
Startup Credits – Free/discounted plans for startups - dakshshah96
https://github.com/dakshshah96/awesome-startup-credits
======
avolcano
Postmark has the most interesting credit IMO, even if it's not a particularly
huge one:

> Postmark - If you’ve launched your product, are charging for it, and haven’t
> taken outside investment, contact the Postmark support team and they'll give
> you $75 account credit to help with your email costs.

A lot of these discounts are based on the assumption that you're a VC-backed,
or about-to-be-VC-backed startup, that will have enough runway and growth to
stick around for a couple years, and will smoothly transition from a steep
discount to a 4-digit monthly bill around the time you land your Series A or
whatever. I like Postmark's because it's much more reasonable - "you _don't_
have VC money, but you have an obvious path to making money (and thus being
able to pay us), so we'll give you some credit for free as you get up and
running."

I've been totally freeloading for a side project of mine that I _don't_ expect
to make any money, but in researching cheap plans I came across a lot of these
sorts of discounts (usually while looking to see if they had an open source
discount, since my side project is open source). It's an interesting gamble,
but I respect Postmark's the most, I think.

~~~
danpalmer
I also like how it's credit rather than a time-limited plan. Some projects
might not take off in 3-months? 12? Especially if it's 1 person working in
their spare time, having a bunch of trials running out is pressure you don't
need.

Credit on the other hand runs out when you actually use it, so is much more
likely to coincide with you being ready to pay for the service.

~~~
shimms
> Credit on the other hand runs out when you actually use it, so is much more
> likely to coincide with you being ready to pay for the service.

Most have an expiry on them. A credit is (typically) a liability on the
balance sheet, so companies can't have unlimited exposure weighing down their
book value.

If credits expire after a certain amount of time, or are time limited in their
offer, such as discounts for 12 months, there isn't the same exposure to
potentially unlimited liabilities in non-expiring credits.

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saasbuyer
If you’re in need of SaaS that does not have a “for startups” program, I’m
happy to help buy it at a discount, for free (I make commission from the
vendors): [https://vendr.co/startups](https://vendr.co/startups)

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potatofarmer45
F6S also has a similar list
[https://www.f6s.com/deals](https://www.f6s.com/deals).

In particular the hosting credits really lets you play around with dev without
breaking the bank.

In most cases startups utilize AWS and GCP and they are generally really good,
but both DO's Hatch and IBM a lot of people are missing out.

DO is awesome for startups without really good devops since they streamline a
lot of the config work so it helps a lot getting the basics set up. We have a
lot our free user plans on DO because it's much more cost effective and
predictable (pricing wise) than AWS and GC.

IBM is also useful in a different use case because of their easy to setup
dedicated hardware servers. 10k per month buys a lot of dedicated hardware
(esp GPU) if you need it which is a godsend for us since we do a lot of ML and
performance is dramatically better than any of the g/p instances on AWS.

~~~
yazr
Thank you for mentioning the IBM plan.

How hard was it to move from the Builder to the Premium plan? It looks pretty
amazing. Though i probably wouldnt want to host a netflix-type app on an IBM
cloud. Shudder... ;)

~~~
potatofarmer45
as in from the 1k plan to 10k per month? You're supposed to be in an
"approved" accelerator to get it, but in reality if you pester the reps, they
will move you up.

By rep what I mean is IBM has a network of people who go out and evangelize
their offerings. They are the people who vet the original applications and if
you live in a large city with a decent tech scene, you'll eventually run into
that person.

First time I did it, I wasn't on the approved accelerator the local rep moved
me up after I convinced him how cool it be for us to be "powered by IBM
softlayer", as it was known back then

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nathan_f77
This is a really helpful list! I didn't know that I could get a year of
Zendesk for free [1], or a year of Intercom at $49/mo [2].

I'm using Drift for live chat, but I want to switch to Intercom or Zendesk to
have support tickets (or "team inbox"), and a help center / knowledge base.

I saw that Intercom is much more expensive than Zendesk, but noticed that most
startups use them. Saw this on their marketing site: "84% of new Y Combinator
companies that use a messaging tool use Intercom."

