I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
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I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
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Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#2> Free trials should not require a credit card. Collecting your payment information is an obvious red flag that you will be billed as soon as the free trial period ends.
I remember many people on HN defending this pattern saying that they are not interested in people who don't want to provide their CC details, that they are bad customers, they just want a free ride, and they are not sorry for setting it up like this. Oh well. I guess with time more people get burned and will finally learn the hard way this is just one of many grey patterns.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#3I’m not sure it qualifies as a dark pattern, but I was really frustrated by the Logmein pricing. I was paying a relatively expensive amount for my 100 computers package. Once I went over that threshold I had to convert to the 500 computers package which cost 4x was I was paying. That was true even if I had 101 computers and not 499. I ended up upgrading with a negotiated price but still don’t understand why it’s not a price per computer.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#4Subscription-based software is already a dark pattern.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#5> Free trials should not require a credit card. Collecting your payment information is an obvious red flag that you will be billed as soon as the free trial period ends. I remember many people on HN defending this pattern saying that they are not interested in people who don't want to provide their CC details, that they are bad customers, they just want a free ride, and they are not sorry for setting it up like this.…
This is exactly right. For years it was conventional business wisdom and best practice to focus on getting the CC. We could probably find some pretty embarrassing (for the web industry) threads if we wanted to look.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#6I’m not sure it qualifies as a dark pattern, but I was really frustrated by the Logmein pricing. I was paying a relatively expensive amount for my 100 computers package. Once I went over that threshold I had to convert to the 500 computers package which cost 4x was I was paying. That was true even if I had 101 computers and not 499. I ended up upgrading with a negotiated price but still don’t understand why it’s not…
Easier bookkeeping on their part.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#7> Free trials should not require a credit card. Collecting your payment information is an obvious red flag that you will be billed as soon as the free trial period ends. I remember many people on HN defending this pattern saying that they are not interested in people who don't want to provide their CC details, that they are bad customers, they just want a free ride, and they are not sorry for setting it up like this.…
Requiring a credit card for a trial is fine, as long as you don’t convert automatically to a paying membership. And if you do, please send me a reminder a week before at least.
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#8Subscription-based software is already a dark pattern.
What would you recommend products that host the service and have ongoing upkeep costs to do?
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#9I’m not sure it qualifies as a dark pattern, but I was really frustrated by the Logmein pricing. I was paying a relatively expensive amount for my 100 computers package. Once I went over that threshold I had to convert to the 500 computers package which cost 4x was I was paying. That was true even if I had 101 computers and not 499. I ended up upgrading with a negotiated price but still don’t understand why it’s not…
Easier bookkeeping on their part.
That might be the reason for the different tiers but there is definitely a dark pattern in the auto-upgrade GP describes. LogMeIn could just as easily put a hard stop at 100 computers with a notification the user needs to upgrade to a higher tier package. Instead they auto-upgrade the user without asking. (I’m assuming there’s no way to avoid the auto-upgrade. It’s one thing if a user opts in to the tier scaling for their own convenience I think that’s different.)
Re: I analyzed SaaS billing dark patterns
#10Subscription-based software is already a dark pattern.
No, I don't think so. If the seller actually incurs monthly costs like hosting, this is absolutely fair. What I would call a dark pattern is when you buy an app, a piece of software that executes code on your device, and are forced to pay monthly fees. This gets more and more common. I understand the reasons, but I personally prefer one-off payments and buy software in this way. If it's good, I will pay for upgrades anyway.
Another dark pattern is switching off your customer's apps remotely as Adobe did to their customers in Venezuela two years ago.