Medium — weeks Growth Inflection

My biggest plan is 80% of revenue — am I too dependent on one tier?

Most of your revenue comes from one pricing tier. If that tier becomes uncompetitive or customers outgrow it, you lose everything. Diversifying means building features for tiers that might not sell.

£5,000–£20,000 MRR 2–5 people SaaS Medium — weeks

The Pattern

Based on 324 decisions

72%

Positive outcome

7.0

Avg score

324

Decisions

63 positive 24 negative 237 pending

10 scale 304 optimise 10 experiment

What founders did

high confidence

Monetisation Case Studies

Curated library

Unspecified SaaS Startup: Offer lifetime deals (LTDs) for cash infusion (2026)

A SaaS startup made the strategic decision to offer lifetime deals (LTDs) to customers, generating $50,000 in immediate revenue. This choice was likely driven by a need for quick cash …

Negative outcome Negative impact on long-term revenue and operational efficiency

SaaS £0–5k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.9

Unnamed SaaS: Offer Unlimited Usage on Entry Plan (2026)

An unnamed SaaS company decided to offer 'unlimited usage' as part of its entry-level pricing plan, aiming to attract a broad user base and simplify its initial offering. This choice …

Negative outcome Server costs / Profit margin (negative impact)

SaaS £0–5k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.5

SaaS Founder: Evaluate business model pivot from deployment fee to subscription GUI app (2026)

A SaaS founder is at a crossroads, considering whether to transition their business model from a GitHub repository with a deployment fee to a GUI application with a subscription. This …

SaaS £0–5k/month Experiment — Promising but unvalidated

5.9

Startup: Evaluate pivot to GUI App + subscription model (2024)

An early-stage SaaS startup is grappling with a fundamental business model decision: whether to continue with a 'GitHub repo + deployment fee' model, which might appeal to developers, or pivot …

SaaS Building — Pre-launch Experiment — Promising but unvalidated

5.9

Notion: Offer free personal plan during COVID (2020)

Notion made the personal plan completely free (previously $4/month) right as COVID hit and remote work exploded. They bet that personal users would bring Notion into their workplaces as teams …

Positive outcome Users: 7M → 20M+ in one year; valuation …

SaaS £5k–20k/month Scale — Double down, proven signal

8.0

Shopify: Launch Shopify Payments (integrated Stripe) (2013)

Instead of just connecting to external payment gateways, Shopify built an integrated payments solution (powered by Stripe). This simplified setup for merchants and gave Shopify a revenue stream from transaction …

Positive outcome Merchant Solutions revenue: $4.1B; majority of GMV processed

SaaS £5k–20k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.9

Laravel: Monetized agent product by injecting ads (2026)

After securing a new funding round, Laravel made the controversial decision to introduce direct ad injection into its agent product. This choice aimed to establish a new revenue stream and …

Negative outcome Community backlash, user churn risk

SaaS £5k–20k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

6.5

Basecamp: Flat pricing — one plan, one price (2014)

Basecamp eliminated all pricing tiers and charged a single flat rate ($99/month for unlimited users). This was radical simplification — competitors had complex per-seat pricing. The bet was that simplicity …

Positive outcome Profitable for 20+ years without VC; limited scale …

SaaS £5k–20k/month Optimise — Working but needs refinement

7.7

As founders contribute their monetisation decisions, you'll see what people at your exact stage are doing too.