[codegeek]

I run a SAAS and whenever we try to implement usage based billing, it is a lot of work to educate the customer on how it will work. I think this is more of a business than technical problem. Like you said, usage based billing has its places (perhaps if you sell to technical/dev focussed products. e.g. Metered API) but if you work with customers that are more B2B and have to answer to their procurement/finance/accounting departments, fixed cost is always easier to sell. Even if that means they end up paying more overall.

[AnhTho_FR]

This really resonates with our observations. I think it's a "business" problem first (pricing) indeed and a technical one (once you've decided on pricing). Your insights are why're very bullish on "hybrid" pricings: usage subscriptions, fixed costs that can be overaged but with prepaid packages or prepaid credits. In that case, the end-user still gets the "we pay what we use", while there's predictability/peace of mind on the final bill (you can't exceed what you prepaid).