5 app monetization trends you can’t ignore in 2025

2025 already feels like a fascinating year for app monetization. In just the first half of the year, we’ve seen:

• AI reshaping cost structures
• Competition intensifying as building apps becomes increasingly easy — perhaps too easy, but that’s a topic for another day
• The battle between native IAP and web checkout heating up, joined by a new potential contender of app-to-web
• Paywalls becoming easier than ever to build in RevenueCat

And we are only halfway through the year. 

There’s so much happening in monetization right now that I honestly couldn’t keep up, so I called in some of the best minds in the space. Think of them as the Glastonbury headliners of the app world: the ones everyone stops to watch, no matter what stage they’re on.

1. Alice Muir Kocourková – Growth Lead at Phiture
2. Andy Carvell – Co-Founder & CEO at Phiture
3. Cristian Rotari – Senior Product Manager at Zing Coach
4. Ekaterina Gamsriegler – Head of Marketing & Growth at MyGroove
5. Hannah Parvaz – Founder of Aperture
6. Nathan Hudson – Founder of Perceptycs
7. Léa Samrani – VP Growth at Passion.io
8. Rosie Hoggmascall – Product Growth Expert
9. Sylvain Gauchet – Growth Consultant & Advisor
10. Thomas Petit – @thomasbcn
11. Vahe Baghdasaryan – Founder at paywalls.design

Okay, so I didn’t hit the full Glastonbury setlist, but this top 11 lineup is still something I’m pretty proud of. Step aside, Ed Sheeran.

Some of these insights came directly from conversations, others were pulled from the State of Subscription Apps (SOSA) Report 2025 or past discussions. I asked what they’ve seen so far this year and what they expect to unfold in the months ahead.

The result? A fascinating mix of sharp takes, surprising trends, and thoughtful predictions. I learned a lot, and I think you will too.

Trend 1: Premium pricing is the new norm

If you’ve overanalyzed the State of Subscription Apps Report like I have, you may have noticed something interesting about pricing changes this year vs last:

It’s a fun game of spot the difference: the median and bottom quartile prices haven’t really moved, but look closely at the upper quartile and P90, especially for annual plans, and there’s a small but noticeable uptick of around 5%.

That might’ve been our first signal of a trend I’ve now heard two experts call out: the best are pricing higher. Rosie Hoggmascall, a Product Growth expert focused on PLG, UX, and monetization (and author of Growth Dives), once told me:

“You’re either pricing to be the best in your category or to be the cheapest; most apps are choosing one or the other”. 

So when Léa Samrani, VP Growth at Passion.io, shared the following, it really clicked:

“I’ve seen a rise of the extremes in pricing, maybe I’m a bit biased as I work for Passion.io as VP Growth, and passion apps are often high tickets, but it seems to me that products are positioning themselves more clearly in either the affordable category or in high tickets, and I am seeing less middle ground pricing. For example, the new Tony Robbins AI app is priced at $99/month.”

Eek, that is steep if I do say so myself, though they do interestingly enough offer the first 14 days for $1:

It feels like premium pricing is getting bolder. Maybe it’s no longer just about being “the best” in your category, and instead, as Léa points out, users no longer expect apps to live in the £5–10/month range.

So, where is this shift happening the most? Here’s what Léa said:

“I’ve worked with a handful of creator-led apps this year (mainly in the fitness category), and I see similar things with higher-tier pricing. I see this as apps understanding their category better and being less afraid of higher price positioning when the value and brand strength are strong.”

That tracks, especially for someone who pays for far too many of those apps. Fitness and creator-led apps often trade on personal transformation and perceived expertise, making high prices easier to justify. We expect education, self-development, and broader health apps to follow suit.

Our prediction? The trend will continue into the second half of 2025. As more high-priced apps succeed, the middle will continue to shrink. Apps will increasingly pick a side: luxury or low cost.

But with higher prices comes higher expectations—something that leads us into the next trend.

