Are you looking for a subscription business glossary? Do terms like ‘ARPU’ and ‘LTV’ prompt you to a Google search? We’ve heard you. Please find below a list of common subscription terminologies compiled in one page and is updated regularly to provide the most relevant information. 

What is a subscription business glossary?

In a subscription business, the central focus is on creating a recurring revenue source where a single customer will make several milestone payments over time to access a product or service instead of making a one-time purchase upfront.  

Like any other specialized industry, the subscription industry also has its own set of terms, jargon, abbreviations, and definitions. You are likely to find them in different stages of your business, including when dealing with clients, managing your team, improving your product and service, and optimizing your business operations.


How to read this glossary of subscription business terminologies? 

We know that having a clear understanding of these terminologies can sometimes feel like studying a new language altogether. To help you gather better insights into them, we have compiled this subscription business glossary.

This page is populated with an alphabetical list of subscription-related words. To learn more about a term, simply click on it. This should redirect you to a page with comprehensive information about the chosen term. 

This page is a work in progress and will be updated frequently. We recommend you bookmark this resource page for the future. If you have any ideas to improve this page, we welcome your feedback at bob@subecob.com 


Who is this glossary for?

This glossary is for anyone with an interest in the subscription business. Whether you own a recurring subscription business or manage it in an administrative role, it should help you build a better understanding of this industry.   


List of subscription business terms 

A

  • Active subscriptions
  • ARPU
  • Average daily growth 
  • Activation fee 
  • Annual recurring revenue
  • API 
  • Average customer lifetime value
  • Accrued Revenue
  • Add-on Service
  • Add-on Package
  • Add-on Price
  • Annualized Revenue
  • Activation Fee

B

  • Balance sheet
  • Billing advance 
  • Billing in arrears 
  • Bike Subscription
  • Box manufacturer
  • BOFU
  • Bulk process

C

  • Car Subscription
  • Capture 
  • Call to action 
  • Canceled
  • Churn rate
  • CMS
  • CoCA
  • COGS
  • Conversion rate 
  • Collection
  • CRM
  • Customer 
  • Customer Management
  • Customer support 
  • Closing ratio
  • Consumption Billing
  • Change of Service
  • Change of Package

D

  • Data
  • Deal closing 
  • Deferred revenue
  • Direct sales
  • Discount 
  • Delivery confirmation
  • Disconnection Credits

E

  • End of day
  • Equity
  • Expired subscription
  • Expired Service
  • Enroll
  • E-learning Subscription
  • E-Health Subscription

F

  • FAQ
  • Financial Accounting System
  • Fair market value
  • Fiscal year
  • Forward revenue
  • Free Trial Service 

G

  • Gross profit
  • Go-to-market
  • Gross margin

H

  • Hardware
  • Home Address
  • Health & Wellness Subscription
  • Hardware Home Address Health & Wellness Subscription

I

  • Inbound sales
  • ISV
  • IaaS
  • InMail messages
  • Integration 

K

  • KPIs
  • Key accounts 

  • Lead
  • Lead generation
  • Lifetime value

  • Marketing qualified lead
  • Metrics
  • MoFU
  • MRR
  • Middleware
  • Monthly Subscription
  • Movie Subscription

N

  • Net profit
  • Niche
  • Negotiations 
  • Nedds assessment
  • Notifications 

O

  • Onboarding 
  • Outbound sales 
  • Order Management
  • One off Fees
  • OTT Subscription

  • PaaS
  • Packing
  • Past due
  • Point of contact 
  • Portal
  • Product
  • Pricing
  • PLM
  • Product qualified lead
  • Prelaunch
  • Product cost
  • Promotion

Q

  • Quarter 

R

  • Referral
  • Retention
  • Revenue
  • Revenue Recognition 
  • RBM
  • Renewal of Service
  • Renewal of Package
  • Recurring Revenue Management
  • Recurring Payments
  • Recurring Collections

S

  • SaaS
  • Service
  • Shipment
  • Shipped
  • Subscriber
  • Subscription Economy
  • Subscription Management
  • Subscription in a Box
  • Sales funnel
  • Subscription Life Cycle
  • Service Management
  • Service Upgrade
  • Service Downgrade
  • Startup Fee

T

  • Target audience 
  • Ticket
  • Trigger
  • Template 

U

  • USP
  • Unicorn
  • Usage Billing
  • Upgrade Service
  • Downgrade Service
  • Time to Market

V

  • Value proposition
  • Value added Service

Y

  • Yearly subscriptions

FAQs

How does knowing subscription terminologies help me?

The list of terms with accompanying definitions will help you gather a better understanding of the subscription industry, allowing you to eliminate confusion and obscurities.

Who can use these terms?

Anyone who is directly or indirectly connected to the subscription industry should find this glossary useful. As a rule of thumb, they should learn about the key terms to be more informed.

I don’t find the term I’m searching for. What’s next?

If there’s a term you are still looking for, simply email us at bob@subecob.com and we should add it here.


Are you missing out on something?

We hope the glossary has helped you find useful answers to your questions on subscription-related business.

If you are managing a subscription-based business, we understand the challenges you face. This is why we’ve created Subecob – a cloud-based monetization platform to manage subscription business as easy as one one-two-three!

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