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I like PlanetScale, but they already have precedent very recently for having a free-tier and then cancelling it for a minimum of $40/month plan, which made many
by reducesuffering 1y ago
I like PlanetScale, but they already have precedent very recently for having a free-tier and then cancelling it for a minimum of $40/month plan, which made many people switch. What's to stop them from doing the same here?
Be wary of building a cheap hobby project on it expecting pricing to stay consistent. If $40+ isn't feasible for you, you may be trying to switch off to a hosted PostgreSQL option, with all the pain MySQL->Postgres entails, soon.
- samlambert 1y agoWhy would we? we make a (small) profit on these cheaper tiers. We are a sustainable and profitable company. Also the free tier wasnt cancelled very recently it was 1.5 years ago so you are reaching a bit here.
- jszymborski 1y agoA bit of unsolicited advice: This post is the first time I've heard of your company and your blog post interested me. When proprietors go to the mat in the comment section, I immediately lose any interest in patronizing them.
- samlambert 1y agowhy is it going to the mat? i had to correct something that was untrue. 1.5 years is not very recently.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago1.5 years ago is recently IMO.
- reducesuffering 1y agoCase in point. Potential customers will see this dismissal as the equivalent of how long they expect this pricing to remain. You’re free to increase the price in a year and when customers are irked, “why isn’t it $5 anymore?” They’ll be met with “that’s not recent.” “That was so long ago” If you want to rebuild reputation with hobby tier, you’ll probably want to put in a 3 year pricing guarantee, not 1 month like the notice last time.
- mrbluecoat 1y agoI think it's great evening entertainment. Keep fanning the flames while I go make some popcorn!
- beoberha 1y agoSam is a great twitter follow
- samlambert 1y agothank you
- selcuka 1y agoOff-topic, but you have a typo on your pricing page: "high-availablity"
- gdulli 1y agoI know comments section drama is fun, but I'm not seeing it here and it feels like you're trying to create it from scratch.
- TheTaytay 1y agoHe's responding in good faith to people expressing doubt that they will maintain this pricing tier, and is responding to rebuttals. Whether you agree with his point of view is different.
- rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 1y agoYour loss, Planetscale is an amazing product.
- randomNumber7 1y agoWhy would a company squeeze customers after making them dependendent? Never heard of it. Also what was capitalism again?
- samlambert 1y agothe reason we make sure all our products are gross margin positive is so this doesn't have to happen.
- randomNumber7 1y ago[flagged]
- czl 1y agoYour $5 plan may be gross margin positive but incentives are to push users into higher margin plans and from this pov this new plan looks much like your previous free plan which was rug pulled. Offering a free service to buy users then imposing migration costs on these users when you rug pull damaged your reputation. Next time perhaps grandfather existing users instead. If you want this new plan to be taken seriously update your terms to promise you will not rug pull again.
- debo_ 1y agoThis is a lazy response.
- CryptoBanker 1y agoYou currently make a small profit on cheaper tiers. Things change
- otterley 1y agoCompute, storage, and network throughput are only getting cheaper over time. Assuming all other costs hold steady, it should only get more profitable.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- carlm42 1y ago(Planetscale employee) This is very different though: it's not a free tier, it's an actual single node DB as a paid product. It's definitely not a good fit for every usecase, but if you have a hobby project it's a great way to start with plenty of room to scale if/when you get actual usage
- CryptoBanker 1y agoIt's very similar in that it's not a huge source of revenue for Planetscale, so easy to pull the rug without disrupting revenue too much
- samlambert 1y agothis makes no sense to me
- CryptoBanker 1y agoIt's easier to pull the rug out from under a group of customers who earn you 5% of your revenue than it is to do the same thing to a group of customers who make you 25% of your revenue. This small $5 plan is obviously not going to make Planetscale very much revenue.
- samlambert 1y agobut its entry level pricing for customers that grow. it will be great for us. there is no point hurting our reputation and slowing growth.
- czl 1y agoYou were buying flow for your sales funnel with a free plan now you want to attract users with a low tier plan. Your reputation was hurt with the first rug pull so why be surprised that users expect another rug pull from you in the future?
- koolala 1y agoWhat other free thing did people switch to? Nothing good seems free anymore.
- davidryal 1y agofree tiers are a subsidy paid by either VCs or paid users that in some cases can function as a marketing cost, if the free tier is time-limited and thus represents a finite cost to the business. far better to just have transparent pricing that takes customer needs into account. bravo planetscale