Trend 2: Pricing & packaging get smarter

Despite the rise of pricing extremes, or maybe because of them, one thing is clear: flexibility is everything. Alice Muir, Growth Lead at Phiture, put it well:

“With economic uncertainty and recession concerns hitting multiple markets in 2025, I’ve seen developers become much more flexible in how they price and package subscriptions. The one-size-fits-all model is breaking down; users are more price-sensitive, and expectations around value are rising.”

A higher price can work, but only if users understand why they’re paying more and feel they have options. As Alice explained:

“Successful apps are responding with granular tiers—usage-based plans, one-off purchases, regional pricing, seasonal discounts, or even pause options. In this climate, rigidity will kill growth. Developers need to treat pricing as a dynamic tool, not a fixed decision. The most resilient apps are those iterating quickly and aligning monetization with user behavior and regional context, especially outside the U.S., where willingness to pay varies dramatically.” 

To stay indispensable, apps may need to evolve what they offer altogether. Alice pointed to ClassPass (a fitness, wellness, and beauty app) as a prime example:

“The most competitive ones are going a step further, expanding their value proposition entirely—like ClassPass, which now bundles coworking, healthy food, and beauty treatments into what was once just a fitness pass. Staying relevant means evolving with your users, not just pricing for them.”

Cristian Rotari, Senior Product Manager at Zing Coach, sees this flexibility becoming the norm:

“Dynamic pricing and packaging are bound to become more mainstream. Not many apps are doing this well today, mostly because the infrastructure used to be expensive and hard to build. But that’s changing. With the rise of more accessible SDKs and smarter tooling, more teams will start experimenting. 

The opportunity lies in using context that’s already available: onboarding answers, location, or even something like battery level. These signals help tailor not just pricing, but how and when you present it, and help monetization feel less pushy.”

Ekaterina Gamsriegler, Head of Growth and Marketing at MyGroove and creator of a top course on Maven on app growth, sees a similar shift toward monetization flexibility, though often with a sharper edge:

“I have a feeling that many apps are monetizing more aggressively than before, with a) Bigger discounts, offered earlier (sometimes right after the first paywall skip) and b) Heavier reliance on onboarding offers to drive conversions. So more apps might be feeling a push for strong short-term revenue to fuel their UA efforts and defend market share, especially in verticals that become more competitive with an influx of AI apps.”

This trend isn’t just about offering more pricing options, but also about finding ways to push monetization earlier and seize high-intent moments quickly, especially in categories where competition is intensifying.

While you need to be conscious of how you adjust pricing, there is so much potential here, not just to get smarter in terms of price localization, but basically context localization. If you know someone’s battery is about to die, why not offer them a deal they can’t refuse? Don’t give them time to overthink it—because you might lose them for good.

With the rise of pricing flexibility, we’re seeing smart approaches like:

• More granular tiers
• Localized and contextual pricing (even down to battery level!)
• Value bundling (ClassPass is leading the way)
• Bigger offers, often offered earlier in the user journey

In short, pricing is becoming one of the biggest levers for growth, especially in an era of hybrid monetization.

Trend 3: The hybrid monetization boom

For a long time, subscriptions were the go-to monetization model for most apps. The SOSA 2025 report showed that in nearly every industry (except gaming), over 50% of apps offered subscriptions only.

But in 2025, that’s starting to shift.  More and more apps are mixing models.

Vahe Baghdasaryan, Founder at paywalls.design, put it like this in the SOSA 2025 report:

“Based on the data, gaming apps have a strong mix of both subscriptions and consumables, demonstrating how this model can work effectively. However, most non-gaming categories remain heavily reliant on subscriptions alone, missing out on additional revenue streams.”

So while subscriptions still dominate, I can’t help but wonder how different that graph will look in next year’s report.

The experts I spoke to definitely see hybrid monetization on the rise, and if there was one thing my Glastonbury lineup seemed to agree on, it was this. Nearly everyone mentioned seeing more hybrid models emerge.

Subscriptions + in-app purchases (IAPs) 

Let’s go back to Cristian Rotari for his thoughts on this increasingly popular strategy:

“A strategy that more and more apps are adopting is hybrid monetization, specifically subscription + IAPs. This approach allows apps to upsell without disrupting the main paywall, either on app or web flows. If you have a compelling core offering, you can generate minimal friction and still boost ARPU and ROAS while generating value for the users.”