Would be interested to hear some opinions on Zendesk vs. Intercom.

[1] [https://www.zendesk.com/startups](https://www.zendesk.com/startups)

[2] [https://www.intercom.com/early-stage](https://www.intercom.com/early-
stage)

~~~
IMAYousaf
Hello.

I would suggest taking a look at Crisp.

I find it very intuitive and useful. More power isn't always needed.

[https://crisp.chat/en/](https://crisp.chat/en/)

~~~
nathan_f77
Interesting, I had never heard of them before. That's very affordable pricing.

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cyberferret
A great list. As a founder of a bootstrapped SaaS, I am always on the lookout
for discounted startup plans, and am amazed at how hard it is to find this
information.

For instance, we had been using the free edition of HubSpot (mentioned in this
list) for about 6 months, and it wasn't until we spoke to support about a
problem that a return callback from a sales rep mentioned that they have a 90%
discount on their paid plans for a year. It was a no brainer to unlock the
full suite for around $140 a month as opposed to $1500/mo. Their discount is
stepped over 3 years too (so you don't pay full price until the 3rd year).

Wish more companies had similar initiatives. Also, I don't know why a lot of
companies offer 'startup discounts' only to _funded_ companies. I would think
that a company that just received a cool million dollars from a VC could
afford to pay full tote odds, whereas a bootstrapped company that has to eke
out an existence from a small, growing subscriber base cannot get a discount
to help cashflow?

~~~
HelloFellowDevs
I believe it's under the assumption that you (a funded start up) will be
around longer than something that might go under and not worth eating the cost
of the discount without the pay off of a full price subscription later.

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lhendre
Really nice list. As a startup person, I try to keep track of these. I also
try to keep track of the time lines, so if necessary I can switch service
providers as credits come close to expire(unless they have really impressed
me). AWS only lasts a year, azure usually lasts a year but you can get it
extended as well.

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so_tired
When is a good time to apply to AWS/GCP credits?

Before you take pre-seed funding - no references, just a web site and some
traffic.

After a 6-figure pre-seed? (Is the start-up credits still available?)

Also, do AWS/GCP require exclusivity wrt to other clouds ?

~~~
manigandham
The earlier the better. None of them have exclusivity but they do have
requirements on funding. If you already raised too much it can be problematic,
or if you're already a paying customer them switching to credits might require
extra work.

Sometimes they require you to have a VC or accelerator intro for the higher
tiers but you may be able to get around it if you know the right people.

~~~
jjeaff
GCP has a regular small startup program that doesn’t require that you have VC
funding or specific accelerator backing. It isn’t nearly as much, but I got
$1000 on top of the initial $300 for my bootstrap.

~~~
xenospn
I need that! Who do I talk to?

~~~
jjeaff
I applied here:
[https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/apply/](https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/apply/)

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jacquesm
That is a neat and very useful list that I'll be sure to pass around. I'll
also add a little email to the effect that these are all companies that have
alternatives and that the whole goal of these 'free' or discounted plans is to
get you locked in to some product.

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ravieira
Thank you so much for this. I have small company and we try to be very spartan
with costs and sometimes have to go by without some very important services.

The Zendesk one is the most needed right now!

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ai_ia
Off the topic, does anyone know how to get free AWS Credits without having VC
support?

I am about to launch something and I really require AWS Credits for that.
Thanks

~~~
scrollaway
Sign up for Brex. Or use Stripe Atlas to create your company.

You can also apply to aws activate. They will be glad to give you credits if
you make a solid case that you'll end up using aws a bunch.

~~~
ai_ia
AWS Activate is designed for startups in select accelerators, incubators,
Seed/VC Funds, and other startup-enabling organizations.

I have looked into Stripe Atlas but it has a bit of complications regarding
Double Taxation for Indian startups. I am just a guy working alone on this
project so I don't want to deal with those tax related issues.

Will checkout Brex. Thanks

~~~
scrollaway
Activate is not only for such accelerators. My previous bootstrapped company
got in, it just took some negotiating.

~~~
ai_ia
I took the sentence from their website. I will apply if they are open for
negotiation. Thanks.

