[Emerging Trend] Just Add Another Pricing Plan

I explore the question of pricing plans versus alternative or de-emphasized options

I recently spoke with our research team, and they shared a fascinating new trend they have uncovered.

You have probably all seen a brand have a separate or de-emphasized pricing plan option.

Here is an example from Zendesk…

I have seen these alternative plans from dozens of SaaS, from Zoom to Shopify to Vidyard.

Yet when brands A/B test these de-emphasized plans (typically basic or free) as separate plans, they nearly always test out of them.

Here is a test from Zoom where they test into just including the plan as part of the regular set of plans…

We see Zendesk test out of a de-emphasized plan and just include the core plan options too.

Typeform actually tested out of a de-emphasized enterprise plan, adding it back to the main plan menu after testing it as a separate section…

Back when I worked at Bonjoro, we tested out of having a separate Agency plan down below for our testimonial product, and we re-added that plan to the main plan cards after we saw a 5-6% drop in Agency plan selection with the de-emphasized option.

It’s hard from the data to find a perfect number of pricing plans (although ElevenLabs going with 7 plans might be pushing it)....

But the data does seem to show that when brands test having a separate, de-emphasized plan outside of the regular plan cards, they test out of it at a high rate.

If you are curious about the full BetScore (algorithmic prediction of how well this might work for you), feel free to contact our research team for more information on DoWhatWorks.