The Numbers
RevenueCat tracked 17,000 mobile subscription apps over 12 months and the trial length data cuts against what most B2B teams are doing.
On annual plans, 30-day trials converted 44.6% of users versus 24% for trials of four days or less. First-year renewal jumped from 18.3% to 47.5%. Combine those and 18.5% of 30-day trial users stuck around for a year, versus 3.5% on short trials. Same trial starts, five times the retained revenue.
Monthly plans peaked at 10 to 16 days: 46.6% conversion, 72% first renewal. Push past that and conversion drops while retention keeps climbing. At 30 days, conversion fell to 43.7% but renewal hit 77.5%. Net outcome was flat.
What It Means for B2B
Most PLG products run 14-day trials because HubSpot and Salesforce did it in 2010. This data says if you are selling annual contracts, give buyers closer to 30 days. The ones who convert after a month of use are worth the wait: they renew at 2.6 times the rate of buyers who commit after four days.
For monthly self-serve, the standard two weeks lands in the right range. Going longer gets better retention but worse conversion. Pick based on which leak is bigger in your funnel.
RevenueCat also found that dropping trials entirely tanks retention. Monthly buyers with no trial renewed at 49.5% versus 77.5% after a 30-day trial. Annual worked differently: no-trial buyers renewed at 26.6%, ahead of short-trial buyers at 18.3%. The worst cohort was buyers pushed into annual after three days.
The Dataset
RevenueCat powers subscription infrastructure for 60% of mobile apps, split between consumer (fitness, photo editors, streaming) and productivity tools. The dataset is B2C-heavy but annual purchase behaviour starts to look like enterprise: bigger commitment, longer consideration, higher intent to stay.
Between 81 and 100 of the top 100 apps per category run trials of four days or less, so high-volume players favor speed over conversion. That tracks with what B2B does: we copy the category leader or cut trial length because finance wants faster payback.
Full study is at RevenueCat's blog. Worth reading if you are rethinking trial length or trying to move customers from monthly to annual without killing conversion.