[paisible]

The product look great, and piggy-backing on IRC makes a lot sense. However, I wouldn't pay for this, on the basis that the pricing model makes me feel like they assume users are naive (to put it nicely). Multi-tiered pricing models that work typically offer users incremental value, most often in the form of extra features (that took time to develop), support (that takes time to provide) or hardware/bandwidth resources (that are fixed costs to the company). In this case however, the incremental value is "number of users". Unless we're talking about hosting video (or other bandwidth-intensive media), the difference in resources needed to host 50 users can't warrant a 10x price difference from that of hosting 5 users. This is where they lose me (and probably most devs) to the "apt-get" alternative. IMHO, they should apply a one-price model : 10$ per month, unlimited users. It would better bridge the gap between the DIY option, and the luxury of having someone else do a mostly one-time configuration (and occasional maintenance) for you.

[badclient]

As much as I chuckle at their pricing, I find your suggestion of $10/mo for unlimited users just as appalling. For one, I am always hesitant to promise anything "unlimited." Secondly, I'm not sure if they should even try to go after the dev market if there are bigger fish in the sea.