An early-stage startup picks its pricing from 4 models: cost-plus (cost plus margin, the accounting baseline), value-based (price tied to the economic value you create for the customer, ideal for B2B SaaS), tier-based (2 or 3 plans for a market with established conventions) and usage-based (billing per event, per seat or per API call). According to the Maxio 2025 report, usage-based pricing already covers 20% of SaaS products in production, and that share grows every quarter. The right model depends on your segment, how mature your market is and the value metric your product moves.
To set a first price without data, the simplest protocol is the pricing power test over 10 sales: if nobody says no, you're underpricing; if more than 50% say no, you're overpricing. As a benchmark, aim for a rejection rate between 20 and 40%. To calibrate your starting range, 6 public pricing pages from French SaaS companies (Lemlist, Pennylane, Aircall, Akeneo, Lago, Spendesk) give you concrete reference points for each model. Pricing is a decision you make upfront, just like the product.
Why you often get your first price wrong
The typical scenario: a team comes out of an accelerator program with a product that works, the first customer signs at €99/month because "that's what the competitor charges", and six months later the team finds out that competitor loses money on every account.
Pricing is one of the few early-stage decisions founders make on gut feeling. Three traps account for most of the mistakes.
The "I'll copy the competitor" trap
Copying a competitor means adopting their cost structure, their margins, their early mistakes and their market constraints without understanding any of them. The competitor you're watching may be sacrificing pricing to grow fast and raising rounds to cover the monthly deficit. You have no way of knowing.
Their price tells you where the market's psychological ceiling sits. It tells you nothing about what your price should be. Calibrate on their range, never on their exact number.
The "my cost + 30%" trap
Cost-plus guarantees your margin. Its flaw: it ignores the value the customer gets from the product. A tool that generates an extra €50k of pipeline per month for a team of 5 salespeople shouldn't cost €99/month just because it costs €68 to deliver. The cost-plus-margin formula works for commodities. For a differentiated B2B SaaS, it consistently leaves value on the table.
The "I'll update it later" trap
"Temporary" pricing sticks around: your first 10 customers become the benchmark for everyone who follows. Early adopters talk to each other. Every price increase turns into a churn event instead of a natural evolution, because you anchored the reference too low from day one. Starting low to "validate" often costs more than making a solid pricing decision upfront.
The 4 pricing methods (and when to use each)
1. Cost-plus (cost + margin), the accounting baseline
You calculate the full cost of delivery (infrastructure, support, proportional overhead) and add a target margin of 30 to 70% depending on the sector. It's the default model for agencies, managed services and low-differentiation products.
Use it in a mature market with established pricing conventions, or until you have the data to calculate the value you create for customers. It's a starting point you should leave as soon as you can measure that value.
Its critical limitation: your delivery cost will drop (cheaper infrastructure, automation), and if you're anchored in cost-plus, you won't capture the extra value you create. You end up permanently underpricing as your product improves.
2. Value-based (cost avoided or revenue created), the B2B SaaS ideal
You start from the economic value your product generates for the customer (time saved, churn reduced, extra revenue) and set the price at a fraction of that value. A common benchmark: 10 to 30% of the measurable economic value. If your product sells self-serve rather than through a sales team, your pricing is part of a product-led growth strategy, where the pricing page itself does the conversion work.
Use it when you can measure impact (ROI, hours saved, leads generated). It's the dominant model in B2B SaaS: your software replaces a manual process or improves a conversion funnel.
Founders avoid it because quantifying value takes in-depth conversations with customers, and the exercise is uncomfortable. The result: you default to cost-plus. Yet that's exactly where the margin is hiding.
3. Tier-based (2 or 3 plans), when the market already has its conventions
You offer 2 or 3 distinct plans with different features or usage limits. The middle plan is designed to be the one most buyers pick (classic anchoring). Beyond 3 plans, the decision gets harder for the buyer. Below 2 (flat rate), you lose the anchoring effect.
Use it when the market already understands this model (most SMB-focused B2B SaaS), or when you have several ICP profiles with distinct budgets and usage patterns.
