Got any examples of SaaS providers who don't have low limits on their free tier offerings?
Personally I think you're badly mis-categorizing LetsEncrypt there - it's not like they're trying to bug you into signing up for a $29/month "Personal Plan" or a $199/month "Professional Plan" by keeping their limits low. They're giving their service away for free, and trying hard to only exclude the very edge cases of people who need way more resources to satisfy than the 99%.
If you've got a plan that requires hundreds of ssl certs per week to operate, and you don't have a revenue stream to pay for them, your plan needs more work. Just 'cause someone offers "free coffee", doesn't mean you can make a business out of showing up with a pickup truck full of 44gal drums and demand to have them fill you up for free so you can give it away to the customers at your restaurant...
> By SaaS I meant company offering subdomains/custom domains that needs LE - not LE itself.
Ahhh, sorry, my misunderstanding. (But an alternative comment - it's not that those SaaS companies "need LE", it's just that they want free ssl certs. I _want_ free Tesla's - my local Tesla dealership doesn't care... That doesn't make their prices "ridiculously high", it a problem with my expectations.)
> LE is not a charity. It's a business.
Not sure I (or they) agree with you there:
"Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. Let’s Encrypt is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG)."
"Consider becoming a sponsor or simply donate via PayPal."
Sure there's a wide grey line between "a business", "a 501c non-profit", and "a charity" - but if your revenue stream comes from a "please donate or sponsor us" link, not your product's pricing (whether that's a thing/service you sell, or the privacy of your free users you're selling), I think you're a lot closer to the "charity" end of that line than the "business" end.
Personally I think you're badly mis-categorizing LetsEncrypt there - it's not like they're trying to bug you into signing up for a $29/month "Personal Plan" or a $199/month "Professional Plan" by keeping their limits low. They're giving their service away for free, and trying hard to only exclude the very edge cases of people who need way more resources to satisfy than the 99%.
If you've got a plan that requires hundreds of ssl certs per week to operate, and you don't have a revenue stream to pay for them, your plan needs more work. Just 'cause someone offers "free coffee", doesn't mean you can make a business out of showing up with a pickup truck full of 44gal drums and demand to have them fill you up for free so you can give it away to the customers at your restaurant...