Spent most of Monday wrestling with the pricing model for BuildMe Pro Gold+. This is the part of building an app that nobody warns you about — the code is done, the testing passed, the UI looks great, and then you hit the wall: how do you actually charge for it?
The fear was simple: price it too high and people bounce before they even understand what the app does. Price it too low and you devalue the product and can't sustain it. I went back and forth on this for hours, sketching out different tiers, running the numbers, thinking about what competitors charge, and ultimately asking myself what I would genuinely feel comfortable paying as a user.
The breakthrough came when I stopped thinking about pricing as a barrier and started thinking about it as an on-ramp. Two decisions changed everything. First, I am building in two sample projects — so when someone opens the app for the first time, they are not staring at an empty screen wondering what to do. They can tap into a real example, see how a project flows end to end, understand the value before they have invested a single thought of their own. Second, a five-day free trial. No card required, no commitment — just five days to actually use the thing and see if it fits your life.
One coffee a month
Built in from day one
Run both simultaneously
Then the pricing itself. I landed on £4.99 a month for the standard tier, and I genuinely think that is the sweet spot. It is the price of one coffee a month. One coffee. For an app that can track multiple projects, crunch valuations, and save you hours of spreadsheet hell. The tier allows two projects running simultaneously — so someone can have a two-year car restoration on the go and still run a building project at the same time without bumping up against a limit. That flexibility matters. People do not live single-project lives.
I know there will be pressure to add a higher tier later — and that is fine, that is a good problem to have. But for launch, £4.99 a month with two samples and a five-day trial feels right. It is affordable, it is honest, and it lets the product speak for itself before anyone has to reach for their wallet.