37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp • Hacker News Board

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#11

Post by gcheong » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:18 PM UTC

jbail wrote: post #3

ukdm wrote: post #2

Update: Jason Fried responds Shortly after our post went live, 37signals founder Jason Fried left a comment, clarifying that they are toying with the design of the sign-up page, but that all of the old plans are still available. "While we used to have four plans on the sign up chart, today we only have three," said Fried. "Same prices as before, just fewer plans displayed. A while back we used to have six plans to ch…

Interesting. Thanks for the update. So the news is that they are merely toying with the idea of making $49/mo the new "cheap" plan. That would eliminate the free plan (do they still have that?) as well as the $12 and $24 plans.

They don't have the free and $12 and $24 plans listed on the website anymore as far as I can tell, but perhaps you are able to downgrade to one of those plans after signing up for one of the other plans.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#12

Post by levigross » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:24 PM UTC

I signed up yesterday for a friend of mine and when I saw the cheapest plan at $49.95 I just grabbed the free one and upgraded to the $24 plan.

I thought it was a glitch in the pricing screen (and my friend still thinks I am seeing things).

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#13

Post by jasonfried » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:29 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #5

I commented on the article too - but, could this just be a customer retention ploy? I no longer want to cancel anything because if I need to come back and re-activate my projects, well, it looks like it may cost me double.

No ploy. It's straightforward: We're testing the plan mix, the number of plans on the sign up page, and the design of the sign up chart. All the prices remain the same.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#14

Post by cvg » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:29 PM UTC

gcheong wrote: post #11

jbail wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Thanks for the update. So the news is that they are merely toying with the idea of making $49/mo the new "cheap" plan. That would eliminate the free plan (do they still have that?) as well as the $12 and $24 plans.

They don't have the free and $12 and $24 plans listed on the website anymore as far as I can tell, but perhaps you are able to downgrade to one of those plans after signing up for one of the other plans.

Free plan isn't displayed, but available at https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/Free/signup/new

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#15

Post by jasonfried » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:31 PM UTC

ukdm wrote: post #2

Update: Jason Fried responds Shortly after our post went live, 37signals founder Jason Fried left a comment, clarifying that they are toying with the design of the sign-up page, but that all of the old plans are still available. "While we used to have four plans on the sign up chart, today we only have three," said Fried. "Same prices as before, just fewer plans displayed. A while back we used to have six plans to ch…

To add, none of the prices have changed. The make up of the plans, and the prices of the plans, are the same as they were before the experiment.

The experiment is in design, layout, suggestion, and reducing the number of plans shown at sign up to reduce confusion.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#16

Post by raganwald » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:34 PM UTC

levigross wrote: post #12

I signed up yesterday for a friend of mine and when I saw the cheapest plan at $49.95 I just grabbed the free one and upgraded to the $24 plan. I thought it was a glitch in the pricing screen (and my friend still thinks I am seeing things).

It doesn't sound deliberate, but many pricing discrimination schemes work exactly like this: For someone who can afford it and is in a hurry, they pay $x. For people who are unwilling to 'flop' their chequebook, you give them the free option and offer an upgrade that is $(x/2).

Neatly captures the surplus while hiding the $(x/2) price from people willing to pay $x when they sign up.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#17

Post by gcheong » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:42 PM UTC

cvg wrote: post #14

gcheong wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have the free and $12 and $24 plans listed on the website anymore as far as I can tell, but perhaps you are able to downgrade to one of those plans after signing up for one of the other plans.

Free plan isn't displayed, but available at https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/Free/signup/new

How can someone get to this if they don't know the URL?

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#18

Post by webwright » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 12:15 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #4

This is both a) ballsy and b) going to buy DHH another few sportscars. People should A/B test more, including consequential tests like product mix and pricing.

We (RescueTime) did TONS of A/B testing on pricing/plans, to very good effect. People seem really hesitant to do this for fear of pissing off customers, but we didn't get any complaints. A few folks noticed, and we'd always honor the lowest price they saw if they were part of the experiment.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#19

Post by webwright » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 12:17 AM UTC

ComputerGuru wrote: post #8

Common enough strategy these days, though not usually from the big players. Double your price, you'll roughly halve your (new) customers - same revenue, but more profit because of less overhead.

"Double your price, you'll roughly halve your (new) customers"

Absolutely not true. I've experimented with dropping prices by half and got a barely noticable uptick in customers. I've also bumped prices by 20% and had conversion actually increase slightly. Pricing psychology is way more complex than that.

Re: 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp

#20

Post by jluxenberg » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 12:40 AM UTC

jasonfried wrote: post #13

dpcan wrote: post #5

I commented on the article too - but, could this just be a customer retention ploy? I no longer want to cancel anything because if I need to come back and re-activate my projects, well, it looks like it may cost me double.

No ploy. It's straightforward: We're testing the plan mix, the number of plans on the sign up page, and the design of the sign up chart. All the prices remain the same.

Yeah, but as a new customer how do I access the cheaper plans? They're not on the rates page.