4. Usage-based (event, seat or API call), the 2026 shift
The customer pays for what they consume: emails sent, active seats, API calls, enriched contacts. According to Maxio, 20% of SaaS companies were already on a pure usage-based model in 2025, a share that has grown steadily since 2023. The model has become accessible thanks to tools like Lago, which let you implement it without a dedicated engineering team.
Use it when value correlates directly with usage (infrastructure, data, enrichment), or when you target enterprise accounts that want to control their budget and avoid fixed commitments.
The catch: usage-based pricing makes revenue less predictable. Set a monthly minimum (floor) to secure your baseline MRR.
How to set your first price when you have no data
The "pricing power" test over 10 sales (0% rejection = too low, >50% = too high)
The protocol fits in 4 steps: set a first price, pitch 10 qualified prospects within your ICP, count the rejections caused by price (as opposed to product or timing), and adjust in 20% increments.
- 0 to 20% rejection: you're underpricing. Raise the price by 20 to 30%.
- 20 to 40% rejection: the optimal zone. You maximize volume without sacrificing margin.
- Over 50% rejection: you're overpricing or targeting the wrong segment. Lower the price or refocus your ICP.
A secondary signal: if everyone accepts without negotiating, your problem goes beyond price and comes down to positioning. A well-positioned product generates objections. A total absence of price objections often signals fuzzy perceived value.
The 10x rule: minimum price = 1/10 of the value generated
If your tool saves 5 hours a week for a salesperson whose fully loaded cost is €6k/month (€37.50/hour), you generate roughly €2,400/month in time value. Your price floor: €240/month. Below that, you leave margin on the table. Above €720/month (30% of the value), you'll face ROI pushback on every deal.
The 10x rule applies to B2B SaaS, where value is measurable and recurring. B2C and commodity products work on different mechanics.
Should you display your price or ask prospects to request a quote?
Display it if you target SMBs: short sales cycle, individual decision-maker, no multi-level approval. Switch to "request a quote" if you target enterprise: long cycle, customization, multi-stakeholder negotiation.
The hybrid structure, the most common in B2B SaaS: SMB plans displayed + Enterprise plan on quote. It captures self-serve at the lower end of the market while keeping flexibility at the top. Practical advice: if you're unsure, display the price first. A B2B SMB website with no pricing drives visitors away.
6 public pricing pages from French startups (worth studying)
Rather than theorizing, let's look at what SaaS companies in production actually do. Six examples, each using a different model.
Lemlist: 3 per-seat tiers
Lemlist (B2B cold outreach) offers 3 plans (Standard, Pro, Outreach Scale) with per-seat pricing. Each tier unlocks additional automation features: multichannel sequences, A/B testing, advanced CRM integrations. The middle plan is designed to convert teams of 2 to 5 salespeople.
Lemlist started with a flat rate, then moved to tier-based pricing as customer usage diversified, basing the tiers on observed usage. Source: lemlist.com/pricing
Pennylane: per-user + modules
Pennylane (French accounting software) combines per-user pricing with add-on modules. This hybrid model reaches both solopreneurs (1 user, minimal modules) and accounting firms (multiple users, advanced modules) with a single consistent pricing grid. The per-user + modules approach works when usage varies widely across customer profiles. Source: pennylane.com/fr/tarifs
Aircall: per-seat with an annual commitment
Aircall (cloud telephony) displays 3 plans (Essentials, Professional, Custom), priced per seat with a mandatory annual commitment. That commitment is a deliberate choice: it reduces monthly churn and makes MRR more predictable, at the cost of some friction at signing. If your sales cycle runs longer than 30 days, an annual commitment can be justified from the start. Source: aircall.io/pricing
Akeneo: enterprise value-based (price on request)
Akeneo (enterprise PIM) doesn't display prices: a contact form replaces the pricing grid. Leaving prices off is a positioning choice. At this level of the market (five-figure annual enterprise contracts), value varies enough with the product catalog, channels and integrations that a displayed price would be counterproductive. "Price on request" signals a consultative sale, with ROI calculated customer by customer. Source: akeneo.com/compare-packages
Lago: usage-based open-core
Lago (open-source billing infrastructure) offers 3 plans: Self-Hosted Free, Cloud Premium (usage-based on Lago Cloud) and Enterprise (custom). The free self-hosted version is an acquisition strategy: teams that outgrow their DIY setup migrate to Cloud or Enterprise. This is the open-core model in its purest form. You give away the core value to create functional dependency, then monetize convenience or complexity. Source: getlago.com/pricing
Spendesk: per-seat B2B finance
Spendesk (B2B spend management) shows how a finance SaaS aligns its pricing with team size: a per-seat model with tiers differentiated by features (virtual cards, advanced reporting, ERP integrations). The instructive part: in the finance vertical, per-seat pricing grows ARR as the customer's team grows, without renegotiating the base contract. Expansion revenue follows.
