
Why are web tools/services so expensive? - paulpauper
It seems like web-based software programs have gotten so expensive. This includes things like diagnostics, uptime monitoring, mobile phone emulators, and other SAAS products  etc.  Often there is a free trial but it is very lacking and in order for it to be useful, they require payment, but it is so expensive. $100&#x2F;month for one month or $40&#x2F;month if you sign up for 400 months or some lame gimmick like that. Are web service apps that costly to develop that it costs 4-10x as much as a Netflix subscription?
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mtmail
Development + marketing + support + offset the free users. For some complex
tools it's not profitable to offer $5/month plans. A single support request
would wipe the profit made for that user. So would chasing invoices or any
non-standard setup like dealing with purchase order forms or manual invoicing.
My experience running a SaaS is that most support and questions come from the
lowest pricing tier offered.

> Often there is a free trial but it is very lacking and in order for it to be
> useful

Free trial and most of freemium is to drive sales. The incremental cost of
running the service (servers, storage, network etc) is minimal for 100 extra
free users. Each one having 1 interaction with the support team is the cost to
worry about.

That said I wish more companies had $10 or $20 plans myself (my SaaS doesn't).
Don't shy away from asking for a discount code or if there are unpublishes
plans, e.g. for students, academia.

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gregjor
Price is based on demand, competition, value, not on amortizing development
cost.

Some services are costly to develop, market, and operate. Some aren’t.
Customer support requires people, and people don’t work for free. A small
number of customers can create a large customer service load.

Either the services are worth it to their customers or they aren’t. I use a
lot of web services, they are a cost of doing business and usually deductible
from taxes.

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RNCTX
Because the nature of greed is to demand the most payment for the smallest
amount of work, and capitalist economies encourage greed?

