compares the page, and a Chrome extension can record those actions in your own browser. - Email alerts, webhooks, Telegram and n8n come with every plan. SMS starts at Personal 5K, and Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Sheets are listed as Business features. - Business plans add search and filtering, bulk import, advanced reports, labels, one year of data retention in place of the shorter default, and team invitations. ## Who is behind it The footer of the Visualping site names WebMonitoring Technologies Inc. as the company behind the product and as the owner of the Visualping trademark. The company's careers page describes a remote-first team. We read nothing about its founders, funding or customer count that we would repeat here. ## Visualping pricing | Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Checks a month | Pages | Fastest check | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Not sold annually | 150 | 5 | Every 60 minutes | | Personal 1K | $14 | $120 a year ($10 a month) | 1,000 | 10 | Every 15 minutes | | Personal 5K | $35 | $300 a year ($25 a month) | 5,000 | 20 | Every 5 minutes | | Personal 10K | $70 | $600 a year ($50 a month) | 10,000 | 40 | Every 2 minutes | | Business 20K | $140 | $1,200 a year ($100 a month) | 20,000 | 200 | Every 2 minutes | | Business 50K | $350 | $3,000 a year ($250 a month) | 50,000 | 500 | Every 2 minutes | Prices as printed on the pricing page on 2026-10-19. Business tiers between 20K and 50K checks follow the same step of $70 a month. The page says checks do not roll over from one month to the next, and that business workspaces each carry their own plan and cost. ## Alternatives Other tools that watch web pages for changes include Distill, ChangeTower, Wachete and Hexowatch. We list names only and have not compared them. ## Who it fits The free tier is enough to follow five pages once a day, which covers a competitor pricing page, a job board and a regulation page. If you want to check more often than hourly or watch more than five pages, the Personal tiers raise both limits in clear steps. The Business tiers are for teams. They add several users, reports and the Slack, Teams and Sheets alerts, and the number of pages jumps to 200 at the first Business step. A solo founder rarely needs that much on day one. ## Is it worth it For a SaaS founder the useful question is how many pages you really need to watch. Five pages at hourly checks cost nothing. Twenty pages at five minute checks cost $35 a month on the monthly price. Compare that with the hour a week it would take to look by hand. The thing to check before you pay is whether your pages need a login or a script, because those are the checks most likely to be noisy. Run the free tier on your real pages for a week and see how many alerts are useful. ## How it relates to a card-backed trial Visualping's pricing page says a Business trial runs 14 days with no card on file, and that nothing is ever charged automatically because there is no card. That is the opposite design to a card-backed trial, where the buyer gives a card up front and the first charge happens on its own. The no-card route lowers the barrier to starting, while a card-backed trial, as TrialValid sets it up in [Product](https://trialvalid.com/product.md), holds the plan price at sign-up and charges at the end. Which one wins depends on how much you value the number of starts against the share that stay. Use the [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) with your own numbers to compare. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | The free plan allows 5 pages and 150 checks a month, at most one check every 60 minutes, for one user. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | Personal 1K costs $14 a month billed monthly or $120 a year billed annually. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | Business 20K costs $140 a month billed monthly and includes 200 pages and 5 user seats. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | A Business trial lasts 14 days and needs no card on file. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | REST API and MCP server access are listed on all plans, free included. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Sheets alerts are listed as Business features. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | An annual plan cancelled early is refunded for unused months without the annual discount. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) | | The company named in the site footer is WebMonitoring Technologies Inc. | 2026-10-19 | [Company page](https://visualping.io/) | > Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com with the page you checked and we will review the entry. ### Is Visualping free? There is a free plan with 5 pages and 150 checks a month at hourly speed, per the pricing page we read on 2026-10-19. Paid plans start at $14 a month. ### Do I need a card to try the Business plan? The pricing page says the 14 day Business trial has no card on file and nothing is charged automatically at the end. ### Can I get a refund on an annual plan? The pricing page says a plan cancelled early is refunded for the unused months without the annual discount. Read the vendor's refund policy before you pay. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/systeme-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Systeme.io review: pricing and who it suits Systeme.io bundles funnels, email, courses and affiliates on one plan. We checked its free plan limits and paid tiers from $17 a month. No affiliate or commercial relationship exists between TrialValid and Systeme.io. The facts here come from its pricing page and its terms and conditions page, both read on 2026-10-19. ## At a glance | Question | Systeme.io | | --- | --- | | What it is | An all in one platform for sales funnels, email marketing, online courses, blogs, an affiliate program and simple automations. | | What it costs (checked 2026-10-19) | A free plan, then $17, $47 and $97 a month, with two months free when billed annually. | | Who built it | The sales terms on its own site name ITACWT Limited as the company behind the network of sites. | | Who it suits | Solo creators and small teams who want one tool in place of a funnel builder, an email tool and a course platform. | | Verdict | A generous free plan and a low entry price. The limits that bite are contacts and