In other words, one of the most common hybrid models we’re seeing is layering additional in-app purchases on top of a subscription. What does this look like in practice? Cristian shared some examples:

“If you’re a fitness app, you can offer supplements or a nutrition guide. If you’re an app for kids, you could provide printables with it. Fake door experiments are a great way to assess willingness to pay from users, and if the math works, execute.”

The trend is clear: apps are building upsell opportunities into the experience without interfering with the main subscription journey. It’s monetization that adds value, not friction.

Subscriptions + physical products

I can’t help but wonder if Cristian listened to that great Sub Club podcast episode with Tim Dikum from Teaching.com—because they’re doing exactly this with Reading.com, their app that helps kids learn to read. Not only are they offering printables as an upsell, but they’re also working on launching physical books. 

I’ve also seen BetterMe, the wellness app, take a similar approach by bundling their subscription with a Pilates Essentials Kit to enhance the user’s experience.

Hybrid monetization isn’t just digital anymore. Physical products are becoming part of the mix, helping increase both LTV and perceived value.

Subscriptions + ads

Thomas Petit, also flagged this trend, highlighting a format that’s making a comeback: ads.

“Hybrid models (subs + ads, subs + IAP, and subs + ecomm) are on the rise. They’re primarily driven by AI, which has variable costs, unlike the previous wave of subs. Full subscription doesn’t fit anymore.”

This shift is especially relevant for apps with freemium models or those operating in markets with lower willingness to pay. And it’s not just ads joining the mix, as Thomas pointed to another emerging hybrid format as well.

Subscriptions + AI-usage features

AI is shifting the economics of monetization. Sylvain Gauchet, Growth Consultant & Advisor and author of the Growth Gems newsletter, spoke to this when I asked what trends he’s been seeing:

“As apps with AI at their core realize that the cost of LLM calls and Gen AI eats too much into their margins, they’re breaking out of the subscription model’s ‘LTV ceiling’, either by:

• Adding usage-based pricing via in-app purchases (giving additional credits). Example: Lensa AI with their Magic Avatars packs.
• Offering multiple tiers, each including a different number of credits. Example: VSCO with their Plus plan (250 monthly credits) and Premium plan (500 monthly credits).”

With AI, user activity directly impacts your costs. So while we’re seeing more pricing flexibility in the name of value, it’s also a response to rising infrastructure costs. That shift is creating new pricing logic.

Léa Samrani predicts this will evolve further with in-app currencies:

“Another trend I expect to see more of is more credit/coins IAP-based pricing. It’s been booming in SaaS, and with the way AI scales in terms of cost, it will make sense to start seeing more usage-based pricing in D2C/Apps too. I think this will be interesting as a subscription app with a 1+ year subscription length, and low usage/retention will, as a result, be a lot less competitive in terms of fees. Why would you pay an annual subscription when you can pay with low commitment and clear value/cost defined?”

So, especially for AI-driven apps, expect usage-based monetization—whether through credits, coins, or capped tiers—to become a more dominant part of the playbook.

What is leading this rise in hybrid monetization?

While subscriptions are definitely here to stay, hybrid models are proving to be smarter and more dynamic ways to monetize. As Vahe Baghdasaryan put it in the SOSA 2025 report:

“By integrating consumables—such as one-time purchases for premium content, AI-generated insights, or feature unlocks—subscription apps can better capture user demand and increase overall LTV. Users who may not commit to a full subscription might still be willing to make smaller purchases, providing an additional revenue layer.”

In other words, hybrid models help apps monetize across the spectrum of user intent. Subscriptions aren’t disappearing—but they’re becoming just one piece of a larger monetization puzzle.

Is it me, or is monetization getting a bit spicy? So let’s keep the heat going and jump into one of the buzziest topics of 2025 so far: app-to-web.

Trend 4: App-to-web checkout: divide and conquer

App-to-web checkout is having a moment for sure, as Andy Carvell, Co-founder and CEO of Phiture explains:

“Regulatory shifts in the app store model, from the Epic v. Apple ruling in the US to Europe’s DMA enforcement, have finally allowed developers to explore real alternatives, albeit with significant complexity involved (especially in the EU).” 

