Show IH We’re the cheapest tool in a competitive space. Here’s why I’m not apologizing for it.
ReleaseLog competes in a space with well-funded, established players.
Canny has been around for years. Productboard raised over $100 million. There are at least a dozen tools doing some version of what I built.
I launched two weeks ago with zero customers, zero reputation, and a $12/month price tag that some people would call too cheap to be taken seriously.
I don’t see it that way.
The market moved upmarket. I’m staying down.
Here’s what happened to every major changelog and roadmap tool over the last few years. They started serving indie founders. Then they got traction. Then they raised money. Then they needed to justify that raise. So they added enterprise features, raised prices, and quietly stopped caring about the solo founder who just needs a simple way to keep their users informed.
Canny’s entry paid plan requires an annual contract. No monthly option. Their AI features cost extra credits. Productboard starts at $19/user/month.
The indie founder building their first SaaS product with 200 users got left behind.
That’s who I built ReleaseLog for.
Cheap doesn’t mean low quality. It means different priorities.
I’m not cheap because I can’t charge more. I’m $12/month because the person I’m building for shouldn’t have to choose between a changelog tool and a month of server costs.
The features are real. AI writing assistant included flat. Embeddable widget. Public roadmap with voting. Feature request board. Email notifications to subscribers. Custom branding. Team members. Custom domain support.
Everything the expensive tools offer. For a fraction of the price. No annual commitment.
The honest part
I have no customers yet. Zero. I’m not writing this from a position of strength, I’m writing it from a position of conviction.
I believe the indie founder market is underserved. I believe the tools that were built for them stopped caring when the enterprise money showed up. And I believe that a well-built, affordable, genuinely useful product will find its people if the founder is willing to show up every day and put it in front of them.
That’s the bet I’m making.
If you’re building a SaaS product and keeping your users informed feels harder than it should — or more expensive than it should — I’d love for you to try ReleaseLog. No card required.
And if you’ve competed in a crowded space as the underdog — I’d genuinely love to hear how you thought about it.
subscribe to my public changelog and roadmap, to see how your customers would benefit or tell me how to upgrade my product by requesting a feature! https://tryreleaselog.com/p/releaselog-building-in-public
Love the transparency. I'm taking a similar route—instead of a monthly SaaS tax, I'm bundling my local-first AI tools into a 'Digital Sovereignty' pack for a one-time price. In a world of $30/month subscriptions, 'cheap and permanent' is a massive competitive advantage. Rooting for you!
The one-time price angle is interesting. Permanent ownership versus monthly commitment is a completely different psychological contract with the customer. The challenge is you only get paid once per customer which means acquisition has to keep working forever. The subscription model's advantage is that a happy customer who stops thinking about the decision keeps paying. Curious how you're thinking about the math on that, does the Digital Sovereignty positioning attract a customer who would never subscribe anyway, making it additive rather than competitive with SaaS pricing? Because if that's the case you're not really competing with subscription tools you're serving a completely different buyer.