I bought a lifetime of Calm.

The app, not the feeling, although I’d definitely pay a lot for actual calmness in my life.

After a few years of bouncing between Calm and Headspace, meditating off and on, I saw an offer that felt impossible to refuse: lifelong access to Calm. No monthly payments, no annual renewal, just one payment, forever.

It sounded perfect. Wouldn’t I meditate more if I knew I’d already invested? Wouldn’t it feel amazing to never have to think about my subscription again? One less thing on the mental load. So, after some deliberation, I did it. My first-ever lifetime subscription. My second one came earlier this year when I married my now-husband.

Years later, Calm is still on my phone. Still updated, still upgraded, still going strong. But that raises a bigger question: if a giant like Calm is offering lifetime subscriptions at scale… should your app?

Like with my other deep dives into subscription models (from the pros and cons of annual subscriptions to whether weekly subscriptions make sense), you’ll know it’s never as simple as yes or no“yes, do it” or “no, don’t touch it.” There are advantages and disadvantages for both your customer and your brand. And it doesn’t suit every industry.

So today, we’re diving into lifetime subscriptions. We’ll consider:

• How common lifetime offers actually are across industries
• The benefits (and risks) for both your customers and your business
• Who should consider lifetime subscriptions, and who shouldn’t
• How to structure a lifetime offer for success

While you’re probably reading this from a business perspective, I always start with the customers, too. You need to understand their perception and hesitation if you want to test lifetime subscriptions. A lifetime subscription almost always favors either the customer or the brand — rarely both. I can feel like I got an unbeatable deal with Calm, or Calm can feel like they maximized my value. But not both at the same time.

Are many apps really offering lifetime subscriptions? 

I turn to my trusty data source, my favorite nerdy nighttime read: the State of Subscription Apps 2025 Report. (Yes, all 262 pages of it, and yes, it delivers every time.) 

For most app categories, offering a combination of subscription and lifetime subscription is the second most popular form of monetization. On top of that, a small share of apps also layer in consumables:

Where are lifetime subscriptions most common? Photo & Video apps lead the way, where the model is often framed less as ‘forever access’ and more as a one-off upgrade. They’re also popular in Education and Travel, where users see clear long-term value.

For most other categories, adoption hovers around 18–24% of apps offering both subscription and lifetime options, with consumables sprinkled in.

The big outlier? Business apps. Here, lifetime access makes far less sense — ongoing per-user costs are high, and products evolve too quickly. Especially in the B2B space, lifetime subscriptions rarely align with reality.

The benefits of lifetime subscriptions

So why would you consider moving from a monthly or annual subscription model to lifetime one-off? Let’s look at both sides. 

From the customer side

People are tired of subscriptions. Everything from TV to toothbrushes now wants a monthly fee. It’s hard to keep track of them, and everything feels like a subscription these days. Heck, there are literally apps to track your subscription apps. If that’s not subscription fatigue, I don’t know what is.

That’s where lifetime subscriptions come in. They’re appealing:

• No more subscription creep: instead of adding one more bill to the pile, users can pay once and forget about it
• A way to take a bet: lifetime offers let people back a new app they like, even if it’s still early — many startups price lifetime deals more attractively than th