Web App Pricing Tier Comparisons


The way that web apps display pricing is quite interesting to me. Mostly because we’re working on our own app and I’m in the process of designing a pricing structure.

I decided to look around at some of the pricing structures out in the marketplace and compare their design. I found a good sample and decided to share my findings.

If you look around, it becomes quickly apparent that pricing in buckets is the preferred model. The alternative is a per-user fee or a per-feature added fee.

“What is better: buckets or custom pricing?  Buckets.  How do I know we learned this?  Since changing the pricing page on our site, our sign-ups/trials have increased 30%.”
– Michael McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks
(Source)


Basecamp which promotes a free plan as a business model really makes the it hard to find. It’s there on the bottom.


Beanstalk has a no-frills pricing structure, but why is the sign up button only under the free plan?


Tick keeps it simple with 5 plans and checkmarks.


Wufoo has the most inventive plan page ever! Very cool font and colors, fun names and big buttons. I like it.


Dropsend has clever little icons to represent the increases in capacity for each plan. If you are interested, they have provided some analysis and figures for how many people sign up for each plan.

“With DropSend, we found the best way to get people to upgrade is by offering them a coupon. By upgrading before a specific date, they would save anywhere between 10% – 100% of the first month.”
– Ryan Carson, CEO of Carsonified
(Source)

“My advice for those of you building web apps based on monthly subscriptions: have a plan for getting people off of the low-paying plans. Or maybe don’t offer a low-paying plan at all.”
– Ryan Carson, CEO of Carsonified (Source)


Rescuetime is smart to have a free plan (heavily promoted) but also include plenty of business options. The big red sign up button is a plus.


Zendesk has a very clear graph. Showing an increase in size and explaining the features.


FreshBooks adds some clever plan names like “Time Machine” and “Limousine” to the mix. They win at clearly denoting that you can sign up for a free account. Big buttons rule.

Feel free to post any links to interesting pricing screens you have seen.


6 responses to “Web App Pricing Tier Comparisons”

  1. The Wufoo signup page is awesome. The plan names are by far the most clever of all these samples. The Basecamp signup page feels like it is shouting at me, which is surprising considering how “simple” their apps are.

    Also check out the signup page for Intervals. They do a good job at differentiating each plan when you mouse over them.

  2. BrainFuel’s was posted on the 10th – smashing’s was posted on the 13th. No way that BrainFuel copied this! Must have been a coincidence or smashing copied the idea…

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