New Pricing: $4.99/mo, $39.99/yr, and Why the Lifetime Deal Is Gone

Short post. Two weeks after the April 1 pricing reset, I am resetting it again — lower, simpler, no lifetime option. Here is what changed and why.

The new plans

The lifetime deal is gone. Existing lifetime customers keep their access, forever, as promised. New buyers pick monthly or annual.

Why cheaper

The April 1 prices — $9.99/mo and $69/yr — were set based on what I thought the value was. Two weeks of real conversion data disagreed. Installs were strong. Checkout clicks were not.

The product is useful, but the price was sitting at a tier that makes people stop to think. $4.99 does not. It is under the bar where most people need to justify the expense to themselves, and the annual price at $39.99 is cheaper than a single paid newsletter subscription. That is the math I want people running through their head, not a comparison to a $10 SaaS.

This is not a promotion or a temporary discount. It is the price.

Why no more lifetime

Lifetime deals look friendly on the surface and cause problems over time. Three reasons I pulled it:

1. They misprice the product against itself. A $149 lifetime next to a $39.99 annual trains buyers to wait for the "real" price and skip the subscription.
2. They lock in ongoing costs without ongoing revenue. Every LTD buyer still costs me Stripe fees, Supabase storage, engagement scraping compute, and support time — for the rest of the product's life. The math stops working quickly.
3. They pull the product toward maintenance mode. When your future revenue depends on renewals, you build for people who are still using the product. When it does not, you optimize for the next LTD cohort and the product drifts.

Subscriptions force me to keep earning the monthly charge. That is the accountability I want.

What this means for you

Existing monthly and annual subscribers: your current price stays for the rest of your billing cycle. At renewal, you move to the new $4.99/$39.99 tier automatically. Nothing to do.

Existing lifetime customers: nothing changes. You paid for lifetime access and you keep it.

New users: install free, try every mode on your own feed, pick monthly or annual when the paywall fires. No credit card until you commit.

Questions: reply to me on @chams_builds.