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For hosting and infrastructure: which deploy buttons and docs bring accounts whose bills grow.

Hosting and infrastructure startups bill by usage, often after promotional credits run out, so an account's value shows months after sign-up and fraudulent sign-ups surface as chargebacks. Tally ties each usage invoice to the visit that won the account and counts chargebacks against the same source.

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01How they sell

  • UsageCompute, bandwidth, storage or requests billed monthly in arrears; a growing app pays more each month.
  • SubscriptionTeam or pro plans with a base fee and included usage.
  • FreemiumA free hobby tier or starting credits, after which a card is charged for usage.

02Payments it reads

  • StripeMetered subscriptions through Stripe; usage invoices, refunds and chargebacks are read.
  • PolarSmaller infrastructure products bill metered usage through Polar; metered cycles and lost disputes are read.

What Tally can't read

  • Promotional and startup credits aren't revenue; only paid invoices are read.
  • Usage billed through a cloud marketplace isn't read.
  • Bandwidth, deployments and resource use inside your platform aren't read until they're billed.

03Where buyers come from

  • Deploy buttons in READMEsA deploy button in a template's README sends developers straight to sign-up; a UTM on the button's URL names the template.
  • Templates and startersOne-click templates for a framework or an app bring developers with something to ship.
  • Migration guidesGuides for moving from another host bring teams with an app already running and a bill to compare.
  • Hacker News and XLaunches and pricing posts send developers comparing hosts.
  • AI assistantsAssistants asked where to deploy an app recommend hosts by name.

04What Tally answers

  1. Do deploy buttons in READMEs bring paying accounts?

    With a UTM on each button's link, the campaign breakdown gives every template its visitors and the revenue its accounts have paid.

    Sources with revenue

  2. Which first source brings accounts whose monthly bills grow?

    Lifetime value by first source adds every usage invoice to the account's first source, so a template that brings growing apps outranks one that brings hobby projects.

    Lifetime value

  3. Where do fraudulent sign-ups come from?

    Chargebacks are counted against the sale they reverse; their receipts show the visits and source behind each, so a cluster from one referrer or campaign is visible.

    Receipts

  4. When do developers deploy and pay?

    Peak hours lays out visits and sales by weekday and hour; weekend side projects and weekday team work can leave different shapes, and the top three hours are named only with enough sales.

    Peak hours

  5. Why are usage invoices months after sign-up unlinked?

    Renewals take the first payment's link; if that first payment had no visitor id, coverage names the reason and the fix, usually passing tally_visitor_id when the card is added.

    Coverage

05Numbers worth watching

Lifetime value by first source
Lifetime revenue by first source, the only fair way to compare channels when the first invoice is tiny.
Refunds and chargebacks
Refunds and chargebacks by source, where fraudulent sign-ups leave their trace.
Renewals
Monthly usage invoices by first source, which grow as customers' apps do.
Revenue by source
Revenue behind each template, deploy button and migration guide.

06An example

Example

Lifetime value by first source

All time: every payment since 1 Nov 2025. The period above doesn't apply.

First sourceCustomersLifetime revenueAverage valueRenewalsRepeat rate
GoogleOrganic Search325$40,560$12584552%
ChatGPTAI Assistants126$21,071$16739161%
Direct178$18,216$10237444%
NewsletterEmail94$17,362$18535769%
Hacker NewsOrganic Social84$11,741$14022755%
x.comOrganic Social115$10,190$8916133%
RedditOrganic Social84$9,016$10716040%
PerplexityAI Assistants42$6,342$15110157%
Every source1,048$134,498$1282,61651%

A customer is a visitor linked to a sale, counted under the source of their first visit. Lifetime revenue is net of refunds and chargebacks; repeat rate is the share who paid more than once (a renewal, an upgrade or another purchase). $13,167 from 426 payments not linked to a visitor is in no row.

Fig. 1Lifetime value by first source on the example site. For infrastructure, give it months: usage grows after credits run out, and the averages move with it.

07Setting up

  1. Next.jsPut the tag in the root layout of the marketing and docs app; the dashboard can carry it too, so a card added there still has a visitor.
  2. StripeAdd tally_visitor_id to the metadata of the Checkout Session that saves the card, and to subscription_data.
  3. Put UTMs on every deploy button URL in your templates' READMEs.

08Questions

  • Do promotional credits count as revenue?

    No. Credits aren't payments. Revenue starts with the first paid invoice, which is credited to the last visit that didn't come direct before it.

  • Are chargebacks from fraud shown apart from refunds?

    They're counted with refunds, against the source of the sale they reverse, so a source bringing fraud shows a high refunds figure.

  • Does the tag in our dashboard count our customers' traffic?

    Only your dashboard's own pages, if you add it there. Your customers' deployed apps aren't touched unless the tag is in them, which it shouldn't be.

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