Even as SaaS exploded after 2010, most pricing models stuck with per-seat logic inherited from the desktop era. This made sense when software was tied to individual machines or user logins. It worked well enough for tools built around personal workflows, like CRM or support platforms, but it began to break down as software became collaborative, API-driven, and AI-native.
Today's teams rely on platforms that support complex workflows and broad internal adoption. And yet:
- Why are teams still paying the same for a power user as for someone who logs in once a month?
- Why are companies still charged by the row or event, even though cloud storage and bandwidth costs have dropped over 80% in the past decade?
- Why do basic security features like SSO or SAML still require an enterprise plan? Securing your data shouldn't be a luxury.
Then there's the cloud itself. Hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and GCP routinely charge 10x to 100x markups on raw compute and storage. These high prices are often masked by temporary credits—but when those run out, the real bill arrives.
Some SaaS companies are challenging the outdated models:
- Slack introduced fair billing, charging only for active users and crediting teams when people become inactive.
- Figma redesigned its seat types in 2025, introducing roles like Full, Dev, Collab, and View, to better reflect how teams actually collaborate.
- Intercom's Fin chatbot charges only when it successfully resolves a support inquiry, aligning price directly with customer success.
- Render adopted a flat-rate per resource model, helping teams predict infrastructure costs and avoid billing surprises.
These companies show what's possible when pricing aligns with value, not tradition. Value-aligned pricing typically means:
- Charging based on usage that correlates to success: messages sent, data analyzed, models trained, workflows automated.
- Offering progressive pricing tiers that grow with usage, not just headcount.
- Bundling essential features (like security, audit logs, integrations) as standard, not upsells.
The SaaS companies that thrive in the next decade will be those that make pricing feel fair, predictable, and tied to what customers actually care about. They'll be the ones who remember: pricing is a product. And great products are built around value.
At Altertable, we're building toward that future. Data ingestion is cheap because this is not how you get value from data; and it's cheap for us too! You choose how much compute you want, how fast queries should run, and whether to pay dynamically or on a flat monthly basis. Security is always included.
If pricing still feels like it was designed for 2015, that's because it probably was. Time to move forward.