When and how to raise your prices
The 3 signals for a price increase (margin, demand, added value)
Three situations justify a price increase, and they often show up together:
- Margin signal: your gross margin drops below 60-65% (the B2B SaaS benchmark). Your price needs to compensate.
- Demand signal: you've closed 80% or more of your deals with no price friction for 3 months. The pricing power test tells you you're in the underpriced zone.
- Value signal: you've shipped a significant feature or proven a measurable ROI that your price didn't reflect. The value has gone up, so the price should follow.
When all three hit at once, the increase is urgent.
How to announce a price increase without mass churn
The minimum protocol for a clean increase:
- Notice: 45 to 60 days before it takes effect.
- Justification: one sentence on what has changed (a major feature, more value delivered). Skip the apologies and the "sorry for the inconvenience".
- Long-term opt-in: offer to lock in the current price if they switch to annual billing before the deadline.
Churn after a price increase rarely comes from the amount itself. It comes from the communication: too short, too abrupt, with no explanation. Customers understand the value if you explain what they've received.
Grandfathering: what to offer early customers
Grandfathering (keeping legacy pricing for existing customers) creates an "early adopter" status that drives loyalty and referrals. Its limitation: if your early customers make up a significant share of your ARR at a discounted price, grandfathering becomes a CAC/LTV problem as you grow.
Rule of thumb: grandfather for 6 to 12 months maximum, then increase gradually with notice. A commonly used middle ground: grandfather customers on their current plan, and apply new pricing to any upgrade.
FAQ: Startup pricing
Should you offer freemium at the early stage?
Freemium has a hidden cost: you serve free users who will never convert, which weighs on support, infrastructure and product focus. Before you've reached solid product-market fit, freemium scatters your energy. If you can't explain exactly which trigger turns a free user into a paying one, and how long it takes, skip freemium. A time-limited free trial (14 days) is often more effective at the early stage: it creates urgency without generating ongoing costs.
How do you price a B2B product vs a B2C product?
In B2B, price is a rational decision: ROI, budget, approval cycle. You can justify a high price if you quantify the value you create. In B2C, it's an emotional, comparative decision, where the reference point is the competitor's price on the App Store. A B2B SaaS at €500/month is ordinary. A B2C SaaS at €50/month already feels expensive. Acceptable models, tolerable margins and decision cycles are fundamentally different, so don't carry your benchmarks over from one segment to the other.
Public pricing or price on request for Enterprise?
If your average contract exceeds €12k per year, price on request is often the better fit: it lets you customize by scope and handle multi-level negotiations without locking yourself into public grids that weaken your position in large deals. Below €12k per year, public pricing speeds up self-serve and lowers your acquisition cost. The hybrid structure (SMB plans displayed + Enterprise on quote) covers both segments without sacrificing either.
How many pricing plans should you offer?
Two or three. Two if your market splits into two clear profiles (startups or large accounts). Three if you have a mid-market segment to capture, with the middle plan designed as the "default" option. Beyond three plans, choice paralysis lowers your conversion rate. Below two (flat rate), you lose the anchoring effect and the natural upsell path to the higher plan.
Want to go further on your GTM model? Find your first customers or read how to validate an idea before you build. swanbase supports early-stage founders for the long haul, in Paris and remotely: €0, by application.
