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Running Costs of a SaaS app

cushionapp.com

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Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#61

Post by rhizome »

csomar wrote: post #39
destroytoday wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I should actually add that expense, too... Thanks for the reminder. :)

I was actually asking because I got an ethically-questionable, evil idea: If you are owning the Cushion word, can you sue for the domain name cushion.com?

If you mean trademark, it must be registered under one or more of the many[1] categories of business in which a trademark can be registered, which means the same mark can be registered by different companies as long as there's no "substantial likelihood of confusion," so whatever you mean by "owning the Cushion word," it's going to have to be something else. It's not as easy as registering in all possible classes, which in itself is quite expensive.

1. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/trademark-classes.htm...

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#62

Post by futhey »

uladzislau wrote: post #56

Definitely not lean. From the first look - too many tools and expenses for unknown no name startup. I'm wondering how much of these can be painlessly cut off?

“Unknown, no-name startup” seems a bit unfair. It looks like Cushion has a solid product & paying customers.

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#63

Post by nickfzx »

destroytoday wrote: post #14
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great stuff!destroytoday! Regarding Heap Analytics, their pricing model is quite confusing. I'd like to know how many users/visitors to your website are you getting that allows it to be free. To you, is the almost $5k you're spending on Intercom worth it? How much does it come to per user? You moved away from Baremetrics to Chartmogul, something with not as good a design. Why?

Thanks! In all honesty, we're way over Heap's free limit, but they haven't throttled us or reached out, so shhhhhh. Intercom is so worth it. We wouldn't be in the same position without it. The reason it's so high (as I mentioned in another answer) is that we also use it for sending our monthly newsletter. We could definitely get the cost much lower, and we're planning to, but I just need to sit down and do it. We've…

"The team is so kind, helpful, and responsive."

Founder of ChartMogul here...thank you for the nice comments, you made our success team's day! <3

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#64

Post by grow91 »

destroytoday wrote: post #46
yokisan wrote: post #28

For Stripe analytics, Profitwell is free. And awesome. https://www.profitwell.com

Looks nice, but I'd never not pay for a service because you're paying somehow, or the service won't be around for long.

They have a pricing consulting business that finances it (http://www.priceintelligently.com/) so the data feeds their consulting business (I'd imagine). I use Profitwell and love it.

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#65

Post by AtheistOfFail »

destroytoday wrote: post #2

:waves: Hi, I'm the founder of Cushion. I'd be happy to answer any questions about our running costs or transparency. (Thanks for posting, @Sujan!)

Why don't you guys use the new Heroku beta SSL feature so you can bank that extra $20 a month? It's not much but it makes a difference if you're spinning multiple sites up.

https://blog.heroku.com/announcing_heroku_free_ssl_beta_and_...

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#66

Post by benevol »

sly010 wrote: post #58

This info is actually very useful for me as it confirms my (rational) fear of accumulating expenses. It's way too easy to just spend $10-$50 here and there and before you know it you are spending $1000 a month, while the core service is still running on a single triad of web-server/worker-server/database-server combo with no redundancy. On the other hand it probably contains everything I could think of and it's still…

I literally use none of any such paid services. Zero. It's really not that hard. Just automate what can be automated.

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#67

Post by catapault »

It's surprising to see the cost of Intercom compared to everything else on the list.

We recently reviewed how much it was costing our business, compared to the value we were getting out of it, and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution.

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#68

Post by rublev »

catapault wrote: post #67

It's surprising to see the cost of Intercom compared to everything else on the list. We recently reviewed how much it was costing our business, compared to the value we were getting out of it, and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution.

>and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution.

Well don't leave us hanging.

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#69

Post by voiceclonr »

rublev wrote: post #68
catapault wrote: post #67

It's surprising to see the cost of Intercom compared to everything else on the list. We recently reviewed how much it was costing our business, compared to the value we were getting out of it, and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution.

>and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution. Well don't leave us hanging.

Agreed. +1 this :)

Re: Running Costs of a SaaS app

#70

Post by catapault »

rublev wrote: post #68
catapault wrote: post #67

It's surprising to see the cost of Intercom compared to everything else on the list. We recently reviewed how much it was costing our business, compared to the value we were getting out of it, and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution.

>and switched to a cheaper (and simpler) solution. Well don't leave us hanging.

I didn't want to come across as advertising something. We noticed that we weren't making use of much more than email support, so we switched to GrooveHQ. Their pricing is much more reasonable, and their story and the way they interact with their customers is great. But really, there are tons of options out there.

My point is that if you're not making the most of what Intercom offers, then it's pretty damn expensive.

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