Pricing models for digital products come in all shapes and sizes, depending on how customers want to use and pay for a product or service. Here is an overview of the four pricing models that the Cleverbridge platform supports, as well as some quick facts about them:
Pricing Models
One-Time Charge Pricing Model
In the one-time charge pricing model, customers pay only once for the exact services rendered at the time of use. The customer
An individual or business purchasing your product or service by placing an order through Cleverbridge. The customer is the end user of this product, as they are not allowed to resell the purchased products or services.
A customer is unique per client. If a customer purchases products or services from two different clients, there are 2 separate records of said customer. pays before or after the service is provided. This pricing model is best for services that are delivered on demand, such as renting a movie online (payment Exchange of money for goods and services in an acceptable amount to the customer where the payment amount has been agreed upon in advance. The customer can only pay with an accepted payment method. Each payment has an individual payment cost. before downloading a movie) or a ride with Uber (payment after the ride).
Example
For an example of how you could leverage the subscription commerce platform to implement the one-time charge pricing model, see One-Time Charge Pricing.
Fixed Pricing Model
In the fixed pricing model, customers pay a flat fee for a service, such as streaming music. The fee is set for a billing interval and customers are billed upfront on a recurring basis, typically monthly or yearly. The fee can be linear (the same price for each billing interval) or variable (different price for each billing interval). Customers can change their level of service through an upgrade or downgrade. The fixed pricing model can be seen in services such as Apple Music and Netflix.
Example
For an example of how you could leverage the subscription commerce platform to implement the fixed pricing model, see Fixed Pricing.
Seat-Based Pricing Model
The seat-based (or user-based) pricing model allows you to define a price for your product per seat and for a specific time period, for example $20/user/month. In this pricing model, your plan could define a minimum commitment of seats or you could allow a customer to add more seats at any time. You could also charge different amounts for different types of users, for example $10/month for admin users and $5/month for end users. The seat-based pricing model can be seen in products such as collaborative software or Dropbox for teams.
Example
For an example of how you could leverage the subscription commerce platform to implement the seat-based pricing model, see Seat-Based Pricing.
Usage-Based Pricing Model
Under a usage-based pricing model, customers only pay for what they consume and they are normally charged for their usage on a monthly basis. In this pricing model, billing occurs after the consumption of the service, either on a fixed date, for example, the first day of the month, or on the anniversary of a customer’s sign-up date. The usage based pricing model can be seen in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and a mobile phone subscription billed according to the services you used.
Example
For an example of how you could leverage the subscription commerce platform to implement the usage-based pricing model, see Usage-Base Pricing.
Quick Facts about Pricing Models
The following diagram presents categories of pricing models depending on two aspects: price scaling and billing cadence. Price scaling determines how many products or services a customer buys (seat-based) or how broad the level of the service is, for example separate tiers for basic, professional, and enterprise version (tier-based). Billing cadence defines when the product or service gets billed (one-time or recurring).
The two aspects are not mutually excluding, and you can combine a recurring fixed-price product with seat-based pricing or a recurring usage-based product with seat-based pricing.
In addition to the four pricing models mentioned on this page, Cleverbridge supports also the tier-based model. If you would like to set a tier-based model, see Configure > Product Selection Menu.