---
title: "Should I charge monthly or lifetime?"
summary: "No – No to lifetime – lifetime kills the asset's compounding revenue."
canonical: https://unlocksaas.com/should-i/charge-monthly-or-lifetime
updated: 2026-05-22
publisher: "Unlock SaaS"
author: "Maryan"
license: All rights reserved. Quotation with attribution permitted.
---

# Should I charge monthly or lifetime?

**Verdict: No** – No to lifetime – lifetime kills the asset's compounding revenue.

> Charge monthly. Lifetime pricing is a one-shot cash injection that destroys the compounding LTV that makes SaaS valuable. The exception is a deliberate lifetime promo during launch to seed early users and testimonials – capped at 50 to 100 buyers and run for 14 to 30 days only. Beyond that, lifetime structurally caps the business's value.

## Why

- An indie SaaS at $49/month with healthy retention is worth roughly $1,500 to $2,500 per customer to a potential acquirer. The same $49 sold as a $199 lifetime is worth $199 once.
- Lifetime buyers also have the highest support cost-to-revenue ratio – they own the product forever but stopped paying years ago.
- If your goal is one-time cash injection (not LTV), the right tool is a tripwire ($1 to $27 one-shot), not a lifetime core offer.

## Related terms

- [Value Ladder](https://unlocksaas.com/glossary/value-ladder) – An ordered sequence of offers a customer can move through, each delivering more value than the last at a price proportional to the delivery.
- [Offer](https://unlocksaas.com/glossary/offer) – What the page asks for and what it gives in return, structured so the perceived value is unambiguously higher than the price.

---

Canonical URL: https://unlocksaas.com/should-i/charge-monthly-or-lifetime
Publisher: Unlock SaaS (https://unlocksaas.com)
Contact: maryan@unlocksaas.com