One of the most common queries that we get about Remindo is about our pricing plans. So we’re setting the record straight.

Like so many SaaS and web based project management apps out there, it would make sense for us to go with what is described as freemium pricing. Enough has been written about it, but in 3 simple steps:

• Give out your service for free.
• Develop a user base.
• Offer premium value added service to people who wish to upgrade.

This has been hailed by some as a great business model for startups and also criticized by others. Anyone who provides a free service on the internet must have grappled with the question of what to give away for free and what to charge for. Here’s our take on this.

Remindo is a free and simple project management service and we have been growing (and retaining) a user base so step 1&2 are taken care of. It is step 3 that we have a fundamental problem with.

We dislike the idea of having a paid “enhanced” service vs a free basic service. Why? it implies that we are holding back on a part of our user base who have helped us get to step no 3. We don’t think its wrong (someone’s gotta pay the bills after all!) but we think it is avoidable. And we sure as hell will try!

Why do we feel this way? That’s because we have a whole bunch of users who work in small teams but have given us tremendous amounts of feedback/feature requests and bug reports (some even suggest fixes!). They have been patient when bugs have cropped up or their feature requests were not included (because they were not in sync with our broader plans). In short, they have helped us get where we are and we hope they will be with us when we go forward.

Fred Wilson wrote:

Free gets you to a place where you can ask to get paid

Sure, but we don’t want these guys to pay. Surely there has to be a way to give back to these wonderful folks, right? And we think that the least we can do is to let these guys use for free, what they have helped create.

So here’s the deal, Remindo will be free to use with its entire feature set (unlimited projects, unlimited users -and all the rest) available to people who are helping us build, test and improve Remindo. There will of course be a paid subscription model coming up soon, but not for this group of people.

How do you become part of this group? Just sign up, use Remindo for a project or two and start a conversation with us – let us know what you think, what you like, what you hate and what you wish we had.

PS: In fact, if you have your own service or product that you want us to have a look at or you just want to bounce some ideas off of us – because we have picked up a thing or two – we would be more than happy to pick your brains and let you pick ours! Just drop us a line.