I increased my SaaS limits instead of lowering the price
I was comparing StatusPage.me with one of the larger competitors and noticed an interesting pricing problem.
My $15 Starter plan allowed 10 monitors per status page, while a competitor's $20 plan offered 50 monitors.
My (paid) plans support multiple status pages, so the comparison isn't exactly 1:1, but for a customer with one status page, the value proposition didn't look nearly as good.
I considered changing the pricing structure, but ultimately decided to keep the same prices and simply increase the limits:
- Starter: 10 -> 25 monitors/page
- Team: 25 -> 50 monitors/page
- Business: 50 -> 100 monitors/page
Existing customers got the increase automatically.
I'm curious how other founders approach this: when you realize a competitor looks significantly more generous on a key pricing metric, do you adjust your limits, differentiate harder, or ignore the feature-by-feature comparison?
Since you changed limits already, the cleanest read is the one-page cohort: trial accounts that previously reached 8–10 monitors versus new accounts that reach 20–25. Compare activation, upgrade, and support questions at the boundary. If behavior moves only when users approach the cap, limits were the problem; if conversion stays flat, the competitor comparison was mostly optics.
I've been looking at this same option, but I haven't taken the plunge yet. I run a service that shortens links and provides analytics, and it has different pricing plans with limits on things like URLs, custom domains, and AI features. Every time I think about trying to compete with other services by lowering my prices, I remind myself that my profit margin is pretty good right now. But what's really important to me is that my customers trust that the limits on my plans are actually reasonable and usable.
So you're saying it's a good idea to be honest and admit when we don't have enough evidence, right? I mean, it's better to be upfront about it instead of making assumptions. Did you eventually find a way to measure the impact of limits on purchases after the fact, like by looking at how many people upgraded, how many cancelled their subscriptions, or how many support tickets you got about hitting limits? Or is this still an ongoing experiment where you're waiting to see what happens? I'm actually about to do a similar analysis to see how pricing affects things, and I'm trying to figure out what signs would tell me that limits are the real problem, rather than the price or some missing feature.
I like that you resisted competing on price first. One thing I'd keep validating is whether customers are actually choosing based on monitor limits, or whether that metric is simply a proxy for feeling they'll never outgrow your product. Those lead to different pricing strategies.
That's a fair point. I don't actually have evidence that monitor limits are a major purchase driver yet.
What bothered me was the pricing cliff: a customer with one status page going from 10 monitors on Starter to needing Team just for a few more endpoints. Increasing the limits felt like a better fix than lowering prices or restructuring the plans.
Now I get to see whether anyone actually cares. :)
That's exactly the part that caught my attention.
I do have a view on how I'd think about validating that, but I don't think it has a useful generic answer. It depends on the product you're building and the assumptions behind the pricing.
I'd rather explain it in the context of your product than reduce it to a few comments.
If you're interested, what's the best email to reach you on?