ROUNDTABLES ★ 5 upvotes 2011

Ask HN: Geckoboard, AppointmentReminder and other recurring, how do you price?

The Founder's Submission

Direct narrative and submission text authored by @riskish on Hacker News:

I am working on a project that will be charging companies monthly if they decide to subscribe. It will be a hosted platform. I'm not sure how to price it at all, however. Any thoughts on this? Some corporations that use it will be large, some will be small. It's inventory related, so some will have larger inventory than others as well.

Retrospective Overview & Key Insights

Distilled analysis of the business dynamics, operational challenges, and strategic takeaways:

An open Ask HN community consultation from 2011 where @riskish convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.

Core Principles for Independent Builders:
1
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
2
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
3
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:

Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.

Community Discussions & Critical Reviews

High-signal perspectives, counter-arguments, and peer founder insights debated on Hacker News (3 total discussions):

JE @jeffepp Peer Contributor

You should really think about your pricing. The cost of your app should correlate to the value the user is receiving. It's always easier to lower your price, start high and test.

If Large companies can use your app - please do not put a "ceiling" (i.e. unlimited plan) on the price.

Remember, larger companies typically spend 10's of thousands (or more) on software

FL @fla_steve Peer Contributor

If you're selling to businesses then it really does come down to value. Most businesses won't hesitate to pay much more than you might think is reasonable IF the product offers a value that exceeds that cost. If there's real value to your product then you should definitely start on the higher end of what you're considering.

BR @bricestacey Peer Contributor

When Geckoboard launched, they had confusing per-device pricing. They changed it a month later - so don't feel like you're limited to your initial offering. Their changes ultimately made it cheaper overall - so start high and bring it down as you receive feedback.

HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 5 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 3 comments
TOPICS & TECH STACK:
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