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Spreedly doubles pricing.

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Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#21

Post by timharding »

olefoo wrote: post #15
Silhouette wrote: post #12

I think those suggesting that this is an insignificant rise are missing the point. These subscription billing services have close to the most powerful lock-in imaginable on your business. When you commit to one, you are trusting them with a vital part of your operations. At best, switching later is going to be disruptive to your business and potentially damaging to your customer relations. This is the third of the mo…

Or it could be that all three of these subscription billing companies got shafted by their correspondent banks...

None of these guys pay the banks. Their customers are already paying a for payment gateway for that service, they sit on top providing recurring billing and subscription management.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#22

Post by timharding »

patio11 wrote: post #6

My monthly Spreedly bill went up by approximately the amount I spent on AdWords between 9 AM and 3 PM on Friday. I know pricing discussions generate a lot of heat, but honestly, $30 is not a lot of money. Nor does it magically become a lot of money after you have 500 customers, at which point you have very high-class problems. Here, let me extend that graph with one extra line: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blo…

Again, it's not the fixed cost. It's your per transaction pricing that has doubled so over the lifetime of your business and as you grow you'll pay 40c instead of 20c every month for every customer.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#23

Post by primigenus »

Last year here on HN, Nathaniel said this:

"The ridiculously huge mistake I think Chargify made here was something I thought was just a given these days: they should've unilaterally grandfathered all of their existing clients, and quietly given the grandfathered plan to anyone who was already integrating but not yet launched as well." (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781104)

It's one thing to trash your competitor publically. It's another to then do the exact same thing you were complaining about one year later.

This isn't about the numbers - $30 is jack squat. This is about principles. With this decision, Spreedly shows that they can say one thing and then do the exact opposite. And that's troubling.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#24

Post by karamazov »

bigiain wrote: post #14
happyfeet wrote: post #4

It is surprising to see this coming from Spreedly, especially in the context of their previous discussion on the same topic in HN (when Chargify increased price). When you price a subscription product, one should factor in long term sustainability at that price, for a long time. Any price increase due to additional features / facilities you provide - say 24*7 on-call support, must not be burdened on your existing use…

"It is surprising to see this coming from Spreedly" Really? A relative newcomer to e online payments space, undercutting the status quo pricing of the incumbents, suddenly finding they've underestimated the costs of running their service? Doesn't surprise me at all... If I were building a new business based on any of the new online payment services, especially if they're significantly less expensive than traditional…

This is a great point - their choice may very well have been between raising prices and shutting down.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#26

Post by [deleted] »

ohashi wrote: post #13
mikeryan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that there's many HN Members who may be trying to start a company in 3rd world countries where $30 is a significant chunk of change, and this may sound harsh. But if your business, at any point, can't absorb a $30 a month increase in fees for something as important as your subscription billing system then something is wrong.

I am not really sure it's the price change that is most offensive. It's the fact they were willing to do it without regard for their current customers. I don't want to deal with a company that is happy to change their price whenever they feel like it and I get the short end of the stick.

[deleted]

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#27

Post by vaksel »

patio11 wrote: post #6

My monthly Spreedly bill went up by approximately the amount I spent on AdWords between 9 AM and 3 PM on Friday. I know pricing discussions generate a lot of heat, but honestly, $30 is not a lot of money. Nor does it magically become a lot of money after you have 500 customers, at which point you have very high-class problems. Here, let me extend that graph with one extra line: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blo…

small businesses are notorious penny pinchers, even $20/mo is a big decision for them. So doubling prices is a big problem for a lot of them...even if the actual cost is nothing compared to their other expenses.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#28

Post by patio11 »

timharding wrote: post #22
patio11 wrote: post #6

My monthly Spreedly bill went up by approximately the amount I spent on AdWords between 9 AM and 3 PM on Friday. I know pricing discussions generate a lot of heat, but honestly, $30 is not a lot of money. Nor does it magically become a lot of money after you have 500 customers, at which point you have very high-class problems. Here, let me extend that graph with one extra line: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blo…

Again, it's not the fixed cost. It's your per transaction pricing that has doubled so over the lifetime of your business and as you grow you'll pay 40c instead of 20c every month for every customer.

$2.40 per customer per year? If you can even see this difference, raise prices.

Re: Spreedly doubles pricing.

#30

Post by bcx »

I know the Spreedly guys personally (and have been using them for years). Honestly, they underpriced their services and need to make more money if they are going to add features and build a better product.

Doubling their prices certainly seems like a reasonable idea, I wonder what other models they looked at.

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