Choose what you charge for before you choose a number: the value metric (per seat, per use, per outcome) should grow with the value a customer gets. Then segment your customers, because a small team and a large company value you differently, and build tiers around those segments rather than around features. Set the price from the value you create, not from your cost or a competitor's list price; early SaaS founders routinely price as if they save customers thousands when they save far more. Talk about willingness to pay with buyers before you finish building, and treat the first price as an experiment you will raise. If usage varies widely between customers, a base subscription plus usage is the common answer, and a majority of usage-based companies now run that hybrid. In India, price Indian customers in rupees with GST shown and keep a separate dollar price list for buyers abroad. The rule: charge for what grows with value, and raise prices sooner than feels comfortable.
Campbell ran pricing research at ProfitWell across thousands of companies, and his sequence (value metric, then segments, then experiments) is the one to follow. The line worth memorising: get the value metric right and you can get a lot of the rest wrong.
Goes deeper than the article on how to actually run a willingness to pay conversation, plus the maximise, penetrate and skim choice. The transcript is on the page if you would rather skim.
The bounding method for a first price (cost to serve as the floor, cost of a heavy power user as the ceiling) plus the advice to keep pricing changeable in the product. Written for founders who are about to underprice, which is most of them.
Seven hybrid pricing patterns with named companies (GitHub, Shopify, Intercom, Zapier), plus Poyar's point that the enemy is not subscriptions, it is inflexible upfront commitments.
Concrete on the mechanics nobody outside India writes about: INR pricing, UPI AutoPay recurring success rates versus international cards, GST, and typical India plan pricing relative to the US sticker. Read it before you decide Indian buyers will not pay.
The one piece to read if you only read one. It puts the trial and freemium question inside the bigger strategic choice (maximisation, penetration, skimming) so you are picking a funnel that matches your plan rather than copying whoever you admire.
The shortest honest answer to picking a first number: charge more than feels comfortable, watch the reaction, adjust. It is aimed at founders with no pricing history and no data, which is exactly the position this question describes.
