What's the most interesting pricing you've seen for collaborative tools?

SophiaExcelway·Apr 15, 2021

Posted in:B2B SaaSy Vendors & Products Founders

I've been studying collaborative tools (mainly productivity tools) pricing and business models. The great majority of them are per user/member, which I think can be a barrier for scaling to the buyer.Before the buyer even uses the product and get value from it, she/he is confronted with its cost and onboarding a new user will always bring the thought "shall we/we have to buy another seat" and will necessarily entail an increase in cost. Some interesting models I'm considering are: - no or little limit on the number of seats but pricing by folder/project/workspace. This way, the buyer is encouraged to get people on the tool and he/she will upgrade only when necessary ie. once they get value from the tool and they need more organization and private spaces for different teams. - a high limit on the number of elements used. I see this model mostly in whiteboarding tools where you can have fun filling out your whiteboard with thousands of elements for free, and then, for the 3001th element, you have to upgrade. What about you? What's your opinion on these strategies? Did you come across a compelling pricing model that would encourage the buyer to upgrade while allowing him to get plenty of value beforehand?

teresaman·Apr 15, 2021

On the second model (high limit of features for free tier), it's something that I as a non-paying customer always appreciate. Most times I never end up having to pay because the threshold is quite generous, or I'd find workarounds to keep using the product without paying, eg. Loom has I believe a 5-min cut off, so I end up recording several videos instead of one long one.

SophiaExcelway·Apr 16, 2021

Good point @teresaman, I do this too with the tools that allow it and use the same hack for Loom. However, from a vendor perspective, I'm afraid that I won't make any money with this type of subscription. Was there one tool/pricing model that started with a generous free tier and still made you upgrade at some point?

teresaman·Apr 16, 2021

I'd say for me it's usually an all-or-nothing trial model. Where post trial I cannot continue with the service unless I subscribe as a paying customer.

SophiaExcelway·Apr 20, 2021

Thanks @teresaman for your input. That's interesting.

NadineSchoene·Apr 16, 2021

What about pricing models where you pay for the service/installation as such, plus a moderate fee per user? This is more attractive for enterprises, compared to small companies.

SophiaExcelway·Apr 20, 2021

It's an interesting model indeed. Thanks I'll look into it!