How much could a referral program earn your app?
It mostly depends on two things: how many of your users actually share their code, and how many of the people they reach end up paying. Your price and the commission you offer only scale what those two produce. Put your own numbers into the calculator below. It runs in your browser and you don’t need an account.
What could referrals earn you?
€8,403
- New subscribers / year
- 90
- Their revenue (12 months each)
- €10,789
- Commissions you pay referrers
- −€2,158
- AppThunder Referrals (€19/month)
- −€228
That’s 37× what the tool costs.
This is plain math on your inputs (referrers × reach × 12 months × conversion), with each new subscriber counted for 12 months. It isn’t a forecast.
How the estimate works
The calculator multiplies your active referrers by the people each one reaches per month, then by 12 months and by your conversion rate. That’s the number of new subscribers per year. Each of them is counted as paying your monthly price for 12 months. From that revenue it subtracts the commission you pay your referrers and a year of AppThunder Referrals at €19 a month.
new subscribers / year = referrers × reach per month × 12 × conversionrevenue = new subscribers × monthly price × 12commissions = revenue × commission %net = revenue − commissions − €19 × 12It assumes every new subscriber stays for exactly 12 months and that the commission applies to all 12 payments. Real churn lowers revenue and commissions together. Store fees and VAT aren’t in the formula either, so treat the result as a rough upper bound, not a forecast.
A worked example with the default numbers
The calculator opens with 25 active referrers who each reach 10 people a month. 3% of those people subscribe at €9.99 a month, and you pay 20% commission.
That gives 25 × 10 × 12 × 3% = 90 new subscribers a year. Over 12 months each, they pay €10,789. Commissions take €2,158 and the tool costs €228 a year, which leaves €8,403. That’s about 37× what the tool costs.
Those defaults are a starting point we picked, not an average from real programs. Change them to match your app.
What moves the numbers in practice
The referrer count is the input people overestimate most. Most users never share anything, so a better guess is the group that already recommends you without being asked: people who leave reviews or reply to your emails.
Where you ask matters more than how often. A share prompt right after a good moment in the app, like a finished workout or an export that worked, gives people a reason to tell someone. A code hidden in the settings screen mostly gets ignored.
The friend needs a reason to type the code too. A longer trial or a first month at a lower price works, and it runs through your own billing, not through us. The commission is a trade-off you can see in the calculator: too low and nobody bothers, too high and it eats the margin you wanted.
On iOS, keep any reward inside Apple’s rules. Rewarding people just for installing or signing up is risky in App Review. Our guide to the App Store rules for referral programs goes through the guidelines that apply and what App Review has rejected.
Questions about the calculator
- Is the referral program calculator free?
- Yes. It runs in your browser and you don’t need an account. The numbers you enter aren’t sent anywhere.
- Is the result a forecast?
- No. It’s plain arithmetic on the numbers you enter, with every new subscriber counted for 12 months. It can’t know your churn or how many users will really share, so use it to compare scenarios rather than to plan a budget.
- What conversion rate should I enter?
- We don’t publish a typical rate because we don’t have verified data for one. Your own trial-to-paid rate is a reasonable starting point, since referred friends go through the same paywall as everyone else. Then try a lower value to see how sensitive the result is.
- Does AppThunder Referrals pay my referrers for me?
- No. It calculates the commissions and exports who’s owed what as PayPal Mass Pay, Wise batch or CSV. You pay your referrers yourself, so your money never passes through us.