Pricing Strategies: #3 Services never Stop with just Plans

"Hey, while you're here, could you also take a look at the vegetable patch?"

Aaron hears that line almost every week.

He runs a small gardening service, the kind where customers subscribe to a simple monthly plan that includes basic maintenance, mowing, watering, trimming and fertilising the greenery around the house. It was a clean plan, easy to quote and deliver. But every visit came with just one more request, which Aaron can hardly deny.

"Can you add some new soil to the corner beds?"

"Do you have time to prune the roses today?"

"Can you install a drip line this month?"

"On, and do you think we could add two more bags of compost next time?"

Aaron would laugh and say, "Sure, but that's not a part of the routine."

Then he'd rather do the work for free, feeling it's a small thing to charge or charge manually, which customers sometimes hesitate to pay or write a note to invoice later, which he misses most of the time.

By the end of the month, his plan-based business no longer looked like a plan. It seems like a collection of unpredictable, scattered requests that his billing system wasn't built to handle.

One day, a customer said, "I wish I could just add these extra things like a topping on a pizza. My plan stays the same, but I choose the extras I want."

That made Aaron realise something: People don't want complicated plans, but they do want flexibility in purchase. They want a solid base plan and the freedom to add the extras that fit their needs.

This is precisely why Zoho Billing offers Add-ons, to keep plans clean while allowing customers to personalise their subscription effortlessly.

Add-ons in Zoho Billing 

Add-ons extend a subscription beyond the base offering. They allow customers to purchase additional value without changing their main plan, while letting businesses scale offerings cleanly. Zoho Billing offers a comprehensive, structured add-on framework that covers different types of add-ons to address real-world subscription challenges.

Standalone Add-ons 

Standalone addons are independent enhancements that customers can attach to their existing plan whenever they prefer. They are meant to offer extra service or features that are not included in the base plan but are commonly requested.

Suitable Businesses: Gardening services, home cleaning services, fitness studios, consulting firms, repair/maintenance services.

Strategic Advantage: Standalone addons let businesses say "yes" to customer requests immediately without redesigning plans. They boost revenue, reduce complexity, and make offerings more modular.  

Addon Groups 

Addon Groups categorise addons into structured sections. This ensures customers see relevant options, not a long list of unrelated extras. This allows businesses to organise add-ons into meaningful groups, such as garden enhancement, soil services, and irrigation upgrades.

Suitable Businesses: Software platforms with feature bundles, wellness centres offering different service categories, and agencies with add-on service families.

Strategic Advantage: 

 Grouped addons improve customer experience and help businesses present upsells cleanly, increase adoption without overwhelming the subscribers.  

Recurring Addons 

Recurring addons behave like mini-subscriptions attached to the main plan. They repeat every billing cycle unless removed. These are long-term additions, such as premium service layers, extra recurring hours, monthly replenishments, or ongoing feature unlocks.

Suitable Business: IT service providers, digital content platforms, property maintenance companies, and management services businesses.

Strategic Advantage: Recurring addons provide predictable recurring revenue and increase customer retention by integrating deeper value into each billing cycle.  

One-time Addons 

These are single-use enhancements that do not renew. They are mostly occasional or emergency requests such as festival cleanup, a one-time plan installation, a deep garden care session or a special consultation.

Suitable Business: Event-based service providers, emergency repair teams, creative agencies, and landscaping services offering seasonal cleanup. 

Strategic Advantage: One-time add-ons let you capture revenue for specific needs while keeping plans simple. Customers appreciate paying just for what they use.

Quantity-based Addon 

Quantity-based addons allow customers to buy multiple units of a service enhancement. It depends on scaling by volume, such as purchasing more working hours, extra visits, additional fertiliser bags or extra user seats.

Suitable Business: Co-working space selling extra desks, SaaS apps offering additional seats, consulting firms selling extra billable hours, and gardening service selling extra material units.

Strategic Advantage: This model supports incremental growth, reduces customer friction and increases recurring revenue without modifying the customer's main subscription.  

