Why Can’t I Offer a Product as a Subscription?
We’ve intentionally designed Products to be sold as one-time purchases — not monthly subscriptions. While subscriptions can seem appealing at first glance, our decision is based on what we've consistently seen work best for coaches, both from our own experience and across the industry.
Here’s why one-time programs are the smarter choice...
💸 Higher Lifetime Value per Customer
Coaches typically earn more per customer by selling one-off programs than from low-cost monthly subscriptions. One-time programs tend to attract higher upfront payments, and when paired with smart upsells, they often lead to greater overall revenue than a small recurring fee ever could.
For example, if you were to sell a 12 week program you can capture ~$100 upfront versus only ~$60 for a subscription if you consider the average lifetime of a subscriber (typically 3 months) and an average monthly cost of $20/mo. Same length program, 40% difference in revenue!
🔁 One-Time Programs Create Built-In Upsell Moments
Unlike subscriptions that run endlessly in the background, one-time programs have natural stopping points. These are perfect opportunities to:
Upsell the client into 1:1 coaching
Offer a follow-up program (like “Volume 2”)
Re-engage them with a new goal or challenge
This works like a book series — customers finish one and are ready for the next 💪.
🔧 Subscriptions Require Constant Content Updates
Low-priced monthly subscriptions demand content updates and ongoing customer support to keep members engaged and reduce churn. For most coaches, this quickly becomes a time-consuming hassle that pulls focus from delivering quality results.
📉 Retention Is Low for Low-Cost Subscriptions
Across the industry, low-priced memberships tend to have poor retention, with the average customer staying just three months.
📚 One-Off Programs Work Like a Series
We’ve seen coaches succeed most when they treat their programs like a book series — each one with a clear start and end, and a natural next step. This gives clients structure, keeps your offerings fresh, and makes it easier to scale your business.
The Bottom Line
We designed Products to help coaches sell smarter, not harder. By focusing on one-time programs, you can:
Increase customer lifetime value
Avoid the ongoing burden of content maintenance and customer churn
Build better client journeys that naturally lead to upsells
Subscriptions may seem like passive income, but in practice, they often underdeliver. One-off programs give you more control, more flexibility, and more room to grow.