This part caught my eye, though: "we were honest with them. We let them know that implementing that would mean addition cost for us , but would still do it if they were ready to pay a subscription fee".
That's a common early feeling, and one that I've had as well. But you need to completely and forever abandon cost-based pricing if you're going to thrive (find your best customers) as a subscription web app. The task of figuring out what your web app is really WORTH to your customers rather than what it costs you to operate is the key to high profitability and happy customers co-existing.
The worth/value of your app is a percentage of the surplus of success it creates for its users, where success is defined by the user.
Agree 100%. It's really none of your customers' business how much it costs you to run or do things. If people are complaining to you that you're charging for things that are cheap (ie. "that's only a record in a database" or "google does it for free") then those aren't the customers you want.
Sometimes it's right to charge for something that took you 1 minute to write, and sometimes it's right to give away a feature that took weeks of development. It all comes down to what makes the most sense for your business.
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Refreshing, honest, well said.
This part caught my eye, though: "we were honest with them. We let them know that implementing that would mean addition cost for us , but would still do it if they were ready to pay a subscription fee".
That's a common early feeling, and one that I've had as well. But you need to completely and forever abandon cost-based pricing if you're going to thrive (find your best customers) as a subscription web app. The task of figuring out what your web app is really WORTH to your customers rather than what it costs you to operate is the key to high profitability and happy customers co-existing.
The worth/value of your app is a percentage of the surplus of success it creates for its users, where success is defined by the user.
Agree 100%. It's really none of your customers' business how much it costs you to run or do things. If people are complaining to you that you're charging for things that are cheap (ie. "that's only a record in a database" or "google does it for free") then those aren't the customers you want.
Sometimes it's right to charge for something that took you 1 minute to write, and sometimes it's right to give away a feature that took weeks of development. It all comes down to what makes the most sense for your business.