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independence6 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
standing

contested · 4 claims against 1

applies to

b2b, no audience needed

outcome not stated

confidence

high

evidence

7 claims · 7 articles · 4 receipts

window

2015-10-01 → 2024-09-09

6 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Copy the going rate, or refuse to on principle

Most builders take their opening number straight from the marketplace their buyers already shop in, matching both the figure and the packaging shape so the product reads as comparable. The counterargument is that a competitor's price encodes their costs, their tier mix and revenue lines you cannot see, so lifting it imports someone else's business model. Both camps agree a dominant rival can cap what your whole category is allowed to cost.

What both sides agree on

  • Check whether a dominant competitor has already anchored what your category is allowed to cost, because buyers comparison-shop and won't pay double for feature parity.
  • When choosing a price, cost based and undercut the incumbent are the two ends of the range. Landing between them is a defensible answer.

Where this splits

Zue, Pop, Voloskov and Frantz set their first price from what comparable products charge, while Hillman argues copying a competitor imports a cost structure you cannot see.

4 claims against 1

Chris Frantz · Cory Zue · Florin Pop · Miloslav Voloskov

Take your first price from comparable products already selling

  1. 01Set your first prices from the range comparable products already sell for in the marketplace your buyers use.
  2. 02Set the baseline price by looking at what competitors charge for a comparable thing before you design the ladder above it.
the objection · 1 claimAlex Hillman

Do not copy a rival, their costs are invisible

Do not set prices by copying a competitor, least of all one in another city, because you cannot see their cost base, their tier mix, or the other ways they make money.

  1. 03Set the price at the going rate for the category. Below it the product stops reading as premium, above it buyers expect more than you can deliver.
  2. 04Match the packaging shape of the incumbents you want to appear alongside, which usually means per seat pricing and an annual plan.

What it returned

  • $5

    Zue's $5 to $15 template prices were copied from equivalent Etsy listings he had found during market research.

  • $28

    Thepresence was priced at the market average of $28 a month for exactly that reason.

  • $300

    The two named CRM competitors both sold per user with annual terms, at $300 and $228 of first year revenue for a single seat.

  • 2009

    MailChimp's 2009 freemium tier gave away up to 500 subscribers; Campaign Monitor cut its equivalent plan from $15 to $9 and Campayn copied the free-500 offer outright.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in pricing

all pricing plays

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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