The hottest Pricing Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Pricing power, revisited

Asian Century Stocks • 314 implied HN points • 26 Oct 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Companies can raise prices by making customers feel positive about a purchase.
  2. Economic moats give companies the power to raise prices without losing business to competitors.
  3. Lowering the risk or perceived pain of purchase, creating positive emotions, and promoting a sense of community are key pricing strategies for successful companies.

AI Pricing Strategy 101: How to Use ChatGPT, Claude & Perplexity for Pricing Research — AI-powered refresh of your successful pricing frameworks post

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 10 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Use each AI tool for its strength — Perplexity for fast market research, Claude for customer psychology and messaging, and ChatGPT for scenario math and modeling so your pricing work is faster and more accurate.
  2. Shift from effort-based to value-based pricing — charge for the customer impact and outcomes you deliver, not the hours you spent, and let AI help quantify and communicate that value.
  3. AI streamlines the pricing workflow by summarizing competitors, simulating tough customers, and running pricing scenarios, and you can automate much of this with ready-to-use prompts.

How To Create Life-Changing Events: 5 Timeless Rules

America 2.0 (by Gary Sheng) • 137 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Aim to create a memorable event experience that elevates attendees' lives and makes them feel it was time well spent.
  2. Curate a great guest list for your event to ensure a positive atmosphere and provide opportunities for valuable connections among attendees.
  3. Design each moment of your event meticulously, from initial promotion to follow-up, ensuring thoughtful details that make attendees feel valued and create lasting impressions.

☁ God Bless Klaviyo

Hard Mode by Breaking SaaS • 235 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Klaviyo's efficiency is part of their success with a high CAC Payback and low burn rate.
  2. Klaviyo's strong NRR of 119% is driven by price increases, customer contact growth, and new product launches.
  3. Klaviyo, as a purpose-built SaaS platform, combines data analytics and marketing to offer a unique solution.
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How to make PLG + SLG work in the AI era

Good Better Best • 2 implied HN points • 13 Feb 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. PLG and SLG are not separate — design your product and contract journey so customers can flow between self-serve and sales-led experiences without friction.
  2. Prioritize flexibility in packaging and pricing, using committed-spend or credit models so customers can scale up and you avoid constant re-contracting.
  3. Align systems and finance: unify billing, CPQ, and reporting and treat professional services as an on-demand, billable product so expansion stays measurable and low-friction.

Instacart's price discrimination isn't price discrimination

Economic Forces • 15 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Different price changes have different causes and effects: A/B tests, strategic randomization, dynamic supply-and-demand adjustments, and true price discrimination are not the same thing.
  2. The Instacart example looked like randomized A/B testing rather than pricing based on shoppers’ personal data, so treating every price change as evidence of algorithmic profiling confuses what might happen with what actually happened.
  3. Price discrimination isn’t automatically bad — it can raise output and sometimes help consumers, especially under competition — and banning price experiments won’t necessarily make consumers better off because low-price periods can outweigh high-price losses.

How to have "the talk" with your customers

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 607 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Increase ACV by asking customers about willingness-to-pay without directly asking for a specific price.
  2. Understand that ACV growth involves price increases, product expansion, and knowing what customers value.
  3. As your business scales, consider factors like pricing, packaging, and customer willingness to pay to optimize revenue.

What would a $2,000-a-month ChatGPT look like?

Enterprise AI Trends • 168 implied HN points • 19 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Pricing
  1. The future of AI will see two main pricing categories: low-end for general users and high-end for specialized, enterprise-focused users. There's not much room in the middle.
  2. High-end AI products will need to be built on strong industry knowledge and proprietary data to be successful. This means startups might struggle to compete.
  3. AI companies can charge a lot because their products provide immense value in competitive fields, where even a small advantage can lead to big profits.

