Designing an Effective Pricing Page for Your SaaS Business

On SaaS websites, the pricing page can act like a covert salesperson, showcasing the value of your product and constantly working to convert website visitors into paying customers. Often, the pricing page is the first point of contact for buyers who are evaluating your software.

An effective product pricing page will serve several purposes: it can clarify customer questions about your product offerings, highlight the perks of each pricing plan, and ideally, drive conversions that are the right fit for both your organization and your customer.

When it comes to the content, design and optimization of this page, there are several best practices to consider. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to improve an existing pricing page, this guide can help you design a page that will effectively communicate your product’s value to your target audience.

Choosing your pricing page transparency level

The first step is to decide your desired level of price transparency. This decision hinges on several factors including your pricing model complexity, sales approach, sales cycle and competitive landscape.

Three common pricing page approaches for SaaS businesses are:

1. Full pricing transparency: Display all pricing details openly on your website. This strategy is likely best for straightforward pricing models and self-service sales motions with high velocity.
2. Partial pricing transparency: Show a price range (or the starting prices for your product) but require potential customers to contact sales for detailed pricing. This is useful for moderately complex pricing models and for products whose prospects demonstrate a range of willingness to pay.
3. Request for Quote (RFQ): Prices are not displayed on your website, so customers need to contact your sales team for a quote. This is likely best for enterprise-level sales with more stakeholders involved in the purchase decision and longer sales cycles.

Three price transparency comparisons for a SaaS product pricing page

In this guide, we primarily focus on the first two pricing page strategies.

Prioritize the user experience for an effective pricing page

The successful pricing pages prioritize the user experience to reduce buyer friction and increase the prospects’ excitement about your product. As tempting as it is to instigate a conversation between prospects and your sales team ASAP, remember that customers value the ability to educate themselves on your product and your pricing. If done right, their pre-research experience will make the eventual sales conversation even more fruitful.

An effective pricing page should:

1. Reinforce product value: Clearly articulate the value proposition of each package, highlighting the incremental benefits of subsequent tiers. Tailor the message to resonate with your ICP.
2. Be clear: Minimize clutter and design the page for easy navigation and plan comparison. Avoid overwhelming potential customers with too many features or complex language.
3. Leverage buyer psychology: Employ conversion-boosting techniques like clean design elements (fonts and colors that attract buyers), strategic pricing strategies (like price anchoring), and clear CTAs.

Key components of a product pricing page

Every pricing page should include the following core components to ensure it communicates your product’s value and attracts more leads.

1) Product feature list

Tailor the feature list to your target audience by making sure product features (and use cases!) are clear and relevant to their pain points. Speak in your brand voice, avoid technical jargon, and use language that is easy for prospective customers to understand.

Highlight no more than six features per pricing package and rank them by importance or perceived ICP value. Instead of listing all features on the main page, leverage pop-ups that break down feature comparisons. Consider grouping product features by functionality (integrations, reporting, payments, etc.,) to keep navigation simple.

Across your SaaS pricing plans, avoid highlighting repetitive package features unless they are usage-based comparisons. Instead, use phrases such as, “Everything in X plan, plus:” to emphasize additional features.

We’ve found one exception to this rule: when you need to highlight usage-based thresholds that differ by package, ensure these features are easy for the buyer to compare, like so:

Example of a SaaS pricing page comparing package tiers

2) Pricing tables

Like pricing feature lists, an effective pricing table should be easy for buyers to understand and navigate. On your pricing tables, showcase:

1. A hierarchy of plans: Present pricing plans from least to most expensive starting on the left-hand side.
2. A simple cost estimation: Enable prospects to easily estimate what their costs would be. For complex or usage-based pricing models, consider implementing a pricing calculator so it’s easy for leads to understand the total cost of ownership.
3. Whole-price dollars: Display your pricing tiers in whole dollars when possible to avoid perceived complexity or expense.
4. Prices ending in 9s: Use prices ending in 9 for both dollar amounts and cents (if shown) to keep the left-most number the focus of the price.
5. Prices without sales tax: Publish prices without sales tax, which can be added at checkout or in the final quote and invoice.
6. Visual cues for preferred plans: Highlight your preferred pricing plans using colors, words, larger fonts, images, and tags or badges with copy like “most popular” or “best value” to influence a prospect’s decision.

A SaaS pricing product page with visual cues to highlight a preferred pricing model

3) Annual vs. monthly pricing models

If you offer annual and monthly pricing, enable a prospect to view both options. Add a toggle for easy comparison.

Your pricing page should lead with the annual subscription pricing model (or the model you want customers to choose) because it’s usually the cheaper option.

For both pricing models, show the annual and monthly prices in the same metrics for an apples-to-apples comparison.

A pricing page showing the annual and monthly cost per pricing tier

The same price comparison, showing the more expensive monthly price per tier

4) Pricing FAQs

Pricing FAQs are a great way to get ahead of objections or confusion your customers may have and reassure them they are buying the right product. If you choose an FAQ, limit it to no more than six questions focused on the most common concerns.

5) Live chat capabilities

Live chat can boost engagement, increase leads, improve customer loyalty and reduce abandonment. This feature is particularly useful for addressing immediate questions that could otherwise prevent a purchase. You can also use genAI-powered live chat to assist with real-time and complex queries 24/7.

Actionable steps to improve your pricing page

Step 1: Define your objectives and KPIs

Before building or changing your pricing page, define your goals for the page. Your SaaS pricing page is marketing collateral, so you need to define the right marketing message to send to your ICP. Consider what you want to signal to the market, as well as the buyer behavior you want to influence on this page.

Next, set attainable and quantifiable target KPIs, such as package mix, inbound visits, cart conversions, lead gen volume and trial signups.

Step 2: Do your research

Perform both internal and external research and share the findings with your entire organization. Research should include:

• Competitor pricing analysis: Analyze how your competitors structure their pricing pages and identify any advantages or threats to your page.
• Customer preferences: Survey your current customers and prospects to understand their preferences for their ideal pricing page display and content.
• Sales team input: Consult with your sales team to determine the pricing page design that best supports and is optimized for the overall sales and GTM strategy.

Step 3: Pilot major pricing page changes and monitor impact

Implement any major changes in a controlled manner and closely track your results. You should establish reporting capabilities and a review cadence to monitor the success of changes, and, if possible, try to sequence pricing page changes to measure the individual impact of each change.

Finally, determine a statistically meaningful sample size (usually 100+ deals) to evaluate whether to continue or end your pricing page pilot.

Driving value from your product pricing page

Having a positive experience with a SaaS website’s pricing page can be a key determining factor in a buyer’s decision to go forward. At Mainsail, we’ve found that by following these guidelines and best practices, you can craft compelling pricing pages that effectively communicate your product’s value, enhance the user experience, and drive conversions for your business.

Remember: your product pricing page is a dynamic and powerful tool for your GTM strategy. To drive the most value from it, tailor your content to your target audience, regularly test and optimize it, and don’t be afraid to experiment – your pricing page will pay dividends.