Getting new customers for your business is a crucial task for any business especially if you’re a software or provide some form of tool so it’s no surprise that people look for all avenues to acquire them including through sites like AppSumo, however for various reasons you may be looking for AppSumo alternatives and this guide will help you figure out the best alternative to AppSumo for your business.

AppSumo can be a good choice for many businesses however for many it can be an expensive customer acquisition method compared to other options available, also when done once you may want to look for an AppSumo alternative to acquire similar customers once again. 

If you’re looking for a quick answer to the best sites like AppSumo then read the section below as we get straight to the point.

The best AppSumo alternative

There are many similar sites like AppSumo but many lack the customer base to make them viable but there is one alternative that is similar that is a great option.

FounderPass

One of the best AppSumo alternatives is FounderPass, this company offers access to 100’s of deals with millions in savings all year round. They work on a membership basis, so for customers they pay one annual price ($99/year) and can access all deals.

If your looking for business software and want to save money, this is a great alternative to AppSumo as you can join for free and access deals straight away, you'll also be able to access all of the $1 million of discounts and perks for just $99 a year. What's more is they have some of the biggest names that you will find in software from AWS, Hubspot, ZenDesk, IBM, Dropbox, Intercom, Notion and hundreds more.

This platform is also great for businesses who have software and tools they want to offer to founders, marketing teams and the like because you get full control over the discount you offer, it’s free to list and instead of taking a large commission (AppSumo take approx 70%) they only take 10-20% on average.

You also need not offer a lifetime deal nor one with a huge discount such as 97% off, with FounderPass you can offer any discount (or offer) you’re happy with (min is around 20% and typically companies list 40-75% discounts). These discounts can be on monthly or annual plans. This gives you the flexibility to offer a deal that suits your business. Companies offer everything from a full year for free, 50% off for 6 months, 20% off for life, $1,000 of free credit and so on.

This platform is similar to AppSumo in terms of offering their members/users access to big discounts on software and tools but the big positive for companies who list their deal/discount on FounderPass is that the cost is significantly lower.

FounderPass simply lists your discount/deal and when a user wants to take it then come directly to you and purchase through you, meaning you keep 100% of the sale (minus an affiliate commission) compared to only seeing 30% of the revenue of the discounted price you’d see when you sell on AppSumo.

The benefit of using FounderPass is that you have full control of the discount you offer, the customer signs up and buys directly from you and you only need pay a small commission for every valid customer. 

An example of AppSumo vs FounderPass

You have a piece of software which you sell at $200 a month on your website as a monthly subscription.

You choose to sell it as a lifetime deal on AppSumo for $80 for lifetime access, from this you’ll likely see around $24 of revenue per deal you sell. 

If you choose to list an offer on FounderPass, you could offer 75% off plans, meaning the $200/month is now priced at $50/month, meaning your revenue for the first year alone would be $480 ($600 revenue minus for example 20% commission of $120). 

As you can see in the above example you’d be getting $480 revenue for a customer over a year via FounderPass compared to just $24 via AppSumo. 

What are the pros of this AppSumo alternative?

There are many reasons to use FounderPass as an alternative to AppSumo, these include:

• Access to over $1 million of discounts and perks on software
• Free to join and access the free deals
• For full access it's $99/year for access to all deals
• 100's of well known softwares from AWS to Dropbox, MongoDB to Hubspot and many more

Great option for business owners to offer your product to the thousands of FounderPass members for free and only pay a small commission.

What are the cons of this AppSumo alternative?

FounderPass is a newer company to the business software sales scene and as such has a smaller audience in comparison to AppSumo which has been around for much longer. Having said that there are no fee’s to list with FounderPass nor any contracts so you can be free to test it out.

If you’re after a sudden surge of customers then AppSumo is still a great choice, but bear in mind the revenue you may get from them may be small. FounderPass on the other hand may send lower numbers of customers but the revenue you’ll receive from each can be vastly larger.

What is AppSumo

AppSumo is a business that offers its users deals on business software, most often as a lifetime deal. These deals can be as much as 97% off and can offer great value for those wanting a lifetime deal rather than paying a monthly subscription. 

For a business who sells software, AppSumo can provide a route to gain thousands of customers very quickly. This is often very popular with newer software where you may want to quickly increase your user base not only for some revenue but also to get feedback. 

AppSumo was founded by Noah Kagan in 2010 and has since grown to millions of users. The aim of the website was to help founders and startups to save money on software as well as help business owners to sell more of their software quickly. In basic terms, think of it as the Groupon of the business software world. 

What types of software is it right for?

AppSumo and other similar websites are mainly aimed at software that is suitable for business owners, especially those that run digital/online businesses. This can be from ecommerce to affiliate sites and everything else. 

You’ll find that they have every kind of tools and software listed, from email marketing tools to keyword research, conversion rate optimizing, remote collaboration, content writing, design and pretty much every type of tool category you can imagine.

What do the deals typically look like?

Most of the deals that you see listed on AppSumo will be for lifetime access, this means the users pay a one time price and get access to the software on the plan they buy for life. An attractive offering for many and for business owners this can be a way to get a large number of new customers. 