Usage Addons 

Usage-based addons charge based on the quantity consumed, with tracking after the fact. This addon is measured purely on usage, such as irrigation water consumption, number of tasks completed, hours logged or API calls made.

Suitable Business: Utilities, IoT device monitoring service, API driven SaaS platform, retail services, telecom and metered resource providers.

Strategic Advantage: Usage based addon build trust and attract customers who prefer flexible at the same time fair way of billing. They also unlock revenue that grows organically with usage.  

 What Addon Do for the Business 

Add-ons transform how a business delivers value. Instead of forcing every customer into a rigid plan structure, they allow flexible, optional and scalable extensions that match real-world needs. This means your plan remains clean and predictable, while your revenue model becomes dynamic and adaptive.

Addons in Zoho Billing not only offer different types, but also provide flexible rules for when and how addons should be attached to a subscription. You can configure,

Association Type: 

Association type controls whether the addon is optional, recommended or mandatory.

1. Optional: The addon can be added or removed at any time when creating or editing a subscription.

2. Recommended: The addons appear as a suggested enhancement on the hosted page.

3. Mandatory: Addon is automatically included with the plan and cannot be removed.

Applicable Event: 

The applicable event defines the time range during which the addon should be considered.

1. Subscription activation: Triggered when a subscription goes live.

2. Plan Change: Triggered whenever a subscription is created or updated with a selected plan.

3. Trial Activation: Triggered when the trial starts. 

Event Frequency 

Event frequency determines whether the addon applies once or every time the event occurs.

1. Whenever Event Occurs: The addon is applied every time the selected event happens.

2. First-Time Event Occurs: The addon applies only to the first occurrence of the chosen event.

With all these addons, make your subscription model future-ready, flexible, profitable and responsive to how customers actually use your service.

Customers subscribe to your plan for the essentials. But they stay and spend more when they can tailor the service to their evolving needs.

Plans create the foundation, and addons create the experience.

Together, they build a perfect subscription model that scales merrily. 

Up Next: Counting on Discounts

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• Sticky Posts

• Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

  Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

• Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

• Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

• Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

• Recent Topics

• AddHour resets the time to 00:00:00 before adding the hour.

  Based on the documentation here: https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/functions/datetime/addhour.html Here's my custom function: string ConvertDateFormat(string inputDate) { // Extract only the date-time part (before the timezone) dateTimePart = inputDate.subString(0,19);

• WhatsApp Link is not integrating

  Hello, I am using zoho flow. when new row added in google sheet it sends email to respected person. In email body I have a text "Share via WhatsApp". behind this text I putted a link. But when the recipient receives email and wants to share my given info

• Zoho flow - Webhook

  If I choose an app as a trigger in Zoho Flow, is it still possible to add a webhook later in the same flow?

• Zoho Flow + Bigin + Shopify

  We are testing Zoho Flow for the first time and want to create a flow based in first purchases. When a client makes his first order, we're going to add the "primeiracompra" (first order) tag to his account in Shopify (it's not efficient, but that's the

• Is it The Flow? Or is it me?

  I want to do some basic level stuff, take two fields from a webhook, create a zsheet from a template using one field with date appended, create a folder using both fields as the name, and put the zsheet into that folder. I was going to elaborate - but

• Having problem with data transferring from Google sheet to ZMA

  When connecting Google sheet with Zoho marketing automation it is having the email as a mandatory field. Can I change it as non-mandatory field or is there any other way to trasnfer data from google sheet to ZMA. I have leads which we get from whatsapp,

• Dropbox to Workdrive synchronisation

  I want to get all the files and folders from Dropbox to Workdrive and each time a new file or folder is added in dropbox i want it to be available in Workdrive and wise versa. Sync Updates to Files Trigger: "File updated" (Dropbox). Action: "Upload file"

• Microsoft Planner Task to Service Desk Plus Request - error n4001

  Hi there. I'm trying to create a flow that will create a new request in ServiceDesk Plus when a new task is created in Microsoft Planner. I have succesfully connected both Planner and ServiceDesk Plus, and have configured the 'create request' section

