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Lock in and information loss is something important to consider with any SaaS solution, especially if you're going to use the free tier. Migration with data and

by wtmt 7y ago

Lock in and information loss is something important to consider with any SaaS solution, especially if you're going to use the free tier. Migration with data and history is often very difficult or impossible. If you think a SaaS platform would be worth paying for in the future across the different pricing tiers, then go for the free or lowest tier and move up as your needs increase. If not, there's always email and local spreadsheets to take care of whatever you'd need, though it would be cumbersome. But you'd at least have the data with you in formats that everyone can understand and improve.

bartread 7y ago
(Tbh, if you're talking about Google Docs, it's not even that cumbersome. Still, I prefer Office 365 and would probably plump to spend my own cash on that. This is not the point of what I was going to post though.) I think what you say is totally valid but an additional observation is that once a SaaS gains some traction, or perhaps because they need the cashflow, sometimes the free tier can disappear or be significantly reduced. The canonical example here for me is UserVoice: it used to have a free tier, no longer does and, in fact, whilst I was writing this post I was searching for current pricing... but it turns out they're not even transparently priced any more (please feel free to correct me if I missed something). Anyway: beware.
- a13n 7y ago
  Yeah UserVoice starts at ~$15k/yr nowadays, and it'll take you ~3 calls with their sales team to even get a price. Canny is a modern alternative with upfront pricing, and is actually the company behind this thread's blog post! Comparison page here: https://canny.io/compare/uservoice https://canny.io/compare/uservoice
  - bartread 7y ago
    > Yeah UserVoice starts at ~$15k/yr nowadays Holy ####. I'd used it on small projects, and I know Microsoft still use it (or at least were as of a few months back) for Teams amongst other products. I remember wanting to use it for a side-project a few years back and being disappointed that the free tier had gone, but thinking it would still probably be worth it for something with commercial value. But... $15k/annum. I mean, I hope it's working out for them but that's pricing out a huge chunk of the market. Maybe they've just done their segmentation really well and are coining it.

by wtmt 7y ago

bartread 7y ago

(Tbh, if you're talking about Google Docs, it's not even that cumbersome. Still, I prefer Office 365 and would probably plump to spend my own cash on that. This is not the point of what I was going to post though.) I think what you say is totally valid but an additional observation is that once a SaaS gains some traction, or perhaps because they need the cashflow, sometimes the free tier can disappear or be significantly reduced. The canonical example here for me is UserVoice: it used to have a free tier, no longer does and, in fact, whilst I was writing this post I was searching for current pricing... but it turns out they're not even transparently priced any more (please feel free to correct me if I missed something). Anyway: beware.

a13n 7y ago
Yeah UserVoice starts at ~$15k/yr nowadays, and it'll take you ~3 calls with their sales team to even get a price. Canny is a modern alternative with upfront pricing, and is actually the company behind this thread's blog post! Comparison page here: https://canny.io/compare/uservoice https://canny.io/compare/uservoice
- bartread 7y ago
  > Yeah UserVoice starts at ~$15k/yr nowadays Holy ####. I'd used it on small projects, and I know Microsoft still use it (or at least were as of a few months back) for Teams amongst other products. I remember wanting to use it for a side-project a few years back and being disappointed that the free tier had gone, but thinking it would still probably be worth it for something with commercial value. But... $15k/annum. I mean, I hope it's working out for them but that's pricing out a huge chunk of the market. Maybe they've just done their segmentation really well and are coining it.