funnels, so count yours before you pick a tier. | ## What Systeme.io is Systeme.io sells one account that replaces several tools. On the pricing page its tiers are built around contacts, sales funnels and courses, and every tier includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts and an affiliate program. It is a hosted service, so there is nothing to install. You build funnel pages, connect Stripe or PayPal to take payments, and run email and automation rules from the same dashboard. The pricing page also lists evergreen webinars, a booking calendar, communities, blogs and physical product handling, with the amount allowed depending on the plan. ## Features worth knowing - Every plan lists unlimited email sends, unlimited file storage, unlimited students and an affiliate program you can run yourself. - The vendor states there are no transaction fees on its side when you accept payments with Stripe or PayPal. The processors still charge their own rates, which you can estimate with our [Stripe fee calculator](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md). - Sub-accounts are unlimited on every plan, and each one gets the same limits as the main account at no extra cost, according to the pricing page. - The page lists order bumps, one click upsells, deadline funnels and A/B tests, and it offers a free migration for people who move from another tool. - Support is stated as available seven days a week with an average first response under two hours. ## Who is behind it The terms and conditions page applies to what it calls the network of sites of ITACWT Limited, and that is the company name we can tie to Systeme.io from its own pages. It says card payments go through Stripe, Inc. The site has no separate about page that we could read, so we rely on that terms page and stop there. ## Systeme.io pricing | Plan | Monthly price | Contacts | Sales funnels | Courses | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 2,000 | 3 | 1 | | Startup | $17 | 5,000 | 10 | 5 | | Webinar | $47 | 10,000 | 50 | 20 | | Unlimited | $97 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Prices as stated in the pricing page text on 2026-10-19. The Webinar tier adds evergreen webinars. Annual billing is advertised as two months free, and the terms page says accounts on the free plan are limited to USD 10,000 in lifetime sales revenue. ## Alternatives Tools often compared with it include ClickFunnels, Kajabi, Kit, Mailchimp, Teachable and Podia. We list names only. ## Who it fits If you sell a course, a membership or a digital product and you want the funnel, the checkout and the follow up emails in one place, the free plan is a fair way to build the first version. Two thousand contacts and three funnels cover many first launches. The tiers are driven by contact counts. Once your list passes 5,000 you move to $47 a month, and past 10,000 to $97. A business with a large list but few funnels may pay more than it expects, so look at your contact count before anything else. ## Is it worth it The vendor's own pricing FAQ compares a stack of separate tools to its price, and that comparison is an advertisement. A better test is to list the tools you pay for today, add up their monthly bills, and check whether each feature you rely on exists on the plan you would need. Be careful with the free plan if you expect strong sales. The terms page limits free accounts to USD 10,000 of lifetime sales revenue, so a product that sells well will push you onto a paid plan. ## How it relates to a card-backed trial Systeme.io lets you start on a free plan with no card, which is a lower barrier than a trial and also means no payment method is on file when you decide to upgrade. For a seller using it to run trials of their own product, the question is when the card is collected. A card taken at sign-up lets the first charge happen without a second checkout, which is the design described in [Product](https://trialvalid.com/product.md). A free plan keeps starts high and leaves the upgrade to chance. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | The free plan allows 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 course, 1 blog and 1 custom domain. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Startup costs $17 a month with 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Webinar costs $47 a month with 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses and evergreen webinars. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Unlimited costs $97 a month with unlimited contacts, funnels and courses. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Every plan includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts and a 0% transaction fee from Systeme.io. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Annual billing is advertised as two months free. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://systeme.io/pricing) | | Free accounts are limited to USD 10,000 in lifetime sales revenue. | 2026-10-19 | [Company page](https://systeme.io/terms-and-conditions) | | The sales terms name ITACWT Limited and say card payments run through Stripe, Inc. | 2026-10-19 | [Company page](https://systeme.io/terms-and-conditions) | > Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com with the page you checked and we will review the entry. ### Does Systeme.io have a free plan? Yes. The pricing page lists a free plan with 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels and 1 course. It does not ask for a card. ### What does Systeme.io cost after the free plan? The pricing page lists $17, $47 and $97 a month for the Startup, Webinar and Unlimited plans, as read on 2026-10-19. ### Is there a cap on sales on the free plan? The terms page says accounts on the free plan are limited to USD 10,000 in lifetime sales revenue, with affiliate commissions not counted. