Is Pavo Ultra worth it? The math at $1,000, $4,000 and $10,000 a month

Pavo has two plans. Free costs nothing a month and takes a Pavo fee on each sale. Ultra costs $15 a month, or $150 a year, and takes no Pavo fee: each payment carries only Stripe’s processing fee. So the question is simple. Do you save more in fees than the plan costs?

The two sets of rates

• Free: 2.9% + 15¢ per tap, 3.3% + 30¢ by link or QR code.
• Ultra: 2.7% + 15¢ per tap, 2.9% + 30¢ by link or QR code.

The cents are the same on both plans. Ultra lowers the percent.

What Ultra saves on link sales

• $1,000 a month: Ultra saves $4 in fees.
• $4,000 a month: Ultra saves $16 in fees.
• $10,000 a month: Ultra saves $40 in fees.

Set each of those against the $15 the plan costs. Ultra pays for itself on fees from about $3,750 a month in link sales.

What Ultra saves on taps

The gap between the plans is smaller on taps, so it takes more sales: about $7,500 a month. At $10,000 a month in taps, Ultra saves $20 in fees.

So, on fees alone

If you sell less than those amounts, Free costs you less. That is most people starting out, and Free is the plan Pavo is built around. There is no reason to pay for Ultra to save on fees you are not yet paying.

The other two reasons

Ultra is more than a lower rate. It adds two things Free does not have:

• Autopay for your regulars. A customer agrees once and their card is charged weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly. If you chase the same people for the same amount every month, this is the reason to buy Ultra, whatever your sales are.
• Your logo and color on your pay page, receipts and emails.

A way to decide

1. Look at last month’s sales in Pavo.
2. If they are above the amounts here, Ultra saves you money.
3. If they are below, ask one question: would autopay or your own branding be worth $15 a month to you?

The pricing page has a calculator that does this with your own number.

The fine print

Ultra is for US sellers. It renews until you cancel, and you can cancel any time in Settings. You keep Ultra to the end of the period you paid for, then you are on Free. Payouts work the same on both plans.

Monthly or yearly

Ultra is $15 when you pay by the month and $150 when you pay by the year. The yearly price costs less than twelve monthly payments. If your sales are steady all year, yearly is the cheaper way to hold the plan. If your work is seasonal, monthly lets you take Ultra for the busy months and drop back to Free for the quiet ones.

A mix of taps and links

Most sellers take some of each. Your own break-even then sits between the two figures above: closer to $3,750 if most of your sales are links, closer to $7,500 if most are taps.

What does not change on Ultra

• How your customers pay. Tap, link and QR code all work the same.
• When you are paid. Payouts follow the same schedule on both plans.
• Standard payouts still have no fee.

So the choice is only about the monthly price against the fees you save and the two extra features. You can change your mind either way.