[mgl]

I feel your pain, we all get used to super cheap development services. But now - well - there is no free lunch as they say, and I think we should stop demanding much for nothing.

Would they make money on $5 accounts? Does github make money on $4 accounts? Is it a sustainable pricing model or more like a “growth grab” which is not valued that much in 2023.

[voganmother42]

But the cheaper competitors still exist…

One thing I think is underrated is convincing students/hobbyists/personal users who then take those preferences/skills into the work place, that funnel seems especially useful when it comes to tooling. Gitlab seems to be missing that price point/market

[jtrtoo]

I find it a mixture of frustrating and amusing the services (and software) that sell enterprise level packages but won't accept anything more than "free" from me either personally or my (tiny) business. I don't even need support - I just want to provide support. Just stick a Stripe charge form on there and say "best effort tech support" or even "no private support / forum only" and take my money damn it. :)

[CitizenKane]

It's not necessarily about whether they're actually making money on those as opposed to covering their costs. Almost any successful company based around open source software (and often closed source) has a huge spread of customers sizes from the hobbyist who plays around with a few things all the way to Fortune 500 enterprises. By having a ramp up in terms of pricing it keeps folks invested in your platform. In cases where there's a big jump there's often quite a bit of hesitance to upgrade unless there's an overwhelming need.

Basically, it's aligning the success of your business to the success of your users. Most of what's offered in Gitlab Premium[1] would be of little value for a small development shop, yet if you have 5 users you're looking at $1000/yr for features that are unlikely to be used. It just doesn't make sense.

[1] https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/