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Stripe Fee Calculator (US)](https://trialvalid.com/stripe-fee-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog/linkody-review Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Linkody review: pricing and who it suits Linkody tracks the backlinks you build and the ones competitors earn. We checked five paid plans from $14.90 a month and a 30 day trial. TrialValid has no affiliate or commercial tie to Linkody and gets nothing if you buy it. The details below come from its plans page and its contact page, read on 2026-10-19. ## At a glance | Question | Linkody | | --- | --- | | What it is | A backlink monitoring service that tells you when links to your sites, or to competitor sites, appear, change or disappear. | | What it costs (checked 2026-10-19) | Five plans from $14.90 a month, or $11.20 a month billed annually, after a 30 day trial. | | Who built it | Linkody, with a business address at VIT in Vic, Spain, on its own contact page. | | Who it suits | Freelance SEOs, agencies and site owners who run link building campaigns and need regular proof of what stuck. | | Verdict | Fair value if you work on links every week. The plans scale by sites and links, so the entry tier is plenty for a founder with one product site. | ## What Linkody is Linkody checks the backlinks of the sites you add and keeps an up to date list. It reports new links, lost links and changes such as a link turning nofollow, and it can send those reports to your inbox so you do not have to log in. It also monitors competitor sites. The plans page says competitor links are free, but the website quota is shared between your own sites and the competitors you track, so adding competitors uses up slots. ## Features worth knowing - Email reports tell you about new links and status changes, and the home page says landing pages are checked so you learn when a link points to a page that now returns an error. - Link metrics such as Ahrefs DR, Moz DA and Spam Score are shown beside each link to help you judge its value. - Excel and CSV export is on every plan, and so are white label PDF reports ready to send to clients. - A disavow tool lets you manage rules for links flagged by spam metrics from inside the product. - The company offers free tools on the same site, including a backlink checker and a website authority checker. ## Who is behind it The contact page lists Linkody with a business address at VIT, Vic Integració Tecnològica, in Vic, Spain. It shows no founders or team members, so we say nothing about who built it beyond that company address and the name on the page. ## Linkody pricing | Plan | Monthly price | Annual price per month | Websites | Monitored links | Users | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Webmaster | $14.90 | $11.20 | 2 | 500 | 1 | | Advanced | $24.90 | $18.70 | 5 | 2,000 | 1 | | Pro | $49.90 | $37.40 | 20 | 5,000 | 3 | | Agency | $99.90 | $74.90 | 50 | 20,000 | 5 | | Agency XL | $153.90 | $115.40 | 100 | 50,000 | 10 | Prices as printed on the plans page on 2026-10-19. The annual column is the per month figure shown when billed yearly, and the page advertises three months free on yearly billing. The website quota covers your own sites and any competitor you track. ## Alternatives Other backlink tools include Ahrefs, Semrush, Monitor Backlinks and Majestic. We list names only and have not compared them. ## Who it fits A SaaS founder with one product site and a handful of competitors fits the Webmaster or Advanced tier. Two websites and 500 links is enough to learn the tool, and Advanced gives five websites and 2,000 links for $24.90 a month. Agencies fit the Pro tier and above. Three users, twenty websites and white label PDFs match the client reporting the plans page describes. ## Is it worth it Link monitoring is worth paying for when you pay people or spend hours getting links. It tells you which of them stayed. If you build no links, the free checker on the same site may be all you need. Before you buy, add your site and a competitor in the free trial, and see whether the report shows anything you did not already know. ## How it relates to a card-backed trial Linkody runs a 30 day free trial that, per its own plans page, ends automatically and asks for no credit card. A longer trial with no card removes risk for the buyer and moves the decision to the end of the month. A card-backed trial turns that moment into a charge the buyer agreed to at sign-up, as described in [Product](https://trialvalid.com/product.md). If you sell a tool with monthly reports, a 30 day trial lets the buyer see one full cycle, and the [trial conversion calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) helps you weigh length against conversion. ## Sourced facts | Fact | Read on | Vendor page | | --- | --- | --- | | Webmaster costs $14.90 a month for 2 websites, 500 monitored links and 1 user. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | Advanced costs $24.90 a month for 5 websites and 2,000 monitored links. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | Pro costs $49.90 a month for 20 websites, 5,000 links and 3 user seats. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | Agency XL costs $153.90 a month for 100 websites, 50,000 links and 10 user seats. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | The free trial lasts 30 days, ends automatically and asks for no credit card. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | Competitor links are free but share the website quota with your own sites. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | Yearly billing is advertised as three months free. | 2026-10-19 | [Pricing page](https://www.linkody.com/en/plans) | | The contact page gives a business address at VIT in Vic, Spain. | 2026-10-19 | [Company page](https://www.linkody.com/en/company/contact) | > Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com with the page you checked and we will review the entry. ### How long is the Linkody free trial? The plans page says 30 days, ending automatically with no credit card required, as read on 2026-10-19. ### What is the cheapest Linkody plan? Webmaster at $14.90 a month, or $11.20 a month when billed annually, covering 2 websites and 500 monitored links. ### Do competitor links count against my limits? Competitor links are free, but the website quota is shared between your own sites and the competitors you track. ## Related - [TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews](https://trialvalid.com/blog.md) - [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Trial Conversion Rate Calculator](https://trialvalid.com/trial-conversion-rate-calculator.md) - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/blog Last updated: 2026-10-20 # TrialValid blog: trial guides and tool reviews Sourced guides on free-trial conversion, payments and onboarding for SaaS sellers, plus dated reviews of the tools founders compare. Guides on getting more free trials to start with a working card and end as paying customers, and reviews of the tools a SaaS founder is likely to weigh. Every number carries its source and the date it was read. ## Guides - [A sourced checklist for your trial signup page](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-page-teardowns-what-top-saas-get-right.md): Eight things a free-trial signup page needs, each tied to a public document or report so you can check it yourself before you change a pixel. (Published 2026-10-19, 9 min read) - [Activation and time to value in SaaS trials](https://trialvalid.com/blog/activation-and-time-to-value-in-trials.md): Define the moment a trial user first gets value, measure how long it takes, and shorten it using your own cohort data. