Household as billing unit

Summary

One paid seat covers both partners. Billing entity is the Household, not the individual user.

Why it matters

couples-first only works if it's frictionless economically. Charging two subs would break the wedge; giving free "partner access" to a paid single-user account would create murky rules and family-share abuse.

Household-as-billing-unit is clean: one subscription per Household, both partners get full access, only one card on file. It mirrors how couples actually buy things.

Clerk's Organizations primitive maps naturally to Household — see the data-model and Phase 3 stack (Clerk auth + RevenueCat billing).

Implications

• The Household is the entity that holds a subscription — not the user. Data model reflects this in data-model.
• Either partner can pay — bill goes to whoever's card is on file; partners can transfer billing owner in surface-mobile-settings-household.
• If the household separates — a new flow allows split: one partner keeps the household ID + sub; other partner starts fresh. Journal ownership follows the author; shared entries are duplicated to both households.
• B2B2C (Year 2) — employer pays for the Household, either partner (or both) enrolled via corporate benefit.
• No individual pricing tier — solo mode users are on tier-free until they pair a partner, then either partner can start the trial.
• RevenueCat entitlements — the entitlement is granted to the Household, checked at the individual partner level via a Household-membership lookup.

Related

• couples-first
• data-model — Household schema
• tier-paid-household
• tier-b2b-employer
• surface-mobile-settings-household
• surface-mobile-onboarding-pair-partner

Sources

• Design decision
• Clerk Organizations documentation