When we made our last pricing change, a lot of users got onto the blog and asked to be notified in advance about pricing changes.  We're going to make some changes in the next few weeks that will provide you with new options for private/professional subscriptions.

The news is much better this time.

First, we are going to offer fixed-price plans. Many of our users have claimed that our metered, per-user pricing is confusing.  Some have even refused to buy unless we made them a special fixed price deal.  So, we are giving our customers what they are asking for.  The new plans will be priced from $25 to $250, contain from 1 to unlimited spaces, and contain from 40 to unlimited users.  The new plans are still inexpensive on a per-user basis, and you will be able to invite a lot more users.

Second, existing users can keep their existing metered, $2/user plans for at least the next year.  They can also choose from the new fixed price plans.  So, this can only result in their price staying the same, or getting cheaper.

We experienced some problems with the metered pricing.  Users were very aggressive in reducing their user counts, and our average selling price became very small - less than $10/month.  Put another way, we were successful serving small customers, but not as successful growing them into big customers. It's important for all user, including free and low-cost users, for Assembla to have healthy revenues from more demanding buyers.  This allows us to pay for redundancy, 24 admin, dedicated customer service, product enhancements, etc.

We will still offer the metered billing for new small teams.  After all, it is our best selling product, and we will continue to support those small teams.  The price will increase slightly, to $3/user/space, and we will get rid of the confusing $8 cap.

So, that's the news.  It's all good for existing customers, and new customers will get the fixed-price plans that they asked for.