Newsletter · 12 min read

The state of usage-based pricing in SaaS

Kyle Poyar · Growth Unhinged Freemium Advanced

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.

  • Usage-based pricing adoption slipped from 46 to 41 percent year on year, with 17 percent testing it.
  • Most usage-based businesses run a hybrid, not pure pay-as-you-go.
  • Intercom's Fin charges $0.99 per successful resolution, pricing on the outcome.
  • The real problem is not usage versus subscription, it is inflexible upfront commitments.
Open on growthunhinged.com ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. How do I decide what goes in the free tier and what sits behind the paywall?
  2. How do I run a pricing or packaging experiment on a live self-serve funnel without blowing up revenue?
  3. How does usage-based pricing actually work in practice, and should I move to it?
  4. How do the very best companies use pricing itself as the growth engine rather than a checkout screen?

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