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Behavioral triggers: a complete guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/behavioral-triggers-complete-guide.md): How to design behavioral triggers for a free trial: the three kinds, the six fields to write down, how to find events and how to measure them. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Ethical urgency and scarcity in SaaS trials](https://trialvalid.com/blog/ethical-urgency-and-scarcity-in-saas-trials.md): Use real deadlines, state them plainly, and measure cancellations and disputes next to conversion, not only signups. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Free trial conversion benchmarks for 2026](https://trialvalid.com/blog/free-trial-conversion-benchmarks-2026.md): What ChartMogul's 2026 study of 200 products found about trial conversion, with good and great ranges, the card required gap and its limits. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Free trial optimization checklist](https://trialvalid.com/blog/free-trial-optimization-checklist.md): A stage by stage checklist for a free trial with a card on file, from the decisions before launch to the first renewal, with one number to watch per stage. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) - [Onboarding best practices for SaaS trials](https://trialvalid.com/blog/onboarding-best-practices-saas-trials.md): Get each trial user to one real result early: remove steps, time your messages, and measure the share who get there. (Published 2026-10-19, 10 min read) - [Payment timing and the buyer's mind](https://trialvalid.com/blog/payment-timing-psychology.md): What payment systems fix about trial timing, what behavioral research does and does not say, and which timing choices to test. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Pre-authorization to cut failed trial payments](https://trialvalid.com/blog/reducing-failed-payments-smart-pre-authorization.md): Place a hold on the card when the trial starts, capture before it lapses, and pair it with retries and emails for the declines a hold cannot prevent. (Published 2026-10-19, 10 min read) - [Pricing tests during free trials](https://trialvalid.com/blog/pricing-tests-during-trials.md): How to test a price on new trials: the revenue break-even, the sample size each arm needs, the Stripe setup and how to read the result. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Social proof for B2B SaaS trials](https://trialvalid.com/blog/social-proof-for-b2b-saas-trials.md): Collect real customer proof with permission, place it where buyers hesitate, and build trust honestly before you have customers. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Trial conversion levers ranked by evidence](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-conversion-levers-ranked-by-evidence.md): Seven ways to convert more trials, ranked by the strength of the published evidence, with a plain note where no source gives a number. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) - [Trial email sequence templates for SaaS](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-email-sequence-templates.md): A six email sequence for a free trial that starts with a card, with a dated schedule, templates ready to copy, sending rules and ways to measure the results. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [Trial optimization for startups](https://trialvalid.com/blog/startup-trial-optimization-guide.md): A practical order of work for a small SaaS team: cohort tracking, free recovery settings, exit conversations and one large change a month. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) - [Trial-to-paid conversion rate: the full guide](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trial-to-paid-conversion-rate-ultimate-guide.md): How to define, measure and read your trial to paid rate, what a 200-product study found, and which numbers to check before you change anything. (Published 2026-10-19, 8 min read) - [What is conversion rate optimization?](https://trialvalid.com/blog/what-is-conversion-rate-optimization.md): A plain explanation of CRO for trial businesses: the four rates to track, how to rank fixes by customers gained, and how to test without noise. (Published 2026-10-19, 9 min read) - [Where free trials leak revenue](https://trialvalid.com/blog/how-trials-leak-revenue.md): The five joints where a card-backed free trial loses revenue, which ones the sources let you size, and how to measure each in your own data. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) ## Tool reviews - [Acquire review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/acquire-review): A dated look at Acquire.com, a marketplace for buying and selling startups: the free browsing tier, the buyer membership price and its terms. (Published 2026-10-19, 5 min read) - [Bannerbear review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/bannerbear-review): Bannerbear generates images, video and PDFs from templates through an API. We checked credit plans from $49 and its no card trial. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) - [Basecamp review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/basecamp-review): A dated look at Basecamp, the project management tool: the free plan, four paid tiers with no fee per user, trial lengths and who it suits. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Capgo review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/capgo-review): A dated look at Capgo, a live update platform for Capacitor apps: the four paid plans, usage limits, the trial terms and who it suits. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Carrd review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/carrd-review): A dated look at Carrd, the single page site builder: its free tier, the yearly Pro prices as listed, what each tier adds and who it suits. (Published 2026-10-19, 5 min read) - [ChartMogul review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/chartmogul-review.md): ChartMogul turns billing data into MRR, churn and LTV reports. It is free to $10K MRR; paid plans start at $57 a month billed yearly. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Conversion Factory review: pricing and fit](https://trialvalid.com/blog/conversion-factory-review): Conversion Factory sells marketing and design work to SaaS companies. We checked its listed prices from a $1,000 audit to monthly retainers. (Published 2026-10-19, 7 min read) - [Designjoy review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/designjoy-review): How the Designjoy design subscription works, what the single monthly rate bought on the day we read it, and which teams it fits. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Kit review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/kit-review.md): Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is email marketing for creators. It is free to 10,000 subscribers; paid plans start at $33 a month billed yearly. (Published 2026-10-19, 5 min read) - [LandingGo review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/landinggo-review): LandingGo sells landing page components for Tailwind, React and more. We checked its one-time Pro price, the license terms and what the free tier holds. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [lemlist review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/lemlist-review.md): lemlist runs cold outreach across email, LinkedIn, calls and SMS. Plans run $55 to $87 a month billed yearly, with add-ons for lead data. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Linkody review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/linkody-review.md): Linkody tracks the backlinks you build and the ones competitors earn. We checked five paid plans from $14.90 a month and a 30 day trial. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Magai review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/magai-review): Magai puts many AI models behind one subscription. See its three plans, the monthly usage each buys and who gains from a single bill. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Neural Frames review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/neural-frames-review): Neural Frames turns songs into AI music videos. We read its three credit plans, the yearly saving and the rollover rules and worked out the costs. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Outseta review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/outseta-review.md): Outseta bundles Stripe billing, a CRM, email, gated content and a help desk. Plans run $37 to $697 a month billed yearly. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Rezi review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/rezi-review): What Rezi sells, what its Free, Pro and Lifetime plans cost on the day we read them, and how to judge whether a resume builder earns its fee. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Sidekiq review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/sidekiq-review): Sidekiq runs background jobs for Ruby apps. We checked the free version, Pro at $99 a month and Enterprise from $269 a month. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [SparkToro review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/sparktoro-review.md): A dated look at SparkToro, the audience research tool: what a report contains, the plan prices as listed, usage limits and who it suits. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Supabase review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/supabase-review.md): Supabase is a hosted Postgres platform with auth, storage and functions. A free tier exists; Pro is $25 a month plus usage past the included amounts. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Systeme.io review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/systeme-review.md): Systeme.io bundles funnels, email, courses and affiliates on one plan. We checked its free plan limits and paid tiers from $17 a month. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [TrustMRR review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/trustmrr-review.md): TrustMRR lists software startups with revenue read from a payment provider. Listing starts free, marketplace plans from $29, and a sale costs 3% plus escrow. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Visualping review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/visualping-review.md): What Visualping charges for web page change alerts on its free, Personal and Business tiers, who runs it, and who should pay for it. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) - [Webleadr review: pricing and who it suits](https://trialvalid.com/blog/webleadr-review): Webleadr finds local businesses with no website or a weak one. We checked its one time credit packs at $14 and $24 and who sells them. (Published 2026-10-19, 6 min read) ## Topics - [SaaS Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/saas-tools): 23 posts tagged saas tools. - [Tool Review](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/tool-review): 23 posts tagged tool review. - [Trial Optimization](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/trial-optimization): 16 posts tagged trial optimization. - [SaaS Marketing](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/saas-marketing): 12 posts tagged saas marketing. - [Startup Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/startup-tools): 12 posts tagged startup tools. - [Trial Conversion](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/trial-conversion): 11 posts tagged trial conversion. - [Marketing Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/marketing-tools): 9 posts tagged marketing tools. - [Business Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/business-tools): 8 posts tagged business tools. - [Conversion Optimization](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/conversion-optimization): 8 posts tagged conversion optimization. - [B2B Marketing](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/b2b-marketing): 