What are Base Plans?
A Base Plan is the core subscription that defines the customer relationship. Add-ons (like extra seats, usage-based charges, or feature upgrades) depend on the Base Plan and cannot exist on their own.
By marking a plan as a Base Plan, Baremetrics will use it to determine customer lifecycle events like:
New Customers
Churn
Expansion
Contraction
When should I use this?
Use Base Plans if your pricing model looks like:
A required subscription + optional add-ons
A core product + usage-based pricing
A main plan + feature upgrades
Examples
Pro Plan + Extra Seats
Core Subscription + API Usage
Main Product + Add-on Features
If customers cannot purchase add-ons without first having a main subscription, you should define a Base Plan.
How this affects your metrics
Once a Base Plan is set, Baremetrics uses it as the foundation for lifecycle classification.
Lifecycle behavior
Starting a Base Plan → New Customer
Adding an add-on → Expansion
Removing an add-on → Contraction
Cancelling a Base Plan → Churn
When multiple plans change at the same time
If a customer cancels or adds multiple plans at once:
The Base Plan determines the lifecycle event
Add-ons are treated as supporting revenue changes
Example
A customer has:
Pro Plan ($50) → Base Plan
Extra Seats ($20) → Add-on
Signup
Starts Pro Plan → New Customer
Adds Extra Seats → Expansion
Cancellation
Cancels Pro Plan + Extra Seats
→ Pro Plan = Churn
→ Extra Seats = Contraction
Why this matters
Without Base Plans enabled, Baremetrics still records only one churn event per customer, even if multiple subscriptions are canceled simultaneously.
To do this, we use a consistent rule to decide which subscription represents the customer leaving:
The most recently started subscription, or
If tied, the one with the largest MRR impact
All other canceled subscriptions are recorded as contraction (no user churn).
This works well when subscriptions are independent.
However, if your product includes a required base plan with add-ons, churn may be attributed to the add-on rather than your core product.
How to configure Base Plans
Navigate to Settings → Plan Management
Select the plan that represents your core subscription
Mark it as a Base Plan
Save your changes
Baremetrics will automatically apply this logic across your metrics.
FAQs
Why was churn previously attributed to an add-on?
Baremetrics calculates churn at the customer level and allows only one churn event per customer at a time. When multiple subscriptions were canceled simultaneously, Baremetrics selected a single subscription to represent churn using a consistent rule:
The most recently added subscription, or
The largest subscription (if started at the same time)
Without a defined Base Plan, this could result in add-ons being selected as the churn event.
Does this affect historical data?
Yes. Updating Base Plans will reclassify lifecycle events based on your configuration, so your metrics more accurately reflect your product structure.
Can I have multiple Base Plans?
Base Plans are intended to represent the primary subscription in your product.
If you have multiple independent products, you may define multiple Base Plans. However, each customer relationship should still be anchored to a core subscription.
What if I don’t use add-ons?
If all your plans are standalone and can exist independently, you likely don’t need to use Base Plans.