Pricing is one of those things that can make or break a SaaS product. Charge too much and nobody signs up. Charge too little and you can't sustain the business. After thinking about this for a while, I've landed on a model that I believe makes sense for both agencies and their clients.
Let me walk you through my reasoning.
Starting with Free
I'm a firm believer that people should be able to try a product before paying for it. Not a 14-day trial, but an actual free tier that works and provides real value.
The free plan in Drupal Scan gives you a fully functional dashboard for your project. You get all the audit scores, a detailed module list, and weekly data syncs. That's enough to know where your site stands right now.
So why would anyone upgrade? The free plan shows you the present. Paid plans show you the past and the future. With paid plans you get historical data to see if your scores are improving or getting worse over time, and you get alerts to know when updates are available without having to log in and check manually.
I think this is a fair split. You can use Drupal Scan forever for free and still get value from it. But if you want to be proactive about maintenance instead of reactive, the paid plans are there.
The Paid Tiers
I've set up three paid tiers: Starter at €9, Pro at €19, and Business at €29 per project per month.
The main differences between them are the sync frequency, the number of environments you can monitor, how often you receive alerts, and how much historical data you keep.
Starter is for projects where you want basic alerts and some history, but you don't need real-time monitoring. A weekly sync and monthly alerts are enough for sites that don't change that often.
Pro is for active projects. Daily syncs, weekly alerts, and 30 days of history. If you're actively developing or maintaining a site, this gives you much better visibility. The two environments option is useful because most professional projects have at least a production and a staging environment.
Business is for critical sites or clients who want full visibility. Unlimited environments, daily alerts, and unlimited history. If a client is paying you for ongoing maintenance, this plan gives them complete transparency into the health of their investment.
Who Is This For?
I see two main audiences for Drupal Scan.
The first is agencies. If you're managing 10, 20, or 50 Drupal sites for different clients, keeping track of updates and security issues across all of them is a nightmare. Drupal Scan gives you a single dashboard where you can see everything. You can catch problems before clients notice them, and you can show clients exactly what maintenance work you're doing for them.
The second is clients themselves. If you've invested in a Drupal website, you probably want to know if it's being maintained properly. Is it secure? Are updates being applied? Is performance degrading? Drupal Scan gives clients visibility into their web investment without needing to understand the technical details.
Two Ways to Use It
This brings me to something I think is important: who pays for the monitoring?
There are two models that make sense.
In the first model, the agency pays. You include Drupal Scan monitoring as part of your maintenance service. It's a tool that helps you do your job better, and the cost is part of your overhead. Your clients never see the dashboard, they just benefit from better maintenance.
In the second model, the client pays. The agency sets up the project and invites the client to the dashboard. The client gets visibility, the agency gets a tool to demonstrate the value of their work. This can actually help agencies justify their maintenance fees because the client can see exactly what's happening with their site.
Both models work. It depends on your relationship with your clients and how transparent you want to be.
Why Per-Project Pricing?
I considered other models like flat monthly fees with project limits, but per-project pricing felt more honest. You pay for what you use. If you have one project, you pay for one project. If you have fifty, you pay for fifty. No complicated tiers or surprise overages.
It also means you can mix and match. Maybe most of your projects only need the free tier, but two critical client sites need Business. You're not forced into an expensive plan just because one client has specific requirements.
Will This Work?
Honestly, I don't know yet. This is the pricing model I'm launching with, but I'm prepared to adjust based on what I learn. Maybe the free tier is too generous. Maybe the paid tiers are too expensive. Maybe agencies want a bulk discount for managing many projects.
I'll find out once real users start signing up. That's the whole point of launching: to learn what works and what doesn't.