Most SaaS founders spend months building features and hours deciding how to price them.
It shows.
After working with dozens of early-stage teams, I've seen the same pricing mistakes again and again.
Here's what actually works—and what kills growth.
TL;DR:
- Test pricing often
- Be ruthless about clarity
- Use trials over freemium
- Price based on value
- Offer proper annual discounts
- Raise prices if you’re scared to
- And stop writing FAQs no one reads
1. You’re A/B testing your features, not your pricing
One founder I worked with ran 7 different pricing experiments in the first year. Another set prices once, never touched them again, and couldn’t figure out why revenue stalled.
Guess who’s still in business?
2. Freemium sounds good until you’re drowning in free users
I’ve seen a startup with 10,000 free users and 15 paying ones. Their free tier was too generous.
Meanwhile, another skipped freemium, offered a 14-day trial, and hit $25K MRR in under 6 months.
3. People don’t understand your plans—and won’t ask
Most customers won’t email to ask which tier they need. They’ll bounce.
If your pricing page needs an FAQ to explain it, it’s too complex. Keep it stupid simple: 2 plans, clear names, 3 bullets max.
4. Scared to raise prices? That’s usually a sign you should
One client doubled prices after we looked at churn data. They lost the noisy, support-heavy customers and doubled revenue. No fancy marketing. Just a higher number.
5. Tie pricing to real value, not gated features
The top-performing SaaS teams I know use value metrics—per user, per seat, per project.
One switched from “Basic/Pro/Enterprise” to per-seat with all features included. Conversions tripled.
6. Your annual discount is too weak
10% off? That’s not a real incentive. Try 30–40%.
One founder told me pushing big annual discounts gave him 8 months of runway practically overnight.
7. Nobody reads your pricing FAQ. Seriously.
I’ve built pages with 12 FAQ entries. Heatmaps showed nobody scrolls.
Founders who win put answers in the plan name. “Starter — for solo devs.” “Team — for agencies.” That’s it.
8. Pricing is a product. Treat it like one.
Talk to customers. Ask what feels fair. Change it when it’s not working.
Don’t hide behind “contact sales” or hope people just get it. Stand behind your value.