5 ways to reframe your pricing and packaging

Good Better Best • 3 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Order and design of your pricing page shape buyer behavior — put the plan or add‑on you want customers to choose in prime real estate to boost signups or upsells.
  2. Frame higher tiers around outcomes, not just volume — position features like AI assistants or ongoing services as work the product does for the customer to justify premium pricing.
  3. Set sensible defaults and packaging to reduce friction and increase commitment — use annual defaults, clearer credit allotments, and well‑placed add‑ons to simplify buying and grow recurring revenue.

How SaaS Pricing Changed in 2025

Good Better Best • 3 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. SaaS firms focused heavily on packaging in 2025, with adding new plans being the single most common change.
  2. Credit-based pricing models surged about 126% year over year, making credits a much more popular monetization tool.
  3. AI features became a much bigger share of product roadmaps, rising roughly fourfold since Q1 2024.

New this week: Lovable, Datadog, Canva and more

Good Better Best • 2 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Lots of companies adjusted pricing, plans, and product limits this week—there were price increases, plan restructures, new plans, and capacity/feature changes across the market.
  2. Many vendors are expanding into adjacent products and enterprise features to become full platforms and win bigger deals, using new features and managed services to drive higher contract value.
  3. Firms are balancing broad free access with paid monetization by democratizing AI features at lower tiers while gating higher usage or unlimited access for paid plans.

Season 11 starts next week

Mehdeeka • 3 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Season 11 of the email series starts next week and will run for 12 weeks before taking another break.
  2. Three resources were shared: a curation of moon-landing-era ads, a Threads trend showing narrative-driven product placement that sparks curiosity, and a new TikTok aimed at junior product marketers.
  3. A two-afternoon online pricing workshop is being offered for $600 AUD (Mehketeers get 10% off with code MEHKETEERFOREVER) for anyone needing to update pricing pages, sales decks, new product pricing, or to learn pricing fundamentals.

Can PLG beat Salesforce?

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 599 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Product-led growth is disrupting many software categories, but CRM remains dominated by traditional players.
  2. Attio successfully launched a product-led growth CRM platform after three years of development, achieving rapid customer adoption.
  3. Attio strategically designed their pricing and packaging, experimented with freemium pricing, and focused on customer engagement for user acquisition.

5 ways to be customer friendly

Good Better Best • 3 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Meet customers where they already are by adding integrations and channels so they can use your product without switching platforms.
  2. Remove pricing friction and be transparent by offering public price-matching or ‘starts at’ enterprise pricing so prospects get a clear ballpark.
  3. Give customers flexibility and room to grow by adding more payment options and much higher usage limits so they won’t hit arbitrary barriers while experimenting.

How you package is how you sell

Good Better Best • 3 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Product-led and sales-led motions don’t compete — they complement each other. Build systems that connect product usage to pricing so both acquisition and monetization can scale together.
  2. Pick pricing metrics that pass two simple tests: customers feel you earn more of their wallet as they grow, and a sales rep can explain the metric in about 15 seconds. Apply the same clarity to secondary usage metrics to make upgrades obvious.
  3. Limits are the connective tissue between self-serve and enterprise — they create signals and opportunities to nudge customers or involve sales. Make limits observable with telemetry and automate product notices and sales alerts so you can act when usage spikes.

[Re-Post] Costs, Competition, and Prices that Don't Clear the Market

Economic Forces • 4 implied HN points • 15 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. People and firms think about costs as opportunity costs measured in present value, so choices depend on the full stream of future costs and benefits, not just today’s price.
  2. Firms often keep prices stable or use lotteries and loyalty allocations to avoid creating search costs and to protect future demand, preferring reliability over squeezing short-run revenue.
  3. Employers respond to temporary labor shortages with one-time bonuses or short-term measures because they factor future wage paths into hiring costs, avoiding permanent wage raises that would raise the present value of labor costs.

Your guide to PLG pricing 201

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 449 implied HN points • 12 Apr 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Pricing for PLG products should focus on team monetization, not just individual users.
  2. Pay attention to the admin experience in PLG pricing to facilitate bottom-up growth within organizations.
  3. Offer value that attracts high-value customers and encourages them to grow with your product.