• Trailing Space in "Date and time scheduled "

  I am trying to use the Zoho Projects - Create event action in a flow. It is failing with the output error as: "Action did not execute successfully due to an unknown error. Contact support for more details." The input is: { "Duration - Minutes": 30, "Project":

• Project name by deal name; project creation via flow

  Hello, I want to create a project in zoho projects using flow by a trigger at the crm. My trigger is the update of a deal (stage). The project name should be the account name/ deal name. But I dont find the solution to it. Can you please give me the answer

• Slack / Zoho Flow; Repl

  I am trying to add a comment in a zoho ticket when someone reply's to a message in a thread. The Message posted to public channel trigger doesn't seem to pick up thread messages. I also cannot use the thread_ts field as it doesn't seem to pull that in.

• Get Holiday ready with Zoho Mail's Templates

  As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to step away from work and unwind. You may not be able to respond to every email or send individual messages to wish everyone holidays greetings—but It is still important to stay connected. How do you send thoughtful

• Customize folder permissions in a Team Folder in a Team Folder via zoho Flow

  HI All, on the nth level folder of a team folder I would like to Customize folder permissions when it's created in the flow of Creating folders. That last level I only want to grant access to a specific group, goup ID 201XXXXXXXX. Can you help with a

• Associating a Candidate to a Job Listing

  Hello, I am trying to use Zoho Forms embedded on my website for candidates to apply for a job opening. I want the form then to tie directly with zoho recruit and have the candidate be automatically inputed into Recruit as well as associated with the specific

• Automate reminder emails for events

  Hi team, I am trying to automate send event reminders via zoho campaign to my attendees 1 day prior to my scheduled events. I used zoho flow, autoresponder in zoho campaign, as well as I used workflow and automation - but none of these methods are working.

• Update related module entry Zoho Flow not working with custom module ?

  Hi everyone. I am facing an issue here on Zoho Flow. Basically what I am doing is checking when a module entry is being filled in with an Event ID. Event is a custom module that I created. If the field is being filled in I fetch the contact with its ID

• How to disable time log on / time log off

  Hi We use zoho people just to manage our HR Collaborators. We don't need that each persona check in and out the time tracker. How to disable from the screen that ?

• Dealing With One-Time Customers on Zoho Books

  Hello there! I am trying to figure out a way to handle One-Time customers without having to create multiple accounts for every single one on Zoho Books. I understand that I can create a placeholder account called "Walk-In Customer", for example, but I

• Zoho Flow - Add to Google Calendar from trigger in Zoho Creator App

  Hello! New to Zoho Flow, but I believe I have everything setup the way it should be however getting an error saying "Google Calendar says "Bad Request". Any idea where I should start looking? Essentially some background: Zoho Creator app has a trigger

• Email authentication

  أريد التحقق من البريد الإلكتروني

• What’s New in Zoho Analytics – December 2025

  December is a special time of the year to celebrate progress, reflect on what we have achieved, and prepare for what’s ahead! As we wrap up the year, this month’s updates focus on refining experiences, strengthening analytics workflows, and setting the

• Marketing Tip #12: Earn trust with payment badges and clear policies

  Online shoppers want to know they can trust your store. Displaying trust signals such as SSL-secure payment badges, return and refund policies, and verified reviews shows visitors that your store is reliable. These visual cues can turn hesitation into

• The improved portal experience: Introducing the template view for inventory modules, enhanced configurations, and PDF export support

  Availability: Open for all DCs. Editions: All Hello everyone, You can now achieve a seamless, brand-aligned portal experience with our enhanced configuration options and the new template view for inventory modules. Your clients will now be able to view

• Zoho Analytics Bulk Api Import json Data

  HI, I’m trying to bulk-update rows in Zoho Analytics, and below are the request and response details. I’d like to understand the required parameters for constructing a bulk API request to import or update data in a table using Deluge. Any guidance on

