June 10, 2020 · Oskar Glauser

How we decided on the pricing model for Minutemailer

Pricing is one of the hardest decisions you make when building a product. Get it wrong, and you either price people out or undervalue what you have built. Get it right, and it feels invisible. People just use the product and pay what feels fair.

When we sat down to figure out pricing for Minutemailer, we wanted to build something that reflected our values: simplicity, fairness, and accessibility. Here is how we got there.

The problem with most email marketing pricing

If you have ever looked at the pricing pages of popular email marketing tools, you have probably noticed a pattern. Most of them charge based on the number of contacts in your list. The more subscribers you have, the more you pay. It sounds reasonable on the surface, but it creates some frustrating situations.

Imagine you are a small business owner with a list of 2,000 contacts. You send a newsletter once a month. Under a contact-based pricing model, you are paying the same monthly fee as someone who sends daily emails to those same 2,000 contacts. That does not feel fair.

It gets worse. Many platforms lock features behind higher tiers. Want to use automation? Pay more. Need better analytics? Pay more. Want to remove their branding? You guessed it. Pay more.

For small businesses, freelancers, and organizations that send occasionally, this model is punishing. You end up paying for capacity you never use.

What we wanted to do differently

We spent a lot of time talking to small business owners and understanding their needs. A few things kept coming up:

• They wanted simple, predictable pricing without hidden fees.
• They wanted to keep all their contacts without being penalized for growing their list.
• They wanted all features included, not locked behind expensive tiers.
• They needed flexibility, sometimes you send a lot and sometimes very little.

These conversations shaped our approach.

Plans with credits

We landed on a model with monthly and yearly plans that include email credits. Here is how it works:

You pick a plan based on how many emails you send per month. Each plan includes a number of credits, and each credit lets you send one email to one contact. If you send a newsletter to 500 people, that costs 500 credits.

If you need to send more during a certain period, you can buy extra credit packs without having to upgrade your plan. That gives you the flexibility to handle peaks without being locked into a more expensive plan all the time.

We also offer a free plan with 1,000 credits per month, perfect if you want to try things out or send at a small scale.

Unlimited contacts

This is one of the things we are most proud of. With Minutemailer, you can have as many contacts as you want, regardless of which plan you are on. We never charge you for the size of your list. Your list is yours. Growing it should be celebrated, not penalized.

For small businesses that are just starting out, this is a big deal. You can build your list at your own pace without worrying about hitting a threshold that bumps you to a more expensive plan.

All features on paid plans

On our paid plans, you get access to everything Minutemailer offers. That means AI improvements, file attachments, custom fonts, unlimited analytics, unlimited team members, and priority support. We want paying users to be able to use the full platform without restrictions.

Monthly or yearly

You can choose to pay monthly or yearly. If you go with yearly billing, you save the equivalent of two months. That gives you the flexibility to choose what works best for your business.

Buy extra credits when you need them

Sometimes you need to send more than usual. Maybe you are running a holiday campaign or launching a new product. Instead of having to permanently upgrade your plan, you can buy extra credit packs as a one-time purchase.

We offer credit packs in different sizes. Credits do not expire, so if you buy a pack and do not use it all right away, they will be there next time you need them. A restaurant running an extra campaign before the holidays does not have to worry about wasted credits.

Transparent pricing

One thing that frustrated us about other platforms was hidden costs. You sign up for what looks like a reasonable plan, and then you discover there are overage fees, add-on charges, and limits you did not know about.

With Minutemailer, what you see is what you get. Plan prices are clear, credit packs have fixed prices, and there are no hidden charges. We believe that if you have to read the fine print to understand what you are paying for, the pricing is not transparent enough.

Making email marketing accessible

At its core, our pricing model is about accessibility. We want email marketing to be available to everyone, not just businesses with big marketing budgets.

A local bakery that wants to let regulars know about a weekend special can start with the free plan and upgrade when their needs grow. A freelance photographer who sends sporadically can pick a small plan and buy extra credits when needed. You pay for what you actually use.

By making pricing flexible and affordable, we lower the barrier to entry. And that aligns perfectly with why we built Minutemailer in the first place.

What our users say

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Users appreciate the simplicity and flexibility. We often hear that the combination of plans and extra credits makes it easy to budget without surprises.

That feedback tells us we made the right call.

Looking ahead

Our pricing model is not set in stone. As Minutemailer grows and as we add new features, we will continue to evaluate whether our pricing serves our users well. But the core principles will stay the same: fairness, simplicity, and accessibility.

If you want to see how our pricing works in practice, give Minutemailer a try. And if you are looking for tips on getting the most out of your email marketing budget, our guide on email marketing on a budget has plenty of practical advice.

For more about building your first email campaign, check out our post on how to start a newsletter. And if you are wondering when to hit send, we have a guide on the best time to send newsletters that you might find helpful.