Feedback on Pricing Model: A Call for More Small Business-Friendly Options

Serverless Framework
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Dear Serverless Team,

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to open a discussion regarding the pricing model of your product, as I believe it might be worth re-evaluating for certain user segments.

To give you some context, I am currently working as the sole developer for a very small retail business where I am building an ecommerce platform. Your tool has been incredibly helpful in simplifying my workflow, especially as I manage everything on my own. However, we operate in an emerging economy, and budgeting is often a significant consideration.

With that in mind, I’ve found the current pricing model a bit challenging, particularly the initial plan which is priced at $60 USD per month. I understand there are discounts available for annual plans and small businesses, which could bring the price down to around $38, but the base price of $60 is still a hurdle in the early stages of development. Communicating this cost to my superiors can be difficult, especially considering there are additional expenses for databases, cloud services, and other necessary tools.

Given these circumstances, I wanted to suggest exploring a more small-business-friendly pricing model. For example, offering a more affordable entry-level plan that allows developers like myself to adopt your tool during the early stages of a project. Once the project is live and generating results, we could then scale up to higher tiers.

Alternatively, a pricing structure similar to what Vercel, ChatGPT, and others offer, with an entry-level plan around $20 to $35 USD, followed by more advanced enterprise-level plans, could also be an attractive option.

Of course, these are just suggestions based on my experience, and I’m sure you have your own considerations and insights into pricing. However, I believe a more flexible approach could make your tool more accessible to small businesses and individual developers, which might broaden your customer base.

Thank you for considering this feedback, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Best regards.

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Your aware you can continue to use Serverless for free right?
As you are a “very small” business, and that to me means less than two million dollers, you’re covered for the basics for free.

If you are not a small business, so making more than two million dollers, I can not believe the extra 500 or so cost is going to matter. You’ll already be spending several times that on your AWS hosting, at that point.

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@lucas1068 Any solo developer or small business with annual revenue below $2 million does not need to pay anything for use of Serverless Framework. We really can’t do much better than free in that case. Perhaps we need to improve the visibility of our messaging however if that is not clear.