How would you price a project management tool without pushing small teams away?
I’m building a project management tool and I’m trying to find a pricing model that feels sustainable without making it harder for solo builders and very small teams to adopt.
My current idea is:
- Free for individuals and very small teams, so a solo founder or a small team with one project can use it for a long time without outgrowing it
- Paid plans for organizations, probably with 3 tiers based on team size
- The paid org plans would unlock features that make more sense at the org level, like organization-wide user management, all projects grouped under one organization, chat, service desk / support workflows, and other admin/collaboration features
I’m also thinking about whether the free tier could still generate revenue in a less direct way.
One idea is to let project owners set up subscriptions or one-time contributions from supporters/users, kind of like membership tiers or donations. The project owner gets funded, and the platform takes a small fee per transaction.
That would let smaller users stay free, while still creating some monetization on that side.
I’m also considering an optional paid individual plan for people who need more storage or a few extra features, but my default thinking is that the free plan should be generous.
Another idea I’ve considered is bounties.
For example, if someone is running an open source project, they could put a bounty on a task. Someone outside the project could pick it up, complete it, and get paid, with the platform taking a small cut.
But I’m unsure whether that adds too much complexity early:
- disputes over whether work is actually done
- payment conflicts
- moderation overhead
- unclear acceptance criteria
So I’m torn between:
- keeping it simple with free + org pricing
- adding optional paid individual upgrades
- adding transaction-based monetization
- leaving bounties out entirely until much later
The product for context:
https://grunna.com/grunnaro/
For those of you who’ve priced SaaS before:
Does this sound like a reasonable model, or am I making it too complicated too early?
I’d love feedback on how you’d structure the pricing, especially if you’ve learned this the hard way.
