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Ask HN: How much should I sell my Windows Store App for?

6 points by Ralz ↗ HN
Since the Windows Store is in its infancy, I'm finding it hard to choose the right price point that people are willing to pay. Are Windows users more or less frugal with their money? I know the the vast majority of apps are free but they come with ads and since my app is a password manager I don't think I will get enough "eye" time to justify putting ads. I started off at $1.49 and had a few sales (1-4/day) then I pushed it up to $1.99 and I am seeing roughly the same number of sales. With such low volume, would it be wise to increase my price or should I just wait it out?

Link: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/lockit/665aa3ab-159b-4bc9-b59c-af5f7f22e974

14 comments

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OafTobark
I paid $15 for an iOS version (1Password Pro) so I'd imagine you can try at a higher price point. Worse case scenario, you can drop prices later. Much harder to keep increasing prices if there are a lot of users that take notice later. Try something like $4.99 and see how that does.

If traffic falls, but overall profit is up, thats still okay. You got to do a bit of testing to see what will work best.

Gustomaximus
Also if you raise the price to $4.99 consider doing some ads as you are hitting a price point where this activity can be ROI positive.
Ralz
Sheesh $15 thats pretty steep for a password manager, then again "Keeper" is a top grossing app on IOS and makes $9.99/year off of its customers. Thanks for the advice I'm going to try the $4.99 price point.
OafTobark
Yeah it is. Its universal for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch but still pretty expensive. The I think the main reason being it syncs with the Desktop version (paid separately). I still think its overpriced (yet I paid anyway).
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tarekayna
I did some price experimentation with my app (Blu Graphing Calculator). I ranged from 1.49 to 3.99. I kept every price up for around a week. Here are some of my findings:

- Blu was selling the most at $1.99 but the revenue was the most at 3.99 (sold on average more than half of what I sold at 1.99).

- Interestingly enough, it sold much more at 1.99 than at 1.49

I chose to push back to 1.99 for the time-being to increase the # of users.

Ralz
That's really interesting to know, your app looks awesome. May I ask how long that took you and did you make this in JS? I'll try raising the price of mine for a week and see what the results are thanks.

Link to Blu Graing Calc: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/blu-graphing-calc...

tarekayna
Thanks :). This was around 7 months of mornings and weekends while I had a full-time job. (I quit a month ago to start my own thing).

I built this with JS/HTML/CSS but the MathEngine component I built using C# (.winmd) and called into it from the Javascript.

If you have any specific questions about how different parts are implemented, let me know :).

Ralz
Same I left MSFT in March to do my own thing! Not just this Windows App tho, it was just a side project while I failed at a startup earlier this year.

I was just thinking that with the state of the how APIs were last year this would have been very tough to do, so I was wondering if you went the JS route since it was in better shape than XAML.

tarekayna
Nice, I used to work for MS too :).

I actually went the JS route because of my skillset. I was was web-dev before I joined MS and never got into XAML much.

The JS platform was pretty stable from the initial public release, I guess that's because it is built on top of IE which has been around much before Win8 came along.

gyurisc
It looks very nice. Good job! I think 1.99 is a good price for the app as it allows you to drop it to 0.99 when you want to boost the sales.
pkamb
I increased the price of two of my Mac App Store apps:

Reddit Notifier https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-notifier/id468366517?...

$1.99 -> $2.99

EdgeCase https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edgecase/id513826860?mt=12

$4.99 -> $7.99

Sales numbers for both have remained close enough to constant so these price increases have lead to a nice little bump in revenue. I would say to aim for the high end of the price "range" you're targeting. If someone will pay $2, they'll probably also buy at $3 but perhaps not at $6. Your app looks like a vital part of a person's workflow... try $9.99.

Ralz
I changed it to $9.99, I feel like I'm being a bit greedy but I'll give it a week to see what the results are!
badassdon
I agree with raising the price up a bit for this app - a security app that sells for a lower price gives off the impression that it's not very secure (imho)