• Project Management Bulletin: December, 2025

  The holiday cheer is in the air and it’s time to reflect on the year that was. At Zoho PM Suite, we've been working behind the scenes on something huge and exciting all year and now we are almost ready—with just a bit of confetti—for our grand release

• Inventory batch details

  Hi there, I'm trying to get the batch details of an item, here's what I've done so far. I've sent cUrl request to the below endpoint and I get a successful response. Within in the response I find the "warehouses" property which correctly lists all the

• Auto check out after shift complete

  i'm just stuck here right now, i wanna know how to do this thing, now tell me, how can i configure a custom function that runs after complete shift time if employee forget to check-out ?

• How to create a flow that creates tickets automaticaly everyday based on specific times

  Hi guys Does anyone know how to create a flow that will create tickets automaticaly in ZOHO Desk when a certain time is reached. Im havin a hard time configuring a flow that will create tickets automaticaly everyday during specific hours of the day For

• ZOHO FLOW - ZOHO CREATOR - ZOHO WRITER : Get Related records

  Bonjour, J'ai besoin que vous m'ajoutiez la solution "Get related Records" dans la liste de choix de zoho creator (sous Zoho flow). En effet, j'ai besoin de récupérer les champs d'un sous formulaire pour l'ajouter à l'impression de mon document. Mer

• Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

  title

• Connecting email for each department in ZohoDesk

  Hi! Could someone help me to go through connecting emails for each department?

• How do I trigger a Flow based on a campaign response?

  Is there a way to trgiider a Zoho Flow based upon a lead opening an email sent via Zoho Campaigns? I see that the data is recorded in the 'Campaigns' section of Zoho CRM under 'Member Status' and I want to trgigger a flow based upon that record changing.

• All Zoho Flows are filtered

  My two flows operate perfectly when I run them as a test, but when they're activated each run ends with a status of neither success, nor fail, but filtered. I haven't set up any filters. I don't see where to turn off filters. When I test run on a sequence

• Creating Multiple Items on Sales Order

  Hi, I’m trying to automate some processes using Zoho Flow, specifically the creation of sales orders in my Zoho Inventory. However, Zoho Flow's Create Sales Order function can only add one item. I would like to include multiple items in a single sales

• Problem Connection from Zoho Flow and Gravity Form

  I obtained my API key from Gravity Forms via WordPress. However, when I enter my Zoho Flow, it states: Gravity Forms says, 'You are not authorised to access the API." I tried recreating a new API key, but it is still not working.

• Eventbrite Email Field in Zoho Flow Returns "Info Requested" Instead of Actual Email

  Hi Zoho team, I'm using Zoho Flow to connect Eventbrite with Zoho CRM. My goal is to automatically add event attendees as leads in Zoho CRM. I’ve set up the flow and mapped the ${trigger.profile_email}} field to the Email field in CRM. However, I'm running

• "Invalid value passed for Product ID" Error in Zoho Flow "Create Sales Order" Node

  Hello Zoho Community, I’m facing an issue with Zoho Flow while trying to create a sales order in Zoho Inventory using the "Create Sales Order" node. Here’s a detailed explanation of my setup and the problem: What I’m Trying to Achieve I’m building an

• Associating Project with an Account via Flow

  I'm using flow to create a Project based on a Deal status update using flow. The fields exist to pass the Account Name through properly, but when you view the Projects module in a CRM Account Record it doesn't automatically associate the new Project Record

• How to follow up a member in a meeting?

  Hello, I make weekly meeting online with a lot of people. I want(I've been using calendly to do it). I want to do a follow-up to it. I want to send messages via Zoho-flow to all the member that participated in the meeting. How can I do it?

• Setting Delays in Invoice Reminder Flow

  I am currently working on a flow that sends reminders for unpaid invoices. The flow is designed to delay actions until specific intervals before the due date: A reminder should be sent 7 days before the due date. A second reminder should be sent 3 days

• Next Page