5 posts tagged b2b marketing. - [Design Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/design-tools): 5 posts tagged design tools. - [Developer Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/developer-tools): 5 posts tagged developer tools. - [Email Marketing](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/email-marketing): 5 posts tagged email marketing. - [Entrepreneurship](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/entrepreneurship): 5 posts tagged entrepreneurship. - [Indie Hackers](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/indie-hackers): 5 posts tagged indie hackers. - [Lead Generation](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/lead-generation): 5 posts tagged lead generation. - [Productivity Tools](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/productivity-tools): 5 posts tagged productivity tools. - [Web Design](https://trialvalid.com/blog/tags/web-design): 5 posts tagged web design. ## Related - [How card-backed free trials work](https://trialvalid.com/product.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/about Last updated: 2026-10-22 # About TrialValid TrialValid is a Meralume Labs product that makes free trials card-backed: the card is held at sign-up and charged once, just before the trial ends. ## What it is TrialValid is a product from Meralume Labs, a portfolio of web products. It makes a free trial begin with a card that is able to pay, and charges that card once when the trial ends. ## How it works You connect your own Stripe account. TrialValid holds the plan price on the buyer's card, starts the trial in your account and captures the hold two hours before the trial ends. See the [trial lifecycle](https://trialvalid.com/docs/trial-lifecycle.md) and the [changelog](https://trialvalid.com/changelog.md). Each trial page can run two variants that share traffic evenly, keeps the first-touch source with every sign-up and sends a reminder before the first charge. Slack alerts fire for high-value trials, failed captures, lost holds and disputes. See the [product](https://trialvalid.com/product.md). Plans follow the monthly recurring revenue on your Stripe account. Starter starts with a 14-day trial for $1, and Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with an onboarding call where we set up your first trial page with you. See [pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md). ## Contact Write to hello@trialvalid.com. See [contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md). ## Related - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) - [Changelog](https://trialvalid.com/changelog.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/contact Last updated: 2026-10-21 # Contact Email hello@trialvalid.com for help, billing questions or anything else. Replies come from the same address. ## Who answers - Questions about how to use the product, your account or a bill get a quick answer. - Refunds, credits and data requests are read by a person, who replies personally. ## Related - [About TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/about.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/book-a-call Last updated: 2026-10-28 # Book an onboarding call Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a booked call. We set up your first trial page with you, then you pay. Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month. Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a call. Starter does not need one: you can start its $1 trial from the [pricing page](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md). ## What the call covers - Connecting your Stripe account and confirming your plan from your MRR. - Building your first trial page together: the price, the trial length and a first variant. - How the plan is billed, and then you pay. Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month and is agreed on the call. ## Book a time Email hello@trialvalid.com with "TrialValid call" as the subject and two or three times that suit you, with your time zone. We reply with a confirmed time. A first paid month can be refunded within 7 days of payment. ## Related - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/trial Last updated: 2026-10-22 # Start a TrialValid trial Set up card backed free trials on your own Stripe account, step by step. ## Four steps to your first trial 1. Email hello@trialvalid.com. Send your Stripe plan, your trial length and your current sign-up numbers. 2. Approve the Stripe connection. We send you a Stripe Connect link, you approve it on Stripe, and you can revoke it at any time. 3. Choose a price and a trial length. Pick one of your Stripe prices and a trial of 1 to 90 days. The page shows that price, and Stripe holds that amount. 4. We publish your trial page. A buyer enters a card, TrialValid holds the plan price and starts the trial. ## What you need first - A Stripe account. - A Stripe price for the plan you sell. - Optional: a Slack incoming webhook for alerts, and a domain for your trial pages. To start, email hello@trialvalid.com and we set up your account. Include your Stripe plan, your trial length and your current sign-up numbers. Want the detail first? [How it works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) follows one trial from sign-up to the first invoice, and [pricing](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) shows how your plan is chosen. ## Related - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) - [TrialValid integrations](https://trialvalid.com/integrations.