How to price a lifetime deal without regretting it
A simple framework for setting a one-time price that funds your product instead of sinking it.
Selling a lifetime deal feels great on launch day and terrible eighteen months later — unless you priced it for the long run. Here's how we think about it.
Start from your cost to serve
A lifetime customer isn't free. Estimate your annual cost to serve one user (hosting, support, third-party APIs) and multiply by the number of years you realistically expect to keep the product alive.
fair_floor = annual_cost_to_serve * expected_lifetime_years
If that number scares you, your deal is too cheap.
Cap the downside
Lifetime deals go wrong when a small number of heavy users cost more than they paid. Two guardrails help:
- Usage limits on the plan you sell as a lifetime deal.
- A hard cap on the number of codes. When they're gone, they're gone.
Don't discount your future self
The point of a lifetime deal is a burst of cash and users today. Price it so that burst actually funds the next year of development — not so it becomes a support obligation you can't afford.
That's the whole game: sell it once, but sell it like you mean to keep shipping.