The three models, compared
| Model | Median 3-yr revenue/customer | Year-2 renewal rate | Support burden |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perpetual (pay once, updates forever) | 1.0ร (baseline) | โ | Grows forever, unfunded |
| Yearly subscription | 2.1โ2.8ร | 62โ74% | Funded by renewals |
| Lifetime deal (LTD) | 0.6โ0.9ร | โ | Worst case: high volume, no recurring revenue |
Methodology: anonymized license and renewal records from 300 stores running Lisensio, measured Jan 2024 โ Jun 2026. Medians reported; ranges reflect product category differences.
Why yearly wins
1. Expiry-gated updates are an honest renewal reason
Customers renew for updates and support โ things that genuinely cost you money to provide. Unlike artificial feature gates, this exchange is fair and customers understand it.
2. Renewal emails recover more than you think
Stores sending a 3-step reminder sequence (30 days, 7 days, day-of-expiry) recover 23โ31% of customers who would otherwise lapse silently. Automation matters: manual reminders get forgotten.
3. LTDs feel like growth and act like debt
Every LTD customer is a support obligation with zero future revenue. The LTD spike looks great in a launch month and quietly consumes your support capacity for years.
Price like the customers you keep matter more than the customers you acquire. Because they do.
Setting it up
The technical side is the easy part: Lisensio’s built-in subscription engine bills annually through Stripe, PayPal or Polar, syncs license expiry to subscription status, and sends renewal reminders automatically. If you already own WooCommerce Subscriptions, Lisensio integrates with it too.
The takeaway
Default to yearly subscriptions, gate updates (not the plugin itself) on an active license, automate renewal reminders, and treat LTDs as a marketing tool with a strict cap โ never as your business model.