Permissions Required to Migrate to the New Simplified Pricing Model in Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 59 implied HN points • 07 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Pricing
  1. To migrate to the new simplified pricing model in Microsoft Sentinel, you need specific permissions like "Microsoft.OperationsManagement/solutions/write" on the "SecurityInsights(<workspace name>)" solution resource.
  2. Support is considering updating documentation or the built-in role for easier migration to the new pricing model.
  3. Stay updated on resolving the permission issue by following the provided links to Microsoft Security Insights show and joining the MSI Show Discord Server.

Ancova Energy Markets Update

Ancova • 58 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
💰 Finance Pricing
  1. Crude oil prices are holding up despite increased U.S. storage, supported by Asian demand and high U.S. exports.
  2. U.S. O&G rig count decreased, with oil rigs taking a major hit while natural gas rigs increased slightly.
  3. Natural gas prices are rising due to colder temperatures, lower production, and increased LNG output, impacting both demand and pricing.

Ancova Energy Market Update

Ancova • 58 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Crude oil prices are rising due to various factors like weak U.S. dollar and decreased inventory.
  2. U.S. oil and gas rig count shows fluctuations across different basins and sectors.
  3. Natural gas market faces challenges with mild demand, impacting prices and regional cash prices.

10 Years of Solo Consulting (Part 2)

burkhardstubert • 79 implied HN points • 08 Jul 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. It's important to charge more for strategic advice compared to implementation work. Clients often don't realize the value they get from your expertise, so it's beneficial to price according to the value you create.
  2. Using productized services can save time and increase income. These services combine a standard product with a small amount of customization for each client, allowing you to charge more consistently.
  3. Setting your own payment terms can lead to better cash flow and less hassle. By charging clients upfront or setting clear rules about payments, you can avoid the stress of late payments and complicated contracts.

This Week: OpenAI, Figma, Calendly

Good Better Best • 4 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. OpenAI made Projects free for all ChatGPT users, pushing a habit-forming feature downstream to boost engagement, stickiness, and likely retention that can be monetized later.
  2. Figma set explicit AI credit limits (150/day, 500/month), following a daily-cap + monthly-ceiling play that trades near-term margin for platform growth, but the proliferation of different credit systems risks confusing customers and causing credit fatigue.
  3. Calendly moved its AI Notetaker out of beta and joins a wide race to own meeting transcripts and summaries, since notes are highly sticky and embed tools into workflows; pricing and packaging of these features will reveal each company’s strategy.

Ski Lift Pricing and the Lessons from Vail’s Challenge

Gad’s Newsletter • 70 implied HN points • 13 Jan 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Skiing in the U.S. is becoming very expensive and often feels exclusive. Many ski resorts focus on making money rather than being inclusive to all skiers.
  2. The Epic Pass has changed how skiing works by giving access to multiple resorts. However, this has led to long wait times and overcrowded slopes, making the skiing experience less enjoyable.
  3. In Europe, ski resorts are often more affordable and competitive, allowing more people to enjoy skiing. This makes skiing feel less like a luxury and more accessible for everyone.

Lending Protocol Taxonomy, part 2: Interest Rates

David’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
💰 Finance Pricing
  1. Interest rates in lending protocols are usually quoted as annualized percentage rate (APR) or yield (APY).
  2. Different pricing mechanisms in lending protocols include orderbook pricing, utilization-based pricing, auctions, and manual/governance-led pricing.
  3. Protocols like Ajna and Tazz introduce innovative ways to set interest rates without relying on oracles, enabling unique functionalities.

Roast #21: V3 - Quantity: 50

thoughtfulcoffee • 39 implied HN points • 28 Mar 23
🍲 Food & Drink Pricing
  1. Coffee Club V3 is offering three unique coffee blends in limited quantity.
  2. The goals for this release include making 50 sales, scaling roast profiles, and hosting pop-up events.
  3. The pricing has increased due to more expensive green beans, with a discount available before April 7.

