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Please help me decide and refine the pricing for my new SAAS application. I already have an installable application and about launch a service on the cloud with monthly subscriptions.

I have put together 7 plan variations including a free plan.

Is this too many plans?

In reality there are only two plans free and single user. Rest are just multi user packs.

Here is a screenshot explaining the plans https://www.wireframes.org/ui/data/admin/my_nature_library_4ed6e66268277/wireframe_pricing_4ed7ab47827cd.png

Please help me refine this. Thank you so much

EDIT: Based on the suggestions I have modified the pricing to include 3 plans. I like the idea of just free trial . Please comment on the three plans and if it is suitable.

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Seven plans is way too many. The most you should have is free, standard and professional, or it gets too difficult to maintain. – Steve Jones Dec 2 '11 at 8:45

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

I agree with Joseph about simplicity and less options. However, I would make the free plan not part of the main offerings... many companies that offer SaaS applications have found out that the majority of the people who sign-up for the free plan never converts to a pay plan. These users can become an overhead because they will be calling support, etc.. even when they are just using the free plan.

How about testing your pricing page with only 3 paid plans, then you can also offer a 30-day trial as well for those looking to try your service before giving you any money for it.

If you really want to offer a free plan then add a link (make it small) to the bottom of the pricing page for a free plan. This is what many successful companies have done to avoid having too many users choose the free plan. For example, look at the following pricing pages for an example of what I just described:

37 Signals Basecamp (this one offer a free plan but hides it at the bottom of the page)

SalesForce (this is an example of not offering a free plan but instead free trials)

DotNetInvoice (not free plan at all)

TidyContact (this is from my coming SaaS application!)

I hope this helps you in your decision, here is another link to other great pricing pages, I hope you can find what you are looking for!

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Hi Ricardo, it is a good idea to offer free trial. I have revised the screenshot above to include 3 plans – Nilesh Dec 2 '11 at 14:28
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And also, if the user really needs to test it they can always go and download my application and test it privately. I did not think of this before but more I think it makes sense not to offer free plan. The download app already allows 21 days of fully functional trial. I like this community brain storming – Nilesh Dec 2 '11 at 14:53
I am glad that this was somewhat useful. – Ricardo Dec 2 '11 at 17:46
up vote 2 down vote

I would embrace simplicity. I think you are "over thinking" it. Go with three.

Three plans will be more than enough. If you need go with three plans plus the free plan. Based on your information the only difference between most of the plans is the number of users.

So have a "add more users" to any plan in blocks of 10 or 25 or whatever. Then add a button to "customize" inviting prospective customers that don't see a package that works for them to contact you directly.

Then install a Live chat function so that you can actively engage prospective customers in their decisions process -- and you can learn from experience what packages work and how to customized them to make sense. Install one that has a trigger that allows you to initiate a chat when they visitor stays on the page viewing the options for more than 15 seconds.

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Joseph, I like the idea of live chat to help user decide what plan to go with and any custom plan they need. Atlassian has this UI where you can add number of users by clicking a button and it changes the price accordingly. Right now I don't have the bandwidth to go that fancy so will just provide the three plans that everyone has unanimously suggested here. Thanks again – Nilesh Dec 2 '11 at 14:32
up vote 2 down vote

To some extent echoing what Ricardo has said about free options, you should really read http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/08/18/why-free-plans-dont-work/ before embarking on the freemium route.

I would certainly recommend that you charge for your base product, but of course offer a trial and flexible contract ie month to month contracts. Having an annual subscription at a discount is a good idea as it offers you better cashflow, more-committed (ie better) customers, and a good deal for the customer.

Also agree with limiting the plans to just 3 or fewer. As a single data point, I use Mockflow for wireframing, and they have 1 paid plan.

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Thanks Marcin, I think providing a single user for 1 year is better and with less plan options – Nilesh Dec 2 '11 at 14:29
up vote 0 down vote

Make it easy,

a free plan payed plan

When users get the paid plan, they can upgrade their account and support like more users (with additional $$$).

Explain in your detailed text, that it is (for example) 3$/user/month (for additional).

This way, you only have 2 plans that you can present (one that is qualified and one (free) which is not). :)

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