This has led to apps testing more about web-based subscription for sure, combined with some of the trends we’ve discussed before. Andy continues:

“We’re seeing some leading apps cautiously testing web-based subscription flows and creative pricing moves: things like discounted web-only offers, multi-product bundles, and new premium tiers. Early results inspire optimism: companies are recapturing a bigger share of revenue and finding new audiences and levers for growth, but they’re also discovering pitfalls including conversion/retention drop-offs and increased operational overhead.”

Web advocates

Nathan Hudson, Founder and CEO of Perceptycs has also seen positive results for his clients:

“While they haven’t been a game changer for everyone, some of our clients are now generating over 80% of new revenue through web payments, seeing record-low CPAs from improved trial conversion, and predicting higher LTVs from web renewals. As users encounter these external payment flows more frequently and become more comfortable converting via web checkouts.”

And Hannah Parvaz, founder of Aperture and a weekly app growth newsletter, is also a fan. She has seen web funnel adoption accelerate across all her clients this year:

“Web funnel adoption is scaling rapidly. I’ve been building web flows since 2014 and it’s sooo good to see them finally getting the spotlight. More and more teams are skipping the direct-to-App Store approach and going web-first, because it just works. Our most successful accounts are scaling on web. You get better tracking, lower fees, full control over messaging, and a funnel you can actually optimise. Ads now land on high-converting web pages that educate and convert before deep linking into the app (if at all) with clean event tracking the whole way through.”

But she does note the why behind the movement, with platforms underreporting more than ever before:

“Performance looks dead in-platform… then backend revenue says otherwise. Why? Probabilistic isn’t reality. Teams are hacking it by sending app events as web events, rebuilding flows from web to app so attribution actually works. It’s a full-on shift in how people structure their funnels to see the growth that’s already happening.”

Web won’t work for everyone

But it’s by no means a guaranteed win for all. As Cristian Rotari put it:

“It seems like the growth world is divided around it, and so are the results we keep seeing from different apps. The key here is to experiment and see for yourself. One insight I got is that the less tech-savvy your user base, the better. For example, if your users are a bunch of 20-year-olds who have grown up with apps, taking them outside of the native IAP purchase flow might feel like a scam. It’s different for those who are not so familiar with how these systems work.”

In other words, pulling younger users into a web checkout flow might feel scammy to them. For older or more niche audiences, the trust gap is smaller. Ekaterina Gamsriegler adds to this with her experience:

“So far, the results have been more mixed than expected. Some apps (like Spotify) reported increased purchase rates and revenue. Others saw only marginal improvements (3–6% lift), or even lower ARPPU compared to native IAPs.”

Ekaterina quick to point out that success hinges on many variables:

“As with most things in Growth, it’s clear that there are many variables at play that need to be figured out to make it work:

1. UX and Messaging. How much more friction does the alternative flow have? Is it clear to a user what happens next?
2. Offer. Is the price lower?
3. Brand trust. Will users feel secure entering their payment information? They probably do with Spotify, but will it work for your app?
4. Trialist and Subscriber churn. Web subscriptions are known for being harder to cancel, potentially compensating for the first three points.

For now, I see apps testing and iterating. In the meantime, the “web2web checkout” hype continues and shows no sign of slowing down.”

How to make it work for you

As Hannah and others have noted, web flows aren’t just about cost-saving, they give you control. Control over the funnel, the messaging, the offer, and the attribution. 

That being said we need to proceed with caution. Sylvain Gauchet does expect that Apple will combat this push on app-to-web, though, leading to a more nuanced approach to the usage of app-to-web:

“After a “Wild Wild West” period where developers pushed the limits of their app-to-web implementations in order to avoid app store fees, Apple will crack down (or penalize) the adventurous ones. What we will see next is apps using smart segmentation to only surface web payments for high-intent segments of users and/or specific parts of the journey (e.g., past the first paywall, for promos, etc.).”