Fair Price Theory

Tom Thought • 39 implied HN points • 26 May 23
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Every good or service has a fair price, whether it's labor dependent on skill or a product based on cost of parts and labor.
  2. There is no definitive 'fair' price, only the market price determined by what people are willing to pay.
  3. Value of a product depends on consumer demand, not just on the labor or materials that went into it. Pay isn't determined solely by skill, but by usefulness and rarity of the skill in demand.

What I'm doing in GTM as B2B SaaS founder as of Dec 25

nonamevc • 4 implied HN points • 01 Dec 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Finding the right pricing strategy is key. It helps to define your product's position and understand customer willingness to pay.
  2. Using multiple channels for outreach lets you see what works best. Experimenting with content, LinkedIn presence, and cold outreach can help attract your first customers.
  3. Engaging authentically and sharing real experiences builds trust. Writing from a personal perspective and participating in niche communities can create stronger connections.

Don’t Sell Yourself Cheap

Build To Scale • 19 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
💼 Business Pricing
  1. When pricing software, focus on value over cost. It's vital to find the right balance and not undervalue your product.
  2. Adapt pricing based on customer segments. Small businesses and larger enterprises have different budgets and needs, so consider offering various editions or plans.
  3. Avoid commodity pricing and aim for a pricing model customers can easily understand. Make sure pricing generates positive margins and evolves with your company.

5 Pricing Ideas to Steal this Week

Good Better Best • 2 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Use AI usage limits and subtle price differences to nudge customers into preferred plans. Adjusting discounts and per-feature limits can reshuffle plan value without big visible price changes.
  2. Simplify your plan lineup and clearly position the remaining plans to reduce friction. Consolidating plans and using value-driven banners helps customers pick the plan that fits them.
  3. Offer flexible monetization like seasonal seats and temporary usage boosts to match customer needs and improve retention. Creative promotions that add value for existing customers can drive goodwill without changing contracted prices.

All the Lonely Travelers: A Requiem for the Solo Flyer

Gad’s Newsletter • 23 implied HN points • 16 Jun 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Solo travelers often pay more for flights compared to those traveling in groups, even if there's no official 'loneliness tax.' Airlines use complex pricing strategies that can charge individuals higher rates because they know they have less flexibility and urgency.
  2. Airlines are really good at using price discrimination to maximize profits. They adjust prices based on how many people are booking and when, often charging solo flyers more because they have less price sensitivity compared to groups or families that can book in advance.
  3. Traveling solo can come with hidden costs, like being unable to share expenses with others. While flying alone is liberating, it can also become less efficient and more expensive compared to flying with others.

The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Pricing Pages

Good Better Best • 4 implied HN points • 14 Nov 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. A good pricing page needs to be clear and simple. It should help visitors understand what they will pay and what they will get in under a minute.
  2. Include key sections like a hero, pricing menu, feature comparison, and FAQ. These help guide potential customers through their decision-making process.
  3. Having clear calls to action in your pricing menu is important. Visitors should know exactly what steps to take after seeing the pricing options.

The Transformer Playbook (with Metronome CEO Scott Woody)

Good Better Best • 2 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. The shift from seat-based pricing to usage-based pricing is crucial for companies adopting AI. Charging based on usage aligns the price with the value delivered to customers.
  2. Legacy SaaS companies can benefit from existing distribution when launching AI features. By leveraging their customer base, they can quickly grow and adapt to new market demands.
  3. Successful transitions to new pricing models often start with experimentation. Companies can first launch AI features as add-ons before fully integrating them into their offerings.

How do companies react to geoeconomic pressures?

Klement on Investing • 3 implied HN points • 19 Nov 25
💼 Business Pricing
  1. Tariffs, sanctions, and export controls raise input and sales prices and generally reduce sales and profit margins, with tariffs having the biggest price effect.
  2. Firms that are targeted by others' export controls or tariffs are most likely to boost domestic investment and R&D and consider bringing production home.
  3. Overall, these measures rarely achieve broad backshoring; instead they mainly increase costs for consumers and squeeze company profits.