SaaS Pricing Models for a First Product
By CodexierPublished 6 min read
Pricing a first SaaS product feels like a high-stakes decision, and founders often stall on it. It is better treated as the first experiment: a simple model, a real price, and a plan for changing both. This guide compares the three common models for an early product, weighs trials against freemium, covers currency and VAT for a company selling from Sweden, and ends with how to raise prices without losing the customers who trusted you first.
Per seat, per usage or tiers
The three models answer different questions. Per-seat pricing charges for each user and works when every added user gets value and the buyer expects to pay per head, as with sales tools and project software. Usage-based pricing charges for volume, such as messages sent or documents processed, and suits products where usage maps to value, but it makes budgets unpredictable and invoices surprising. Tiered pricing packages features and limits into named plans and is the easiest to explain, compare and change. For a first product, tiers with a simple limit inside each, such as number of projects or users, give most of the benefits of the other two without their explaining cost.
| Model | Works when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Per seat | Value grows with each user; buyers budget per head | Customers sharing logins to save seats |
| Usage-based | Usage is predictable and clearly tied to value | Bill shock, hard forecasting, slow first sales |
| Tiers | Distinct customer sizes with distinct needs | Too many tiers; the middle one should be the obvious choice |
| Flat rate | Very simple product, one customer type | Leaves money on the table with larger customers |
Free trials vs freemium
A trial lets people use the full product for a fixed period and then asks them to pay. Freemium gives a permanently free plan and hopes a share upgrades. Freemium works for products with huge audiences and near-zero marginal cost per user; for a first B2B product it usually means supporting many users who never pay, while the free plan competes with your paid one. A fourteen- or thirty-day trial, ideally without a card up front, converts the users who found value and lets the rest leave quietly. If you do want a free tier, tie it to something that does not scale, such as one user or one project.
Pricing in SEK, EUR or USD
Charge in the currency your buyer thinks in. Swedish companies compare prices in kronor and will not do the conversion; a Swedish-first product should show kronor. When you sell to the rest of Europe, add euro pricing as a separate price list rather than converting at the day's rate, so prices look intentional and stable. Dollar pricing only makes sense once you actively sell to the US. Stripe and similar providers support multiple currency price lists on the same plan, so the technical side is a configuration decision, not a rebuild.
- Round to numbers that look chosen in each currency; a converted price with odd decimals signals an afterthought.
- Show prices excluding VAT to businesses and including VAT to consumers, and say which on the page.
- Bill annually with a discount only once you know customers stay; annual refunds are painful.
- Keep one price list per currency in your billing system so that changes are one edit, not a code change.
VAT and B2B reverse charge
A SaaS subscription is an electronically supplied service, which has clear VAT rules. A Swedish company selling to Swedish customers adds 25 percent Swedish VAT. Selling to a VAT-registered business in another EU country, you invoice without VAT under reverse charge, state the customer's VAT number and the reverse-charge wording, and report the sale in the EC sales list. Selling to consumers in other EU countries, VAT is due in the customer's country, which the One Stop Shop scheme lets you report through Skatteverket. Outside the EU, no Swedish VAT applies to business customers. Your billing tool must therefore validate EU VAT numbers and record the customer's country. The details are in our guide to VAT on IT services and reverse charge.
Changing prices later
Early prices are almost always too low, because founders price for the product as it is rather than the value it delivers a year later. Plan the increase from the start: put the right to change prices with notice in your terms, honour existing customers at their price for a defined period, and raise prices for new customers first. Restructure tiers when you raise prices, so the comparison is between plans rather than between yesterday's and today's price. Tell customers directly, with the reason. Pricing is one of the decisions we settle in an MVP planning blueprint, because it shapes what the billing system must support; our own price list is on the pricing page.
When you do not need this: if you are building an internal tool or a product for one anchor customer, the price is a contract negotiation, not a pricing page. If your product is not yet validated, pricing is premature. If you have paying pilots and are deciding how to open the product to the market, book a short call and we will go through your tiers and billing setup.
Frequently asked questions
Should I show prices publicly?
For a product sold to small and medium businesses, yes. Public prices filter out buyers who cannot afford it and save sales calls. Hide prices only when every deal is genuinely custom, which is rare for a first product.
How do I set the actual number?
Anchor on the value you replace: the hours saved, the tool cancelled, the revenue enabled. Then check what customers said in validation interviews and what alternatives cost. Start slightly higher than feels comfortable; lowering is easy, raising is work.
Do I need a Swedish company to sell SaaS in Sweden?
No, but you need to handle Swedish VAT correctly, which for a non-Swedish company means EU VAT rules and possibly the One Stop Shop. A Swedish company with F-tax and VAT registration is the simplest setup for a Swedish-first product.
Planning tiers and billing for a first product?
Fifteen minutes with an engineer: you describe the product and the customers who have paid so far, we suggest a tier structure, a currency setup and the VAT logic your billing must support.
Book a free 15-minute call