Thomas Petit agrees that the future of app-to-web will be fragmented. He expects to see more parallel systems running—direct-to-store, web2app, and web2web—all being tested side by side. But lower platform fees don’t always equal higher take-home revenue, as shown by RevenueCat’s own experiments comparing web vs. native IAPs.

Cristian sums it up best: web checkout works when you know your audience and have the volume or LTV to justify the added complexity.

“If you have the luxury of a larger user base where you can individually look at these segments, I encourage you to do so.”

So: this isn’t a silver bullet. However, when done correctly, app-to-web opens up optimization opportunities that you simply don’t get in-platform. As Cristian noted, it works especially well for more premium audiences or larger user bases where you can afford to segment, experiment, and personalize.

And all this experimentation with web flows sets the stage for our final trend…

Trend 5: The money-back guarantee era begins

This one came from Nathan Hudson and it immediately piqued my interest: money-back guarantees as an alternative to free trials.

“One trend I’m keeping a close eye on is money-back guarantees, and how prevalently they might be adopted in place of free trials. This couldn’t be done outside of web2app, before external payment flows were introduced. But having seen them work pretty well so far, I expect they’ll become more popular.“

It’s an interesting one, as I can imagine that if users respond well to it, it could reduce the drop-off in free trials and also encourage users to commit to testing the app. While conversion rates might drop a bit, the amount you lose by claiming the guarantee versus canceling a trial, I would expect to be less. 

Which apps should try this out? Nathan shares the following:

“I’d particularly recommend trying them out if you’re focused on scaling paid UA and looking to maximise signal quality. By pushing a hard paywall with a money-back guarantee, you can optimise your Meta and TikTok campaigns for the direct purchase event, removing the complexity and opacity of dealing with trial conversions.”

You’re getting a more honest conversion event—one that platforms like Meta and TikTok can optimize against with far less ambiguity than a trial start.

Hannah Parvaz noted that this kind of shift also reflects something broader: a redefinition of what success looks like. It’s no longer about install-to-trial—it’s about post-onboarding behavior and actual long-term value:

“CAC targets will shift to post-trial or post-onboarding behaviour, not just install. MMM will keep growing, especially as people get more comfortable making directional budget calls without needing “perfect” data.”

So while this might look like a monetization tactic on the surface, it’s really about better measurement. Just like web flows allow for cleaner attribution and more flexible funnels, money-back guarantees give growth teams clearer, more actionable signals for performance—and potentially, more committed users too.

Monetization is getting smarter and spicier

If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from speaking to this Glastonbury star lineup, it’s that monetization in 2025 is no longer a “set it and forget it” game. Pricing, packaging, platforms—even the moment of purchase—is being rethought from the ground up.

Here are the most significant shifts I’m watching:

• Apps are charging more and owning it. There’s no shame in being premium when the value is clear.
• Static pricing is dying. Flexibility wins, whether that’s through dynamic tiers, localized offers, or smart timing.
• Subscription-only is outdated. Hybrid monetization is becoming the new standard, especially in AI-heavy or usage-based models.
• Web flows unlock new tactics. From money-back guarantees to smarter user segmentation, app-to-web opens a world of new plays.

But none of this is plug-and-play. What works for one app might flop for another. The real winners? The ones who test, adapt, listen to their users, and keep evolving.

Because if 2024 was about survival, 2025 is about sophistication.

As Hannah Parvaz put it:

“Feels like the second half of the year is less about chasing channels and more about building smarter systems, and I’m very here for it. More budgets are going into CRM, onboarding, and even cancellation flows. The teams that invest in it early are converting better, retaining more users, and giving their paid campaigns a much better shot at success.”

Which brings us to the final truth about modern monetization: it doesn’t work in isolation.

It’s part of a broader growth system. Andy Carvell echoes this sentiment:

“Winners in subscriptions in 2025 will be those who innovate boldly, execute carefully and pay attention to what the data is telling them about retention, not just short-term conversion rates.”

If you’re not integrating these pricing and payment tests into your onboarding, retention, CRM, and UA strategy, you’re only doing half the job. The future belongs to the teams that treat monetization as a system, not a silo. Now it’s time to go watch some actual Glastonbury performances, excuse me.