Why we picked chiki over subscriptions
Subscription pricing is the SaaS default — we went the other way. Here's why a pay-as-you-go balance is fairer than a subscription.
Most SaaS products run on subscriptions: $9.99/mo, $99/yr, auto-renew. There's an uncomfortable truth about this model — the business metrics rely on people who forgot to cancel.
How subscription traps work
A SaaS CFO doesn't track "active users" — they track MRR, Monthly Recurring Revenue. The more people who pay while barely using the service, the higher the MRR. That builds in a conflict of interest: the company benefits when you pay but don't use.
How chiki fixes it
At ChekakStore:
- You top up your balance only when you need to.
- No auto-charges, no "we'll bill $99 in 7 days".
- Chiki are spent only on specific operations (conversion, download, app purchase).
- 10 chiki welcome bonus on signup — try before paying.
What we lose
Revenue is harder to forecast. MRR-based business plans don't apply. In exchange we get a simple relationship with the user: pay for what you did; if you didn't come, you owe nothing.