I changed my prices, I need honest feedback
I originally posted my pricing page on IH last month and got a lot of feedback. Many thought that smaller startups are unable to afford the lowest tier we provided. Today we updated our pricing and I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions about the new "Founder" tier:
What do you think?
Hi Shar
I think a "start-up" plan would be awesome. Like up to $200 or $500 MRR it's free (but with 1,5%/or a fixed fee per transaction).
When i'm starting with an idea i try to keep my costs low and $39 can be a lot when i just started and don't know how successful my SaaS will become.
I think your "start-up" -users would switch to a new plan after a while, because they already using your software and don't have time to change the whole payment process again on their site.
Just an idea ;-)
I completely agree with this idea. You might be able to tell better on what kind of customers you currently have, but I assume your customers do have over $500 MRR. If you create a free tier to allow a starting company to use your service, you will most likely have a happy paying customer if their business is going well because they will likely not bother developing their own pricing + Stripe solution. Maybe $500 MRR is too much so I would say not more than $200 MRR.
Thanks Ben. That is our goal, to be able to provide a free tier. The issue is support at the moment. Free tiers are going to need support from us and we just don't have the resources to support them. I am aiming to close on a seed round Q1 next year and I need to make sure we hit the ARR goal before we start raising as well.
I am more curious about our value prop. Do you see the value in the product?
Hey Shar, to be honest: don't offer free. Yes, the trial is fine. Leave it. Offering free is asking for more trouble than what it's worth. For a product I just released, the very first day is free. After that, if you decide to keep the product, you get charged for it. I didn't put all the time into my product to give it away for free nor do I have the money to support the product fully on my own. It was a huge investment for me and I managed to find an early investor who loved the idea, so that helped, but I need to find at least 3-4 more clients to continue supporting it comfortably, as right now, I've dipped into the little bit of savings I have to keep supporting it.
There is nothing wrong with your product. Know your competition: https://www.moonclerk.com/pricing/
They do not have a free tier though I think they give you a look at the backend, but you can't actually do anything.
You do not have to beat them in price if you don't want to, and you will certainly attract the audience you really want. I began my own pricing at $30 and later dropped it down to about $7.50/month, realizing the value of those customers as well.
Just take into account smaller businesses with the mindset that most companies want to save money before they are willing to spend much on it. If you want to capitalize in on the smaller guys who are just starting out, maybe getting $100 - $1000/MRR, it's a gateway for those customers to at least be interested in something affordable. I'd say charging around $19/month is a pretty good deal.
Not to tell you what to do with your pricing, but... get them in, let them build up... write the script that automatically updates the account once they surpass the $1000/MRR, and you'll be set to capture even the "small guys".
This seems like good advice. A low price for founders with an aggressive limit can be a gateway to future business. Like I said in my other comment, it could understandably come with limited support.
How much support do you think new customers will require?
Just how hard is your product to use? :)
Tutorials? Question marks with tool tip popups?
I usually have my wife or my sister use my products. The moment they question anything is the moment I know I have to change it. Once they use it without questioning me, I know I've made it pretty idiot-proof. No offense to my ladies. My products also come with a blog/guide that contains advice, tips, and a FAQ section. It tends to reduce a lot of time, though sometimes I'll get a few customers who prefer to chat with me instead of doing the research themselves.
I definitely see value in the product. It's solves a huge blocker for fledgling products. And, I agree that a free tier is important. Hear me out.
I'd be eager to use a free tier to test an MVP, even if it came without support and a super low limit (such as 10 subscribers or $100/mo). I'd even pay $50 for support to set it up.
Without a free tier, it seems like you're missing an important user segment – people with new products that are highly motivated to avoid extra code. If their product succeeds, you win too. They'll be very likely to remain dedicated users, and gladly exit the free tier. If they flop and drop the service, your hit is minimal.
Look at it the other way: if a business is already proven viable with income, the founders likely have a payment method set up. It's harder to sell to them than to a new founder who found success because of your service.
I hope this is helpful feedback. I'm eager to see your product succeed!
Looks good but I found the differences between the plans difficult to parse. I'd trying something like having a column of features on the left and show tick marks for which plan has those features.
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