Credit and pay as you go is fairer.

Although Lightning (and even better Cashu, with ability to send e-cash in requests / headers) allow trustless payg.

Subs much simpler though and works in most cases.

Prepay as you go in chunks.

E.g. Pay for a relay, or VPN, or storing a file whatever.. for the next 90 days. Then topup whenever you like, with an in-app reminder as you get close.

Service providers need to know their forward looking revenues for planning as well

There are a few challenges.

Products will always have a distribution curve for its users. Both on usage and value they perceive or extract. Power users are effectively discounted by regular/infrequent users.

Businesses have recurring costs and cashflow is king. Predictable cashflow is a huge advantage. Subscriptions help map costs back to % sales. Salaries are regular costs.. this is the largest bind.

It can take a while to extract value from a customer or recover sales/marketing expense for that user. A larger upfront fee is a higher barrier to entry and many sales won’t happen. It’s why the refund guaranteed stuff blew up, but died now with subscriptions.

Even when you pause a subscription there is often a business cost involved. Or worst case it’s a liability because you have more to manage that is effectively serviced at your expense.

Consumption based pricing works well for commodities where like for like competition exists and it’s a market driven price. Cheaper can mean same value, just at a better price/discount.

If different options exist, at some point the winning options will take the market.

Pay as you go utilising Lightning micro payments. Offer a separate subscription for discounts. I bet 50% of all gym customers would be better of paying per visit instead of per month