We stopped forcing the subscription model on our users. Here is what happened.

Lovable, an AI product, shifted from subscription-only billing to include credit top-ups after user complaints and irregular usage patterns. Through A/B testing, they found a 20% premium on top-ups (vs. subscriptions) increased engagement, improved paid retention by 7%, and generated 20%+ of bookings within a week—without cannibalizing subscription revenue. The change aligned monetization with actual user behavior, proving that optimizing solely for ARR can harm long-term engagement and retention.