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/faq Last updated: 2026-10-22 # TrialValid questions and answers Answers on holds, trials, Stripe, plans and getting started with TrialValid, grouped by topic. ## The basics ### What does TrialValid do? It puts a hold on the buyer's card for the plan price when they sign up, starts a free-trial subscription in your Stripe account, and captures the hold shortly before the trial ends. A card that cannot be held never starts a trial. ### Whose Stripe account does the money go to? Yours. You connect your own Stripe account. Money always sits there, and the plan price is the whole cost of TrialValid. ### What happens if the buyer cancels? Before the card is confirmed, the hold is released. While the hold is open, the subscription is canceled and the hold released. After the capture and before the trial ends, the subscription is canceled, the capture refunded and the credit reversed. After the trial ends, you refund the invoice in Stripe. ### Who is TrialValid for? Software companies that sell subscriptions through Stripe and offer a free trial. It runs on your existing Stripe account, so no second billing system is needed. ## Trials and holds ### What happens if the card cannot be held? No trial starts. The trial subscription is created only after Stripe reports that the card can cover the plan price, so a card that fails the hold never gets a free trial. ### When is the card charged? Nothing is charged at sign-up. The hold is captured 2 hours before the trial ends, and the amount is credited to the customer balance so the first invoice nets to zero. The buyer pays once. ### How long can a trial run? From 1 to 90 days. A hold lasts about 7 days, so for longer trials TrialValid places a fresh hold before the old one lapses. ### What if the capture fails? TrialValid tries up to 11 times, 10 minutes apart. If every attempt fails, the hold is released and you get an alert. You choose what happens to the subscription: leave it to Stripe, which charges the saved card on the first invoice and keeps retrying under your billing settings, or cancel it. The default is to leave it to Stripe. ### What does the buyer read before signing up? The amount that will be held, that nothing is charged today, the trial end date, the charge date and how to cancel. The exact text is stored with the time, the IP address and the terms version. ## Plans and pricing ### How is my plan chosen? By the monthly recurring revenue on the Stripe account you connect. TrialValid reads your active subscriptions, adds up their USD monthly equivalents and maps the total to a plan. It checks again about every 7 days. ### What counts toward MRR? Only active subscriptions (not trialing, past due or paused), only USD, and only flat licensed items at list price. Tiered, metered and mixed-interval items are left out, and discounts and taxes are ignored. ### Are there transaction fees, setup fees or usage caps? None: TrialValid takes no per-transaction fee, there is no setup fee, and every feature is on every plan. ### Is there a contract? No. Billing is monthly, you can cancel any time, and every feature is on every plan. Plan prices are on the [pricing page](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md). ### What if I need something custom? Enterprise and custom setups start with a call. Email hello@trialvalid.com to arrange one, or see the [contact page](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md). ## Stripe, alerts and domains ### Does TrialValid store card numbers? No. The card is collected by Stripe Elements and Stripe.js on the hosted page. TrialValid stores ids and metadata that Stripe returns, not card data. ### How do I disconnect Stripe? Disconnect from the TrialValid API, or revoke the connection from your Stripe account. Either way, TrialValid loses access to your Stripe account, held trials are marked as lost and you get one summary alert, because TrialValid can no longer cancel anything there. ### Where do alerts go? To a Slack incoming webhook that you supply. TrialValid posts when a high-value trial starts, a capture fails, a hold is lost or a dispute is opened. ### Can pages run on my own domain? Yes. You add the hostname and publish a DNS TXT record at `_trialvalid-challenge` to prove you control it. A claim that is never proven reserves nothing. ## Getting started ### How do I get started? Email hello@trialvalid.com with your Stripe plan, your trial length and your current sign-up numbers. You approve the Stripe connection, choose a price and a trial length, and we publish your trial page. The four steps are on the [trial page](https://trialvalid.com/trial.md), and the full flow is in [how it works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md). ### How do I reach a person? Write to hello@trialvalid.com. ### Which Stripe things do I need first? A Stripe account and a Stripe price for the plan you sell. The page takes its price from that Stripe price, so the amount a buyer sees is the amount Stripe holds. ## Related - [How TrialValid works](https://trialvalid.com/how-it-works.md) - [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md) - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) - [Security at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) - [Start a TrialValid trial](https://trialvalid.com/trial.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/cookies Last updated: 2026-10-28 # Cookies at TrialValid What the TrialValid website sets in your browser, and the short-lived items used when a seller connects a payment account. ## The website The TrialValid website does not use advertising cookies. The calculators run in your browser. ## Connecting a payment account When a seller connects a payment account, the connection step sets short-lived cookies. They are used only for that step and carry no advertising or tracking data. ## Trial pages Trial pages load a payment processor's card form, which sets cookies under the processor's own policy. Questions about cookies? Write to hello@trialvalid.com. More on what the service stores is in the [privacy policy](https://trialvalid.com/privacy.md). ## Related - [Privacy policy](https://trialvalid.com/privacy.md) - [Terms of service](https://trialvalid.com/terms.md) - [Security at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/security.md) - [Contact](https://trialvalid.com/contact.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/changelog Last updated: 2026-10-19 # Changelog What shipped in TrialValid, by date, from the trial engine to the website. ## 2026-10-18: Plans and pricing page updated - Starter is $29 a month for MRR under $10,000 and starts with a 14-day trial that costs $1. - Growth and above keep their prices and start with a booked onboarding call, then payment. Enterprise starts at $1,995 a month and is a booked call. - A first paid month can be refunded within 7 days, and a person reviews each request. ## 2026-10-17: Website published - Product, pricing, docs, about, contact and legal pages, with a markdown twin for each page, llms.txt and a sitemap. ## 2026-10-17: Trial engine - Hold at sign-up, trial subscription, capture before trial end with retries, balance credit so the first invoice nets to zero, and hold renewal. - Cancel and refund paths, failure policies, a state machine and idempotent Stripe writes. - Stripe Connect OAuth with signed state, webhook signature checks and six handled events. - Trial records, statement descriptors, first-touch attribution, page variants with even traffic split, Slack alerts and a custom-domain adapter. - Plan and MRR logic, with every vendor adapter reporting its real result. ## Related - [About TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/about.