Do the unit economics work for individual users or only for companies?
Unit economics answer one question: does each customer bring in more than it costs to win and serve? For a work app the answer is often different for an individual subscriber and for a company account. This page walks through both with a worked example, the store fees that apply, and what changed in Android attribution.
How do unit economics differ for individual users and company accounts?
Individual subscribers are cheap to start but pay a store fee, churn faster and pay less each month. Company accounts cost more to win because they need sales time, onboarding and security work, but they pay for many seats, are invoiced without a store fee and usually stay much longer.
In many work apps, individual plans alone do not pay back paid acquisition. They become worthwhile because a share of those individuals bring in their company. That is the chain to measure.
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Which numbers go into unit economics?
| Number | Meaning | Individual subscriber | Company account |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAC | Cost to acquire one paying customer | Ad spend ÷ paying individuals | Share of ad spend + sales and onboarding time |
| Price | What the customer pays monthly | Plan price | Seats × price per seat |
| Fees | Store or payment fees | Store fee on subscriptions | Card or bank processing on invoices |
| Cost to serve | Hosting, support, account management | Small, mostly support | Higher: admin help, security reviews |
| Retention | Share still paying each month | Lower, varies with the job | Higher, renewed annually |
| Lifetime value | Monthly net margin ÷ monthly churn | Usually modest | Usually several times higher |
| Payback | Months of net margin to recover CAC | Often long | Often shorter than its larger CAC suggests |
CAC on Android has become harder to split by channel. In October 2025 Google said it is retiring the Android Attribution Reporting API and other Privacy Sandbox technologies, so channel CAC relies on the Install Referrer, ad platform reports and your own sign-up source. The measurement side is on analytics and attribution.
What does a worked example look like?
Here is a fictional engineering calculator app with an individual plan and a company plan. Every input is invented to show the method; replace them with your own.
| Line | Individual subscriber | Company account (10 seats) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $9 | $150 (10 × $15) |
| Fee | 15% store fee | 3% payment processing |
| Cost to serve per month | $1.50 | $25 |
| Net margin per month | $6.15 | $121 |
| Monthly retention | 85% | 96% |
| Expected paying months (1 ÷ churn) | 6.7 | 25 |
| Lifetime value (net) | $41 | $3,012 |
| CAC | $250 | $1,400 (users who started it + sales time) |
| LTV ÷ CAC | 0.2 | 2.2 |
| Payback (months) | Never (expected paying life 6.7 months) | 12 |
In this example, an individual subscriber never pays back the $250 it cost to acquire: the expected value is about $41. A company account costs more than five times as much to win but returns about 2.2 times its cost. If one in twelve paying individuals brings in a company, each of them carries about $251 of company value on top of their own subscription, which changes the decision on whether to keep the channel that found them.
Read the ratio with care. An LTV to CAC figure built on three months of retention data is mostly guesswork, so recalculate it every month as cohorts age. Look at payback as well: a company account that pays back in about a year ties up cash for that year, which matters more to a small team than a ratio. If cash is tight, annual prepayment on company plans shortens payback to zero for that year, and is worth offering at a modest discount.
How do store fees change the numbers?
Store fees apply to individual purchases made through Google Play or the App Store. Google Play's service fees are 15% on the first $1M of earnings each year and 30% above that, with subscriptions at 15%, in regions outside its newer structure. For the EEA, the UK and the US, a new structure applies from June 30, 2026, for example subscriptions at 10% plus a 5% billing fee. Apple has its own programmes; see subscriptions and store fees.
Run the example above with a 30% fee instead of 15% and the individual subscriber's monthly net margin drops from $6.15 to $4.80, so lifetime value falls further below CAC. Small fee differences compound across every paying month, which is why the fee line deserves the same attention as the price.
Company plans sold and invoiced outside the apps usually pay only payment processing, but storefront rules on linking to outside purchases differ by country. Check current terms before you add a web purchase link inside the app; team and company pricing covers the options.
Count the company account as the customer.
When a paid user brings in their company, the acquisition cost belongs partly to that company account. Track the chain, or you will cut the channels that start your best deals.
What unit economics mistakes do app teams make?
- Blending individuals and companies. One average hides whether each model works.
- Using gross price instead of net. Fees, refunds and taxes come off first.
- Forgetting sales and onboarding time in company CAC. Founder hours are a cost too.
- Treating installs as customers. CAC divides spend by paying customers, not installs.
- Lifetime value from too little data. Early retention is noisy; cap expected lifetime at a sensible number of months.
- Trade-off: cutting individual plans to push companies can starve the bottom-up pipeline that creates company accounts.
What should you measure for unit economics?
| Metric | Question it answers | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| CAC per paying individual | What does a paying user cost? | Ad spend ÷ new paying users from billing |
| CAC per company account | What does a company cost, including sales? | Spend, sales time, CRM |
| Net revenue per account per month | What do we keep after fees? | Store payouts, billing |
| Monthly retention by model | How long do they pay? | Billing, store reports |
| Individual to company conversion | How many paying users bring their company? | CRM linked to user accounts |
| Payback in months | When do we get our money back? | Calculated from the rows above |
Test the numbers with the growth calculator, which follows one month of spend through both models.
Frequently asked questions
What is CAC for a mobile app?
Customer acquisition cost: what you spend to win one paying customer, not one install.
How do I calculate lifetime value?
A simple version is monthly net margin divided by monthly churn. Cap it at a reasonable number of months when data is young.
What fee does Google Play take on subscriptions?
15% on subscriptions in regions outside its newer fee structure. The EEA, UK and US have a new structure from June 30, 2026. Check current terms.
Do company plans pay store fees?
Plans sold and invoiced outside the apps usually pay only payment processing. Storefront rules on linking to outside purchases differ, so check current terms.
What is a good LTV to CAC ratio?
There is no universal number. Above 1 means a customer returns more than they cost; most businesses want a clear margin above that to fund growth.
Why is Android attribution harder now?
Google said in October 2025 that it is retiring the Android Attribution Reporting API and other Privacy Sandbox technologies, so channel data relies on other sources.
Should I stop paid acquisition for individual users?
Not before measuring how many of them bring in a company. Their value may sit in the company accounts they start.
Sources & further reading
Regulator rules, platform policies and local data change. These sources let you check the facts on this page, last checked October 6, 2026.