From simplicity to spaghetti at Basecamp

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Summary

Basecamp changed their pricing again and it’s a complete utter fucking mess. It’s not about the money, it’s about losing the simplicity they were known for. I think they should have gone back to two tiers with the same features, simple. Right now it’s spaghetti and makes no sense.

Raw

We all realise and we all know that simplicity is something that we strive for. We want to do things simply. We don’t want a whole mess of crappola. Crappola is one of the new words that I’ve started to use.

So we like to keep things simple. Keep it simple is my mantra and I talk about it all the time. But there are times when we’re doing some projects, they’re never finished, so we keep messing with it until it becomes what we want as simple as possible.

So how I write basically is I write like hell, and I delete a bunch of stuff and I end up with one paragraph and it’s exactly what I want to do and say. I want to convey what I want to do.

So we all strive for that simplicity. I know I do. And many of the people that follow me kind of do as well.

So when I woke up this morning, I went on to the Basecamp community and I saw a post, someone posted something in the campfire about Basecamp changing their pricing. Now, I know, just like me, they’re going through this transition of how they’re going to price their products, right?

So with Basecamp, I use Basecamp, and I use hay, I really like them, they’re simple, and they make me do the shit that I need to do, simply. And they’ve transitioned away from the one price of 99 bucks for unlimited everything, and they transitioned into per user, which I never thought that they would do.

Now, I was on and off Basecamp because of the pricing. It’s like, well, I do use it, but I don’t use it that much, so I don’t need to pay $99. But I got a lot of clients to use it because they’re in teams and so on. Me, who works on my own, I couldn’t quite justify it because I have different systems.

So when they changed their pricing to per user, I jumped on it. And I’m using it and I’m using it day and day out. And it’s fantastic.

So I woke up this morning, as I said, and I saw this post in Campfire. And they’ve changed their pricing again, and it’s a complete utter fucking mess, to be honest.

I mean, I love who they are, I love what they do, and I know they’re going in this transition of pricing, but I don’t think they thought this particular one through, really.

Forget the pricing, forget how expensive, how cheap it is, it’s nothing to do with the pricing, it’s more to do with it’s not simple anymore. Before it’s, this is the pricing, price, this is what you get, go and have fun.

Now it’s if you do this and maybe you need that and maybe this, there’s three tiers. Now, studies have shown, I’ve got nothing to prove this, but I know studies are shown having three different tiers. Generally people pick the middle one. But their middle one is double the price of what the original one was with less features. It makes no freaking sense.

Again, it’s not a pricing thing. It’s a paradox of choice. There’s three things. Now, I guess there’s no paradox because you can choose the things that you want, but it’s still a paradox in the sense of, well, I may grow into this, but I don’t know if I can upgrade, because Basecamp, what they do is once you are within a price tier, they don’t generally upgrade you. I think. I might be wrong in that, but that’s usually how it goes.

So the fact that I’m paying less than everyone else is because I got in early, et cetera. I’m grandfathered in, which is great for me, but it’s just a bit icky. I feel icky in a way because of the way that they’ve changed their pricing.

But again, the price value is not what I’m talking about. It’s more to do with the complications that they’ve changed their pricing, they’ve created for themselves.

I understand trying to get the sweet spot. I get it. But this ain’t it. I don’t know who. Well, we all know who, came up with this idea. It’s just pants. It really is. It makes no sense from the simplicity standpoint. It just makes absolutely no sense.

I think personally, you should have two tears. One for kind of concern. The two tiers, the two tiers, the two tiers are exactly the same for the features you get for the two tiers should be exactly the same, right? Go back to your original Basecamp, one price all in, right? But have two tiers.

So you have the first one up to 10 or 15 or 20 people. Try to figure that out. And then everyone above that, you have to pay this tier, which is double the price or whatever. It makes sense because it’s simple again. Go back to simplicity.

Because right now, simplicity has been lost, and spaghetti is taken over and it’s a complete mess, which is what I think. I think consultants like me, yeah, I don’t mind taking a hit and paying a little more, but not as much as 99, but then you have double or triple to have people above 10 or 20. That makes sense.

But having a three-tier thing is to me spaghetti, and it’s horrible to see from a simplicity standpoint, point where businesses need to make money, I get it, but going from how simple a product is, was, and the product is great, don’t get me wrong, the product is fantastic, and it is still worth it, but going from the simplicity of one price, here you go, to pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, makes absolutely no sense.