AppSumo pros and cons

As you’d imagine with this way to sell your software, it comes with many positives as well as negatives, so it’s important to fully understand how it works and to weigh up if it’s the right way for you to sell your software. 

The below pros and cons are written from the perspective of both software owners looking to sell on AppSumo as well as customers wanting to use it to buy software.

AppSumo Pros for buyers

• Access big discounts on software
• 60 day money back guarantee
• Lifetime deals means you reducing your monthly subscriptions
• Constant new range of deals added

Lifetime deals at great prices

If there’s a piece of software you need and you find it on AppSumo you’ll be able to make a significant saving on the price, this can be up to 97% at times, this can mean you can get access to the software you need whilst saving that money for other uses in your business.

Range of different software

Due to the size of AppSumo you’ll find there are a lot of deals at any one time, this can mean you get a good range of options to choose from. 

Trustworthy

Having been around for a long time it can help you know that you’re buying from a trusted and established business and so the deal you’re buying will be the one you’re getting. 

Money back guarantee

AppSumo also offers a 60 day money back guarantee, this means if you’re not happy with the software or deal you can get your money back within the first 60 days. This gives you as a buyer peace of mind. 

AppSumo pros for sellers

• Access to get your company and deal in front of a large number of potential customers
• Quick way to get a chunk of revenue
• Raises your brand awareness to some degree

Gain lots of customers quickly

With millions of members, listing an attractive discount on AppSumo can lead to an influx of new customers. This can be a very attractive way to increase your customer base whether this is to upsell to them in the future, to increase numbers for raising investment, increasing revenue or getting more feedback from the customers.

More revenue

With a large number of new customers you’ll also get a lump of new revenue, although remember this will likely be a one off as you’ll be selling lifetime deals in most cases and remember you’ll typically see 30% off the lifetime deal price in revenue after AppSumo fees.

AppSumo cons for buyers

There are some things you need to consider when using AppSumo, these include:

• Time limits may make you make impulsive purchases you may not need
• More newer products, software and tools than large popular ones

Impulsive purchases

One downside is that you may end up buying a piece of software you don’t actually need because you feel it’s a good deal and that with a time limit on the deal you don’t want to miss out.

This marketing tactic of urgency is used across different businesses but can lead to purchases which don’t quite fit with your real needs.

Products that don’t deliver

Although AppSumo vet each product/tool/software that they list, there is only so much they can do. With companies sometimes listing early versions of their software this means you can sometimes end up with a product that promises a lot but ends up not delivering what you thought you would get.

AppSumo cons for sellers

• AppSumo will take around 70% off the revenue from the deal
• With a big discount on your normal price and the above fee you’ll end up with a small percentage of your normal selling price
• It can be tricky to get approved if you’ve got a new software and approval times overall can take time

High fees

Although the millions of customers and large sales figures you may see and tempt you, it’s worth noting that typically you’ll only see around 30% of the discounted price you list.

So if you sell a lifetime deal at $99, you’ll only see around $30 of this, this is a relatively small percentage and when you compare it to your normal selling price it can be a extremely small percentage and one that may make you question if it’s worth doing.

AppSumo explain that around 40% of the sales revenue goes back into marketing and they then split the remaining 60% margin with you on a 50/50 basis, hence you getting 30% of the total price.

Approval times

Due to the size of AppSumo, the approval process and number of companies applying to list a deal, the whole process can take quite a while. They also will look into each piece of software individually to check that what it is offering is good enough for their audience. 

This means when you apply there is a chance that your software may not get approved which will end in time wasted applying. 

Money-back guarantee

As AppSumo offer a 60 day money back guarantee to its buyers it’s worth remembering that you may see some sign ups that want to cancel and get their money back. 

You may see when you browse the AppSumo site that there are lots of software and tools that you may not have heard of, rather than big names you are familiar 

Other AppSumo alternatives

As you can imagine with the popularity of AppSumo many other AppSumo alternatives have popped up over the years with many closing down after a while after finding it hard to compete with AppSumo.com and it’s well known name and customer base.

RocketHub

RocketHub is a very similar concept to AppSumo however it’s a much smaller business so if you’re expecting the results you’d see from selling on here or the range of choice of software as a buyer you may be disappointed. 

Having said that it could be worth you exploring to see if it’s a fit for you or if it has a particular deal that you are after.

Visit: RocketHub

Ken Moo SaaS Lifetime Deals

This is actually a Facebook community rather than a website, but it has a range of deals that get posted, you’ll find that most of these are for smaller software often from independent developers. Don’t take that as a negative though as some of the best software and tools can often be created by ‘indiehackers’ and so it’s certainly worth a look at, although of course you need to set expectations due to this. 

Visit: Ken Moo SaaS Lifetime Deals 

PitchGround

Again much like RocketHub, this is an alternative to AppSumo but you’ll find that the user base is smaller, however the positive of this is that application for listing on here as a seller is quicker and as a buyer you may get access to some deals which you won’t find on other sites.

Visit: PitchGround

Sites like AppSumo

There are of course other sites like AppSumo that operate on the exact same model, however as AppSumo were the first to the market and have taken a big market share you’ll find that other ones are often not worth the time due to the customer base not being as active nor big as the original.