Rethinking Software Pricing Beyond Subscriptions

Software pricing doesn’t have to rely solely on subscriptions.

Significant chunks price hybrid (23%) or usage-based (18%).

In order get down to the facts, I teamed up with the legend Kyle Poyar — He’s surveyed 1000s of SaaS companies for years at OpenView.

These were the top findings:

1. Subscription is still the default option

Seats may get a bad rap, but they’re negotiable, work well for multi-year commits, and are still the industry standard.

2. Hybrid is growing

Subscription companies often find a hybrid way to continue to scale with their largest enterprise customers along with a shared value metric.

3. Usage-based is not just in infrastructure

These days, vertical and horizontal apps are also choosing purely usage-based models. It’s usually paired with PLG.

To go further, check out the deep-dive.

Here’s what we break down:

1. Inventory of pricing models at top B2B companies
2. Pricing strategies and approaches to iterating
3. Psychological optimizations to consider
4. Case studies of model changes
5. How pricing models evolve
6. First principles to choose
7. Most common mistakes