Timed ranks vs lifetime ranks: which earns more?

Every owner who sells ranks runs into this choice. A lifetime rank is one payment and the player keeps it. A timed rank runs for 30 days, and the player decides every month whether it is still worth it. One of them earns more on your server, and it is not the same one for every server. This post works it out, so you can see which one it is for yours.

The same rank, two ways

Take a server with 100 active players and a VIP rank. Say one in ten players buys it in the first month, and three new players buy it every month after that.

Lifetime, €9.99. Ten players buy in month one, then three a month. After six months you have sold 25 ranks for about €250. Every player who bought one is done paying.

Timed, €4.99 for 30 days. The same ten players buy in month one. What happens next depends on how many of them buy again when it runs out. Say six out of ten do. Add the three new buyers a month, and the number of paying players settles at around eight.

After six months they are the same. After a year the timed rank is ahead, because the lifetime rank only earns from new players while the timed rank keeps earning from the players who stay.

The number that decides it

That table hinges on one number: how many players buy again. Move it and the answer flips.

• Renews at 80%: the timed rank earns about €350 in six months and keeps climbing. Timed wins clearly.
• Renews at 40%: the timed rank earns about €190. Lifetime wins.

So the question is not "timed or lifetime". It is "how long do players stay on my server". An SMP with a community that logs in every week keeps its buyers, and a timed rank turns that loyalty into monthly income. A minigame network where most players are gone after a month does better with a lifetime rank: take the payment while the player is there.

If you don't know your number yet, you can find it in your own records: of the players who were online three months ago, how many are online this week? That is roughly your renewal rate.

What timed ranks ask of you

A timed rank only works when the player is never surprised by it.

1. Say it in the name and on the product. "VIP (30 days)" sells fewer ranks than "VIP", and that is the point: the ones you sell are to players who understood what they bought. A player who finds out their rank expired is the player who asks for their money back.
2. Take it away properly. The commands that remove the rank have to run by themselves when it ends, on a server that may be in a different state than when the player bought it. On Minecraftstore.io the expiry commands belong to the product and run when the time is up, even if the player is offline. Doing this by hand from a spreadsheet is how ranks silently become lifetime ranks.
3. Remind before it ends. A reminder a few days before the end is the difference between 40% and 60% renewing. Players don't keep track; they just notice one day that their prefix is gone.
4. Make it easy to buy again. The same product, the same page, one click. The /buy menu in game helps here: the player is already on your server when the rank runs out.

One thing to be clear about: a timed rank is not a subscription. The player pays again themselves; nothing is charged automatically. For a store that sells to young players, where a parent often pays, that is usually the right thing. Ranks that renew by themselves are on our roadmap, and you can vote on them.

What lifetime ranks ask of you

Less. A lifetime rank is a one-time payment, which is easy to explain and easy to sell. Its weak spot is the other way round: once a player owns the top rank, they have nothing left to buy. That is why owners with lifetime ranks end up selling more and more things on top, like keys, kits and cosmetics, to keep something in the store for the players who already have everything.

A mix that works on most servers

Many servers end up with both, and that is not a cop-out. In our post on pricing ranks we suggested selling the ranks forever and the extras for a month, and that still holds: the rank is the player's identity on your server, and taking that away every month feels like a loss. A monthly perk that is clearly separate, such as extra homes, a cosmetic pack or a double-XP month, feels like a choice.

So the question becomes: what on your server is an identity, and what is a perk? Sell the first forever and the second for 30 days.

Switching without upsetting anyone

If you sell lifetime ranks now and want to move to timed ones, do not change what people already bought. A player who paid for "VIP" and finds it gone after a month will tell everyone on your server, and they will be right.

What works instead:

• Leave the lifetime ranks as they are for everyone who has one. Hide the product so new players can't buy it, or keep selling it at a higher price.
• Add timed products next to them, with a lower price and a clear name.
• Give the old buyers a reason to stay happy: a small perk only lifetime holders get is cheap for you and makes the old deal feel like the better one, which it was.

Going the other way, from timed to lifetime, is easier: players only gain.

Which one, then

• Players stay for months: timed, at a third to a half of the lifetime price.
• Players come and go: lifetime, and keep adding things to buy.
• Not sure: lifetime ranks, timed extras, and look at the numbers after three months.

Both work on Minecraftstore.io. A product is timed with one setting, and the commands to take it back run by themselves. Open a store for free and try one rank each way.