Doing the work

How do I design tiers so buyers pick the right plan and grow into the next one?

The short answer

Good, better, best works for about two thirds of SaaS companies because it makes the choice easy, so start there unless you have a strong reason not to. Give every tier a job: one to acquire, one to be the obvious default, one to capture the buyers with budget and requirements. Make it instantly clear who each plan is for, because buyers default to the middle tier when they are confused and you lose money on both ends. Sell a feature as an add-on when it is polarising, appeals to a different buyer, or taps a different budget, and resist gating anything that drives engagement. Map the tiers to the real user journey (individual, team, organisation) rather than to a feature list you invented.

Go deeper, your way

4 hand-picked resources, 1 India-specific, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

🎧 Podcast
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Varun Shoor built Kayako, a help desk product out of Jalandhar sold to customers worldwide, and he walks through how he shaped plans, what he gated and what he gave away. It is the tier design conversation with an Indian founder's constraints in it rather than a US benchmark chart.

Getting SaaS pricing right (1/2) - Varun Shoor, Kayako | BTS E14 | SaaSBoomi Podcast

On SaaSBoomi Podcast by Varun Shoor 45 min

Getting SaaS pricing right (1/2) - Varun Shoor, Kayako | BTS E14 | SaaSBoomi Podcast
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →
📰 Newsletter
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Answers the two packaging questions that actually come up: when to bundle a new feature into a tier and when to sell it as an add-on, and how to give each tier a job. Short, and every principle is testable against your own pricing page.

Your guide to SaaS packaging 201

From Growth Unhinged by Kyle Poyar 6 min read

Open growthunhinged.com →

The same ground, at another level

How pricing and packaging reads from a different seat.

I have no idea what to charge. How do I pick a first price? Find the right order of magnitude first and stop arguing about the exact number. Are you a ten dollar product, a hundred dollar product, a thousand... Breaking into GTM 4 resources → Should I price in rupees for India and dollars for everyone else? If you sell to Indian SMEs, price in rupees, include GST in the displayed number, and support UPI and domestic cards, because dollar pricing on a c... Leading a GTM team 4 resources → How do the best companies raise prices without losing customers? They change price alongside a visible change in value, they tell people early, and they stage it. Grandfather existing customers for a defined peri... How the best do it 5 resources →

Terms in this answer

User Journey

People also ask

I have no idea what to charge. How do I pick a first price? Find the right order of magnitude first and stop arguing about the exact number. Are you a ten dollar product, a hundred dollar product, a thousand... Breaking into GTM 4 resources → What is a value metric and why does everyone say it matters more than the number? A value metric is the thing you charge for: a seat, a thousand API calls, a gigabyte, a transaction, a resolved ticket. Patrick Campbell's line is ... Breaking into GTM 4 resources → How do I find out what customers will actually pay without just asking them? Asking "what would you pay" gets you a polite fiction, so use structured methods instead. Van Westendorp gives you a sensible range, Gabor-Granger ... Doing the work 4 resources → Should I price in rupees for India and dollars for everyone else? If you sell to Indian SMEs, price in rupees, include GST in the displayed number, and support UPI and domestic cards, because dollar pricing on a c... Leading a GTM team 4 resources → Buyers always ask for a discount. How much do I give, and how do I stop it eating my ARR? Assume discounting will happen and price for it rather than trying to hold an imaginary line. Jason Lemkin's practical version: mark list up so a s... Leading a GTM team 5 resources → How do the best companies raise prices without losing customers? They change price alongside a visible change in value, they tell people early, and they stage it. Grandfather existing customers for a defined peri... How the best do it 5 resources →

Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Money, pricing & model, our Starting Up track.

What business model should I choose for my startup? Don't 'choose' a model in a vacuum, copy the model that already works in your customers' world and improve one thing about it. Recurring revenue (s... 3 resources → How do I decide how much to charge for my product? Stop guessing and stop pricing off your costs, price off the value the customer gets and their willingness to pay. Talk to customers about pricing,... 3 resources →

Also in D2C

The same ground, over in Money, pricing & unit economics, our D2C track.

I'm not a finance person, what books/records do I actually need to keep from day one? At minimum: a sales register (every order, with GST split if applicable), a purchase/expense register (raw materials, ads, shipping, software), a b... 3 resources → What is cohort analysis, and why does it matter more than a single repeat-rate number? Cohort analysis groups customers by when they first bought and tracks how each group behaves over time - so instead of one blended '35% repeat rate... 3 resources →
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