Annual vs monthly membership pricing: the discount, the maths and the renewal

The short answer

Question	Short answer
Offer annual, monthly or both?	Both, from launch
How big a discount?	Annual at 8 to 10 months of the monthly price (17% to 33% off)
Which earns more in year one?	Annual, if monthly members cancel at more than about 8% a month
Which earns more over two years?	It depends on your annual renewal rate
The thing most creators miss	The renewal: remind members before it, and expect many to leave

The rest of this guide shows the working, using real prices and one worked example. The example’s churn and renewal rates are illustrative assumptions, labelled as such.

What real food and fitness memberships charge

Prices from each membership’s own website or App Store listing, checked on 23 October 2026. The last two columns are our arithmetic.

Membership	Monthly	Annual	Annual as months of monthly	Saving
Move it Mama (a Voyage client)	NZ$29.99	NZ$239.99	8.0	33%
Two Raw Sisters Recipes (app built by Voyage)	NZ$13.99	NZ$112.99	8.1	33%
The Sculpt Society	US$24.99	US$229.99	9.2	23%
Workweek Lunch Pro	US$12	US$119	9.9	17%

Three patterns stand out.

• The annual plan costs eight to ten months. Nobody in this list gives away more than a third.
• They show the monthly figure. Move it Mama’s site says “Save 33% vs monthly” and “That’s $20 a month” under the yearly price. The Sculpt Society describes its annual plan as less than US$20 a month.
• There’s often a middle option. Workweek Lunch sells three months for US$31.99 and six months for US$65. The Two Raw Sisters Recipes app lists 3-monthly at NZ$34.99 and 6-monthly at NZ$69.99. Move it Mama adds a weekly plan at NZ$9.99.

Trials differ too. Move it Mama offers seven days free on both monthly and yearly plans, and The Sculpt Society gives new members seven days free. Workweek Lunch offers its seven-day trial on the monthly plan only, and its FAQ says it doesn’t give refunds.

What the subscription data says

Most published data on billing lengths comes from apps rather than websites, but it’s the best large dataset there is. RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps 2026 report covers more than 115,000 subscription apps.

• Annual plans keep more people for a year. RevenueCat’s 2025 report found that most apps with cheap annual plans keep up to 36% of users after a year, while high-priced monthly plans keep just 6.7%.
• Annual members decide early. The same 2025 report found nearly 30% of annual subscriptions are cancelled in the first month. That usually means turning off auto-renew, not losing access.
• The renewal is a cliff. RevenueCat’s renewal data puts the median first renewal for Health & Fitness apps at 25% for annual plans, with the top quarter of apps at 37% or more. For monthly plans, the median first renewal is 57%.

Many of those app subscriptions started from a free trial with people who found the app in a store. A creator selling to warm followers on the web may well do better. Treat these as a floor to plan around, not a forecast.

The year-one maths

Here’s the worked example: a fitness membership at US$25 a month, with an annual plan at US$200. That’s eight months of the monthly price, a 33% saving, the same shape as Move it Mama and Two Raw Sisters.

The annual member pays US$200 on day one. What does a monthly member pay in their first year? That depends on monthly churn, the share of members who cancel each month. If churn holds steady, the average number of payments in the first 12 months is:

Monthly churn (assumption)	Average payments in year one	Year-one revenue at US$25
3%	10.2	US$255
5%	9.2	US$230
8%	7.9	US$198
10%	7.2	US$179

The rule falls out of the table. An annual plan priced at N months of the monthly fee earns more in year one whenever the average monthly member pays for fewer than N months. At eight months, that’s churn of about 8% a month or more. At ten months, the line moves to about 3.5%.

So the right discount depends on how well you keep monthly members. If you already keep them well, a big annual discount mostly gives money away to people who would have stayed anyway. If monthly members drift off after a program ends, the annual plan protects you.

There’s a catch in comparing the two this way. People who choose annual aren’t a random sample: they’re usually your most committed members. The discount is partly a reward for that commitment, and partly a nudge for people on the fence. You can’t separate the two, so don’t read the table as “every annual sale gains you US$X”.

The year-two maths: the renewal decides it

Year one flatters the annual plan, because it ignores the renewal. Over two years, the annual member pays US$200, plus another US$200 if they renew. The monthly member keeps paying for as long as they stay.

