Another copy of low entry tech SAAS
Hi i found some advertising for this site/service https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing
I became curious because its something i had to create in the past (as a middle layer) so i knew i can copy this project, at least from the technical perspective.
With their pricing i could make like a lot of $$$ with a single server.
I am not sure if it is a good idea, i know there have to be large marketing costs (?) but i can also imagine that i can offer lower prices easy.
So i am not sure if its truly such a low hanging fruit or how much work is hidden.
Anyone walking this path now or in the past ?
thx.
Lower prices aren't a feature, they are a symptom of a lack of features.
I see it so much on here (and am dealing with it directly with a product I run).
The thing is, being cheaper means you have to stay smaller. You will never have the marketing budget that a higher priced competitor has. You won't have the margins to sustain employee growth (more developers, sales people, customer service, etc).
Which ultimately means you'll never be able to compete on features. The usual scenario here is that lower priced competitors either fold up within months or they just tread water for a while, adding crappy versions of features that their higher priced competitors with multiple developers are able to crank out.
By competing on price alone, you're just entering a race to the bottom. There's a good chance you'll run the race by yourself since larger companies can afford to hire folks that understand the financial side of things.
Companies lower their prices when the time is right for them as a business. When they've achieved certain internal hiring goals or are ready to scale back their marketing because they have hit the level of growth they are content with.
They don't drop prices just to be cheaper than another competitor.
As we see right now, companies like Mailchimp are actually raising prices because they've put in years of work to build an exceptional product. Sure they may piss some folks, and they've sparked a whole new category of "discount AWS SNS email providers" but they are staying their course.
I'm excited to hear about your journey, but I suspect if you're competing on price alone not a ton will come of it.
Hi, thx for long answer.
Its not about price alone i wanted to make the point that i could somewhat easy create some basic copy and even with lower prices make it profitable.
Anyway so far its just an another idea.
Maybe it got my attention because it appears straight forward and has a high price.
As they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is :)
I would focus on creating unique value, hard to get customers on price alone, especially when you're the new / less established product on the scene.
Sure, an IHer may go with a product to support the little guy, but your typical consumers are looking for established services with a track record of success.
Sure you could provide the same service for less, but are you actually functioning at the same level as your competitor?
Their scale is probably immense in comparison and they have encountered a lot of the scaling issues you've yet to even realize exist.
Hi i am not scared of scale i would enjoy it :)
but i get you and thx for your answer
So i started to work on it, not sure if anyone is interested... but it seems i am faster then expected atleast so far. Since i have a job it may be harder to work on it over the week but i still gonna try.
i guess i make another post once i have something :P
If you like the space, if you want to learn the technology, if you want to practice launching, if you have a connection to the users you would be selling to, try it.
How long would it take you to set it up?
Hi, depends, if i would have lot of free time, one month would be enough.
I know it sounds short but i do know the tech so there is no big challenge in this point.
I the end i could copy paste code from my old project and have 80% done that way :D.
Its just about creating an rest api that allows users to access my crawlers.
edit: also i dont have a connection to the users, it may be painful to sell it, i wish have experience with that or someone on my side.