Zoho Creator Pricing Alternatives
There are 3 types of usage scenarios we have identified:
1. Lots of small applications, spread out over a few users
2. Just 1-2 applications but fair number of users per application
3. Infrequently accessed applications, where number of users may vary, but put a fairly light load on the system.
Clearly, our initial pricing has been a problem for type 2 & type 3 users, because we have charged according to users, rather than based on the number of applications.
Hyther has posted about lowering the per-user price to $5, while keeping developer users at $10, because it is really developer users that cost us more in support etc. This is only a first stab, and I am still not satisfied that we are serving our type 2 users well.
Then Chuck raised the strategic issue - why price Zoho Creator at all, but instead let it be a free part of the Zoho suite. I am personally very sympathetic to that argument, but there are quite a few business customers who actually want a paid service, with support. They want to use Zoho Creator for critical applications (many are in the type 1 scenario above), and do not feel comfortable with "free on the internet" feeling, even if we do not intend to put advertising.
We want to get your feedback on this.
Sridhar