Same example, over 24 months:

	Two-year revenue per member
Monthly, 5% churn (assumption)	US$354
Monthly, 8% churn (assumption)	US$270
Annual, 25% renew (RevenueCat’s fitness app median)	US$250
Annual, 50% renew (assumption)	US$300
Annual, 75% renew (assumption)	US$350

Two things follow.

• The renewal is worth working on. Moving annual renewals from 25% to 50% adds US$50 per annual member in this example. That’s more than most price tests will find.
• Monthly can quietly out-earn annual. If your monthly churn is low, monthly members can be worth more over two years than discounted annual members who don’t renew. That’s an argument for a smaller discount, not for dropping the annual plan.

To run these numbers with your own price and audience, use the membership revenue calculator.

Cash up front, and fewer fees

The case for annual isn’t only about totals.

• Cash on day one. Annual sales land in your Stripe account at once. That pays for filming a new program or testing a recipe book before the money would otherwise arrive. It’s also money for a service you still owe, so don’t spend it as if the year is done.
• Fewer card fees. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents per card payment. In the example, the annual payment costs US$6.10 in fees. A monthly member at 5% churn makes about 9.2 payments in a year, at about US$1.03 each, or roughly US$9.40.
• Fewer failed payments. Every monthly charge is another chance for an expired card. One payment a year means one chance, though when it fails it fails big.

If you sell inside an app

Apple’s commission on subscriptions is 30% for a subscriber’s first year and 15% once they have a year of paid service, or 15% from the start in the App Store Small Business Program. An annual subscriber pays the whole first year at the first-year rate, and their renewal is at 15%. Google Play’s subscription rate is 15%. Members who join on your website through Stripe pay no app store commission at all. The full breakdown is in app store fees vs web checkout.

How to present the two plans

• Show the monthly figure. “US$200 a year, that’s US$16.67 a month” lets people compare like with like.
• Show the saving in plain words. “Save 33% vs monthly” is easier to read than a struck-through price.
• Keep the monthly plan complete. If you add annual-only extras, make them a bonus, not a gap in the monthly plan. Our guide to how many membership tiers covers richer annual plans.
• Be clear about cancelling. Say on the page that the plan renews each year, and how to turn renewal off. People commit more readily when leaving looks easy.
• Think about the trial. A trial on the annual plan lowers the barrier to the bigger payment. A trial only on monthly, as Workweek Lunch does, keeps annual for people who are already sure. Test one, not both at once.

Move monthly members to annual later

The best time to offer annual is often not at checkout, but two or three months in, when a monthly member has finished a first program or cooked from a few meal plans. They know the membership is worth it, and the annual price now reads as a saving rather than a gamble.

Send it as a short email or in-app message: what they’ve done so far, what’s coming next, and the annual price as a monthly figure. On Stripe, switching a subscription to a price with a different billing period creates a proration by default, so the unused part of their current month is credited. Check how your platform handles it before you send the offer.

Plan for the renewal

The renewal is where annual plans win or lose, so treat it as a launch of its own.

1. Send a reminder. Stripe can send renewal reminder emails: under Email notifications and customer management, turn on “Send emails about upcoming renewals”, and set the timing under Upcoming renewal events. Some places require one. California’s automatic renewal law, as updated from 1 July 2022, requires a notice 15 to 45 days before renewal for subscriptions with an initial term of a year or more. This isn’t legal advice: check the rules where your members live.
2. Remind them what they got. A year in review, such as programs finished, recipes saved or classes attended, makes the renewal email worth reading.
3. Say what’s coming. “New strength block in January” or “a summer barbecue plan next month” gives people a reason to stay for another year.
4. Win back the ones who leave. Some will switch to monthly or come back later. Our fitness membership retention guide has the win-back side.

When monthly-only makes sense

Monthly on its own is fine if your membership is new and you’re still changing what’s in it, or if your audience buys around short goals, such as a six-week program, more than ongoing habits. In that case, a three or six month plan, like Workweek Lunch’s, may suit people better than a full year. Add annual once you know members stay.

Where Voyage fits

Launch with Voyage is how Voyage, a product and growth agency in New Zealand, builds and launches a creator’s own membership with them, on a branded website with an optional iOS and Android app. Members pay into the creator’s own Stripe account. There’s no monthly fee and no setup fee: Voyage takes a share of sales, from 10%, agreed before launch, and Stripe’s card fees apply. Sign-ups on the web carry no app store commission; if members subscribe inside the app, through the App Store or Google Play via RevenueCat, Apple and Google take their commission on those sales. See how Voyage pricing works.