Logic behind monthly subscriptions and users?

Need help
1

Hi Bubble team,

I’ve noticed that many SaaS platforms LinkedIn, for instance price their plans on a “per-user, per-month” basis.

I came across one service that charges for a minimum of 15 users (about $200 per month). Each additional user costs $5. I’m trying to understand how the billing works in different scenarios:

  1. Adding users mid-cycle
  • If I add a new user halfway through the billing period, is my card charged immediately for that extra seat?
  • When the next month starts, does that same user trigger another full-month charge, effectively paying twice for the first month’s partial usage?
  1. Annual subscriptions
  • How is the price adjusted when we’ve prepaid for a year and add users later?
  • Do you prorate the cost for the remaining months, or is the full-year amount for that seat billed right away?

I’d appreciate some clarity on these edge cases recurring billing rules can get a bit confusing!

Thanks in advance.

2

I’ll talk only from my own experience, using Stripe.

Stripe allows you to control how to charge users in these situations. It’s called prorated billing.
You can find more info about it here.

2 Likes
3

Hey @ademiguel thank you so much, been trying to find the correct term for it..! will give it a read! Have you used it for your apps?

4

Happy to help!

Yes, I’ve used it. I configured so that for users added up mid-cycle were invoiced in the next billing cycle. More due to a default configuration than to a strategic decision.

1 Like
5

Agree with @ademiguel

I’d add:

  1. Stripe is a great solution that does everything you want.
  2. Use Stripe checkout and Stripe Billing portal, they have built a lot of the UI for you to manage proration and upgrades/downgrades.
  3. Use Stripe products and prices. You can create prices for your products based on quantity.
  4. You can setup Stripe webhooks to manage changes, this is a little tricky, but important on a more complete integration (e.g. if they change something now, but you want the changes to apply at the end of the billing cycle, you need a way to handle this).
  5. In general, as a founder or advisor to founders, I try keep the billing logic simple. Only start to build complex stripe integrations when the product’s user base is scaling, not so much when you don’t yet have product market fit.
6

This topic was automatically closed after 70 days. New replies are no longer allowed.