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/terms Last updated: 2026-10-29 # Terms of service The terms for using TrialValid: what the service does, seller responsibilities, fees, refunds and how to end the service. These terms apply to your use of TrialValid ("we", "us"). You can reach us at hello@trialvalid.com. ## The service TrialValid lets a seller who has connected their own payment processor account run free trials that are backed by a hold on the buyer's card. Payments, balances and refunds happen in the seller's payment processor account under the processor's own terms. TrialValid does not hold the seller's money. ## Seller responsibilities - You decide the price, the trial length and the terms you offer, and you are responsible for them. - You must show buyers the authorization text TrialValid builds, and you may not change it so that it hides the amount, the charge date or how to cancel. - You are responsible for complying with the consumer, auto-renewal and card network rules that apply to your trials. - You handle refunds for charges made after a trial has ended. ## Fees and trial The Starter plan is $29 a month and starts with a 14-day trial for $1, charged at sign-up; when the trial ends the plan is charged unless you cancel first, and it renews every month until you cancel. To cancel, send the ready-made cancel email on the [billing page](https://trialvalid.com/billing); no reason is needed and the plan runs to the end of the period you paid for. Growth, Scale, Pro, Max and Enterprise start with a booked onboarding call and are paid afterwards. The plan price covers every transaction on money in your payment processor account. ## Refunds Your first paid plan month can be refunded within 7 days of paying it. The $1 trial fee is not part of that month. There is no other money-back promise. ## No guarantee Card holds can lapse, be declined or be released by the issuer, and a trial can end without a capture. The service is provided as is, and no uptime or conversion result is promised. ## Ending the service You can disconnect your payment processor account whenever you like. ## Related - [Privacy policy](https://trialvalid.com/privacy.md) - [Acceptable use](https://trialvalid.com/acceptable-use.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/privacy Last updated: 2026-10-28 # Privacy policy Privacy policy for TrialValid: what data the service stores, who processes it and how to use your rights to access, correct, delete or port your data. TrialValid ("we", "us") is responsible for the personal data described here. You can reach us at hello@trialvalid.com. ## Card data Card numbers are collected and handled by payment processors. TrialValid stores the references and metadata the processor returns, not the card number. ## What the service stores - Seller profile: the connected payment account reference, the plan and the MRR figure, and alert settings. - Trials: the buyer's payment references, the trial dates, the state and the capture result. - Consent records: the authorization text shown, the time, the IP address, the user agent and the terms version. - Visits and signups: campaign parameters, the referrer, advertising click identifiers and custom events. - Event, job and alert records. ## Who processes it We use providers in these categories: payment processors, messaging providers for alerts, email delivery providers, AI service providers, and hosting providers. ## Your rights and how to use them ### Everyone You can ask us for access to the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, and for a portable copy of it. If your details were entered on a trial page that a seller runs, that seller chose to collect them and TrialValid holds them for the seller. Write to us anyway: we tell you which seller it concerns and pass your request on. ### California If you live in California you have the right to know what personal information we hold, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. TrialValid does not sell personal information and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. An authorized agent can make a request for you. ### European Union and United Kingdom If you are in the EU or the UK you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, portability and objection. You can also complain to your local supervisory authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). ### How to ask - Email hello@trialvalid.com from the address on your account, and say which right you want to use. - We respond within the time the law requires. - Some records may have to be kept, such as payment and tax records for plan payments. We tell you what we kept and why. ### Cookies and tracking The TrialValid website does not use advertising cookies. See [Cookies at TrialValid](https://trialvalid.com/cookies.md). ## Related - [Terms of service](https://trialvalid.com/terms.md) - [Acceptable use](https://trialvalid.com/acceptable-use.md) --- Source: https://trialvalid.com/acceptable-use Last updated: 2026-10-28 # Acceptable use The acceptable use policy for TrialValid sellers: what a trial must show the buyer and what is not allowed. These rules apply to every seller who uses TrialValid. - Do not run a trial that hides the amount, the charge date or how to cancel from the buyer. - Do not use TrialValid to hold or charge a card without the buyer's authorization text being shown and recorded. - Do not use it to test stolen or unauthorized cards. - Do not sell anything that payment processors or the card networks prohibit. - Do not use it to harass buyers or to send messages they did not agree to. - Do not try to read another seller's data or to get around a limit of the service. We may pause a seller whose trials produce disputes or violate these rules. Reports go to hello@trialvalid.com. ## Related - [Terms of service](https://trialvalid.com/terms.md) - [Privacy policy](https://trialvalid.com/privacy.md)