Totally depends on: a) what kind of product/service you are offering. b) who your target market is. Some things I like to pay one-off for. Others I go monthly

Totally depends on: a) what kind of product/service you are offering. b) who your target market is. Some things I like to pay one-off for. Others I go monthly. I find the monthly services tend to update and add features more often than the one-offs. I also tend to see that the monthly subscription services provide ever increasing value to me. Maybe that is because they are "works in progress" in constant competition and know that should they fail they will start bleeding customers to the competition. Also, with one-offs I often find that the cost is high enough to make me seriously consider a purchase and I spend more time seeking out the competition. Some examples: Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice or Google Docs. Outlook vs Thunderbird. Vimeo vs Youtube. Oops... those examples all point towards free alternatives. Hope your product has some killer advantage that can overcome any existing competition that goes freemium. Else you better try the freemium model yourself. We live in an age where everyone wants everything for free.