Monetisation¶
Overview¶
PetFolio uses different monetisation models for each account type:
- Personal accounts - freemium model with a free tier and paid upgrades
- Professional accounts - tiered subscription model with pricing that varies by organisation sub-category
Personal accounts: freemium¶
Tiers¶
| Free | Premium | Household | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animals | 1-2 | Up to 10 | Up to 10 (shared pool across all members) |
| Pet profile | Full | Full | Full |
| User profile | Full | Full | Full |
| Profile picture | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gallery/media | Strict limit or none | Included | Included |
| Sharing | No | Yes (temporary + permanent) | Yes |
| Combined daily routine | No | Yes | Yes |
| Members | 1 | 1 | Owner + additional members at discounted rate |
| Billing | Free | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual (owner manages billing) |
The Household plan follows a model similar to Spotify's family plan: one owner manages membership and billing, additional members get Premium features at a discounted per-member rate.
Upsell opportunities¶
| Opportunity | Description |
|---|---|
| Additional animals beyond 10 | Pay per animal or a higher tier for 15, 20, etc. |
| Storage/media | Premium includes a gallery allowance; heavy users could hit a cap and pay for more |
| Advanced sharing features (future) | Editor rights, selective hiding, share analytics |
| Export/print | Generate a formatted PDF of the profile (replaces the printed handover documents PetFolio is replacing) |
| Priority support | Faster response for account recovery or issues |
| Custom profile themes/branding | Personalise how the shared profile looks to recipients |
Downgrading from paid to free¶
When a Personal user downgrades from Premium or Household to Free:
- All active shares (temporary and permanent) are revoked
- Combined daily routine access is removed
- If the user has more than 2 animals, they must choose which animals to keep on the free tier
- Animals not selected are not immediately deleted - the user has 30 days to change their mind (similar to the account inactivity model)
- After 30 days, unselected animals are archived
Professional accounts: tiered subscriptions¶
Tier structure¶
Tiers are based on a combination of staff count, animal capacity, and feature access.
| Starter | Standard | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | Up to 3 | Up to 15 | Unlimited |
| Animals | Up to 25 | Up to 100 | Unlimited |
| Features | Core (profiles, sharing, status management) | Core + advanced filters, activity log export | Full feature set + branded subdomain, bulk operations, API access |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
Sub-category pricing¶
The cost of each tier is adjusted by the type of organisation. This is driven by the organisation type captured at sign-up.
| Sub-category | Pricing approach | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Rehoming centre / rescue | Discounted or subsidised | Non-profit, doing social good, price sensitive |
| Sole trader (sitter, groomer, walker) | Lower price point | Small operation, limited revenue |
| Vet practice | Standard pricing | Established business, clear commercial value |
| Boarding kennel | Standard pricing | Commercial operation |
| Breeder | Standard or higher pricing | Commercial operation, PetFolio adds direct value to their product (profiles transfer to buyers) |
Free trial¶
Professional accounts should have a free trial period before requiring a subscription. This lets organisations evaluate PetFolio before committing. Duration to be determined (14-30 days is industry standard).
Subscription lapse¶
When a Professional account's subscription lapses:
- All sharing and export functionality is revoked
- The account goes to read-only - staff can still view animal profiles but cannot create, edit, or share
- A cooling period may be needed before full revocation to avoid abrupt disruption (duration TBD)
- Active external shares (e.g., profiles shared with adopters) are revoked during the lapse
- If the subscription is renewed, full functionality is restored
Ownership transfer and billing¶
When an animal profile is transferred to a new owner:
- The transferred profile is independent of the original account - it is not shared from the original user
- The new owner must have a PetFolio account
- If the new owner already has the maximum number of animals for their tier, they must upgrade before accepting the transfer
- The original account retains an archived copy if they chose to archive
Referral programme (MVP)¶
Sharing is PetFolio's strongest organic acquisition channel. Every shared profile is a touchpoint where a potential user sees the product in action. The referral programme incentivises this growth.
MVP referral bonuses¶
| Trigger | Referrer gets | Referee gets |
|---|---|---|
| Referred user signs up to Premium | 1 free month of Premium | Standard Premium pricing |
| Referred user joins the referrer's Household plan | Household discount | Household member pricing |
Referral bonuses only activate when the referred user takes a paid action (signs up to Premium or joins a Household plan). This means:
- No cost for free-tier referrals (the referred user still signs up organically)
- The bonus is self-funding - it only triggers alongside new revenue
- The referrer is incentivised to refer people who will actually pay
Future referral enhancements¶
- Free storage/media for successful referrals
- Extended animal limit (temporarily or permanently increase the cap)
- Tiered referral rewards (more referrals = better bonuses)
Cost consideration¶
Referral bonuses are a customer acquisition cost. The free month of Premium is a known, capped cost per referral. The Household discount reduces per-member revenue but increases total household revenue. Both should be tracked against the cost of other acquisition channels (marketing, advertising) to determine ROI.
Billing approach¶
- Monthly and annual billing for all paid tiers
- Annual discount (e.g., equivalent of 2 months free) to improve retention and cash flow predictability
- UK-only pricing for MVP - currency and regional pricing are future considerations
Costs that impact pricing¶
These operational costs must be factored into pricing decisions:
| Cost area | Description | Scaling behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Software development and maintenance | Building and maintaining the platform, bug fixes, feature development | Fixed overhead - spread across all users |
| Cloud storage | Media uploads (profile pictures, galleries), profile data, backups | Scales per user - directly impacted by media limits and animal counts |
| Cloud infrastructure | Hosting, compute, networking, CDN, offline sync infrastructure | Scales with usage - more users and more frequent sync = higher cost |
| Data security | Encryption, security audits, penetration testing, compliance | Fixed overhead with periodic spikes (audits, certifications) |
| Marketing | User acquisition, content, social media, partnerships | Investment to grow - should be recoverable through revenue |
| Tooling | Domains, Google Workspace, engineering tools (CI/CD, monitoring), marketing tools | Fixed overhead - relatively predictable |
| Integrations | Third-party API costs (future vet platforms, insurance APIs, OAuth providers) | Per-transaction or per-user costs from third parties |
Cloud storage and infrastructure scale directly with users, which is why media limits and animal caps matter commercially, not just as feature gating.
Open questions¶
- Exact pricing for each tier and sub-category
- Free trial duration for Professional accounts
- Cooling period duration for Professional subscription lapse
- Storage limits for free tier media
- Whether additional animals beyond 10 are pay-per-animal or a higher tier
- Annual discount amount