Life360 Valuation: Subscribers, Growth, and Revenue Per User
A Subscription App Success
Introduction: A Subscription Fueled Mobile App Success
Life360 is a family safety and location-sharing mobile app that monetizes primarily through subscription memberships. Operating on a freemium model, it offers a free tier to attract a large user base and tiered premium plans (Silver, Gold, Platinum) for subscribers seeking extra features. This strategy has enabled Life360 to build a massive user base – over 79 million monthly active users (MAU) as of late 2024 – and steadily convert a portion of them into paying customers. The company’s rapid subscriber growth, rising average revenue per user, and strong retention have drawn investor attention, propelling Life360’s valuation into the multibillion-dollar range.
Subscriber Growth Over the Years
Life360’s paying subscriber count (measured in “paying circles,” essentially paid family groups) has surged over the past several years. In 2018, Life360 had only about 370,000 paying circles globally, and by mid-2024 this had grown to roughly 2 million. This exponential growth reflects Life360’s successful expansion in its core markets, especially the United States. In the U.S. alone, paid circles increased from approximately 280,000 in 2018 to 1.5 million by 2024, while international subscribers grew from about 93,000 to 562,000 in the same period. The momentum continued through 2023 and into 2024:
2021: ~1.2 million paying circles (post-IPO growth phase).
2022: 1.5 million paying circles globally (up 23% YoY).
2023: 1.8 million paying circles (up 21% YoY).
Q4 2024: 2.3 million paying circles (25% YoY growth).
Q1 2025: 2.4 million paying circles (another 26% YoY increase).
This consistent growth underscores the effectiveness of Life360’s model: the app’s large free user base provides a funnel for new subscribers, with steady conversion rates over time. In fact, Life360 notes that its freemium approach “attracts a large base of free users and converts them steadily into paying subscribers”. The company has also expanded through acquisitions (e.g. Tile trackers and Jiobit wearables) and new features, which help entice users into premium plans. Importantly, subscriber retention is high – net retention has been close to 100% in recent cohorts – ensuring that growth in subscribers translates into sustained revenue.
Average Revenue per Subscriber (ARPU)
Alongside user growth, Life360 has significantly increased its revenue per subscriber through pricing strategy and tiered offerings. The company’s premium plans range from about $7.99 up to $24.99 per month for U.S. users, and most subscribers opt for the mid-tier “Gold” plan (which accounts for ~81% of U.S. subscriptions, versus 15% on Silver and 4% on the top-tier Platinum). Over the years, Life360 has implemented price increases and introduced higher-value tiers, leading to a sharp rise in ARPU:
In 2018, the average revenue per paying circle was only about $59 per year (in the U.S.), reflecting the older, lower-priced plans.
By 2024, average revenue per paying circle had climbed to roughly $152 per year in the U.S., nearly triple the 2018 level. Globally, the blended ARPU is slightly lower due to international markets, but still around $128–$133 annual per subscriber (≈$11 per month) as of 2024.
This rising ARPU (approximately 6–8% YoY increase in recent quarters) has been driven by multiple factors: legacy subscribers moving to higher tiers, new subscribers opting for premium plans, and specific price hikes in key markets. For example, a major U.S. price increase in late 2022 boosted U.S. ARPU by 24% year-on-year in Q4 2023. Internationally, ARPU lags behind the U.S. (about $56 annually in 2024 on average for non-U.S. subs), but Life360 began rolling out multi-tier memberships and price updates overseas as well. In Q4 2024, international ARPU jumped 42% YoY after the introduction of new tiered plans in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Overall, Life360’s global ARPU is now in the ~$130 per subscriber per year range, reflecting the company’s success in monetizing each user more effectively over time. This metric is crucial for a subscription app’s economics: higher ARPU means that each subscriber contributes more revenue, which, combined with subscriber growth, yields accelerating revenue gains.
Revenue Growth and Financial Performance
The combination of rapidly growing subscribers and rising ARPU has translated into impressive revenue growth. In full-year 2024, Life360’s total revenue reached $371 million, up 22% from the prior year. Subscription (recurring) revenue accounted for the bulk of this, about $278 million in 2024 (26% YoY growth), while smaller streams include hardware sales (Tile devices) and partnership/advertising revenue. Notably, Q4 2024 subscription revenue jumped 36% year-on-year, driven by the 25% increase in paying subscribers and ~6% higher ARPU that quarter. By Q1 2025, the momentum continued with total quarterly revenue up 32% YoY, as subscriber additions remained strong.
Life360’s operating metrics highlight a robust subscription business model: gross margins on subscription revenue exceed 85%, and as the user base scales, the company has started achieving positive cash flow and EBITDA. In 2024, Life360 delivered its first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA ($45.5M) and even a modest net profit in Q4. This improvement in profitability, alongside continued growth, has increased investor confidence. The company has also launched new monetization avenues (like in-app advertising in late 2024) to supplement subscription income. Management targets an additional >$1 per MAU in annual ad revenue within a few years, which could further boost average revenue per user beyond subscription fees.
Market Valuation and Subscribers
Life360’s public market valuation has risen dramatically as the company’s fundamentals strengthened. As of mid-2025, Life360’s market capitalization is around $5–6 billion USD.
How does this valuation correspond to the subscriber base? With approximately 2.4 million paying subscribers in early 2025, the market is effectively valuing Life360 at about $2,400 per subscriber (enterprise value divided by number of subs). Another way to view it: the stock’s valuation is roughly 18–19 times the annual revenue per subscriber (since ARPU is ~$130 and EV per sub is ~$2,400). These ratios indicate that investors are pricing in substantial future growth – they expect Life360 to continue expanding its subscriber count, increasing ARPU, or monetizing users via new streams (like ads or additional services) to eventually “grow into” this valuation. It’s worth noting that Life360’s valuation also equates to about $70 per monthly active user when considering all 80+ million MAUs (most of whom are free users), which underscores the potential value if even a fraction of those free users convert to paid plans or generate advertising revenue.
For context, comparing Life360’s value-per-subscriber to some other subscription-based tech companies highlights the premium attached to Life360’s growth. For example, Netflix – with a far larger base of ~300 million subscribers – has a market cap near $493 billion, which comes out to roughly $1,600 per subscriber. Music streamer Spotify, at ~$129 billion market value and 276 million premium subscribers, is about $470 per subscriber. Life360’s ~$2,400 per subscriber valuation is significantly higher than these mature businesses. However, this disparity reflects different business profiles: Life360’s subscribers generate a similar ARPU to Netflix (around $10–12/month), but Life360 is much smaller and growing faster (30–40% revenue growth vs. ~10% for Netflix/Spotify). Investors are effectively paying a higher multiple for Life360’s future expansion potential. The company’s goal of reaching 150 million MAUs and $1 billion in annual revenue in coming years indicates the scale of growth envisioned. If Life360 achieves those targets, the per-subscriber valuation would normalize as numbers scale.
Conclusion
Life360’s market cap of around $6 billion. The company’s challenge (and opportunity) will be to meet the high expectations: sustaining strong subscriber additions, growing ARPU (including through new features and advertising), and warding off competition from tech giants offering free location tools.
In summary, Life360 stands as a compelling case study in mobile app subscription monetization. Its valuation reflects a blend of current performance and future promise – the result of rapid subscriber expansion, effective monetizing of each user, and a clear vision to broaden its services. For observers of the mobile subscription economy, Life360 shows how converting a small fraction of a large user base into paying customers can translate into significant revenue and how, in turn, those subscribers can underpin a multi-billion dollar enterprise value in the public markets.
Sources: Life360 company filings and press releases; industry analyses and news reports; market data on comparable companies.