Estratégias de Precificação

What is SaaS Pricing Management?

Q: SaaS vs. traditional pricing: What's the difference?

The primary difference lies in the revenue model: SaaS Pricing is generally based on the subscription model. Users pay for access to the tool over a longer period of time. It helps businesses to secure a consistent revenue stream. Additionally, SaaS pricing can be adjusted to fit customer and market requirements. Traditional pricing consists of one-time purchases of higher values, and it is difficult to change. Also, companies practicing this method tend to request additional payments for services like support.

Autor: Yura Luzhko

What is SaaS pricing management?

SaaS pricing management involves the practices and activities employed by SaaS organizations regarding the determination, modification, and optimization of their subscription pricing plans.

SaaS pricing management aims to align the value offered to the customer and the fluctuations of the market to generate revenue for the SaaS business. This, however, is dependent on the understanding of the customer’s behavior regarding usage, patterns, and feature selection.

When done right, SaaS pricing management is likely to enhance customer acquisition and customer retention.

SaaS vs. traditional pricing: What's the difference?

The primary difference lies in the revenue model:

SaaS Pricing is generally based on the subscription model. Users pay for access to the tool over a longer period of time. It helps businesses to secure a consistent revenue stream. Additionally, SaaS pricing can be adjusted to fit customer and market requirements.
Traditional pricing consists of one-time purchases of higher values, and it is difficult to change. Also, companies practicing this method tend to request additional payments for services like support.

What are common SaaS pricing models?

SaaS pricing models are of multiple types, coming to answer to different SaaS company requirements.

Pricing Straetgy	Descrição	Primary Pro	Primary Con
Assinatura	Regular payment for access (overarching model)	Predictable recurring revenue, customer flexibility	Risco de rotatividade if value is not consistently delivered
Tarifa Fixa	Single price for all features/services	Simple to understand and market	May not cater to diverse needs (leaving money on the table or deterring smaller clients)
em camadas	Multiple packages/levels with distinct feature sets	Caters to different customer segments with varying needs	Can be complex to design and confuse customers
Baseado em Uso	Customer pays based on consumption (e.g., API calls, data storage)	Appeals to customers with fluctuating needs (pay-for-what-you-use)	Unpredictable revenue, customer anxiety about costs
Por Usuário	Price based on the number of individual users	Straightforward for scaling with user growth	Might discourage collaboration/sharing within teams
Por Recurso	Price based on which specific features are unlocked	Increases perceived value, granular customization	Can result in feature silos and limit adoption of the full platform
Freemium	Basic version free, charging for premium features	Attracts a large user base, upselling opportunities	Needs a high conversion rate to paid plans to be sustainable

Key SaaS pricing metrics: How are they used?

SaaS pricing metrics are generally used SaaS metrics, which study revenue from different perspectives:

Métrica	Full Name	Uso principal
MRR	Receita Recorrente Mensal	Assess monthly financial stability and growth trajectory.
ARR	Receita Recorrente Anual	Long-term revenue forecasting and valuation.
CLV	Valor do Tempo de Vida do Cliente	Measure the total revenue expected from a single customer relationship.
NRR	Net Revenue Retention	Measure revenue growth (or loss) from the existing customer base over time (includes upsells/downsells/churn).
taxa de rotatividade	Rate of customer/revenue churn	Identify customer retention issues and assess stability.
CAC	Custo de Aquisição de Cliente	Assess the cost-effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts.

Observação:

Accurate calculation is vital, especially with usage-based or hybrid models, due to their inherent complexities.

How to choose the right pricing unit?

SaaS businesses need to decide on how they want to build their pricing.

This means looking at the key feature from which the pricing method will derive (per user, per usage, per feature).

Once the SaaS company has settled on this aspect, the steps that follow are:

Perform an internal company analysis. This means understanding the product, its features and production costs.
Run a market research. Check your specific industry, competitors and your customers’ willingness to pay.
Select the pricing criteria. Everything that you have discovered when researching internally and externally, needs to be confirm that the feature on which you will set your pricing is the one that delivers value to users.

Dica de Especialista:

Do this pricing assessment for each region you plan to sell and try to adapt your strategy on our findings.

How does market position impact SaaS pricing?

SaaS pricing can be impacted by market position. Here is how:

Market leader: If your Saas company occupies a top position within your industry, premium pricing can be applied.
New entry: If your Saas product is new on the market, consider using penetration pricing, Freemium ou Preços em Camadas to gain more popularity.

Conclusão

SaaS pricing management looks at the entirety of the processes and elements involved in deciding on the appropriate price for your saaS product. Monetizing your offer needs to focus on multiple aspects, from studying the market and target customers to analyzing the production costs and profit expectations.