Don't Settle for Pricing Mediocrity: 8 Insights to Revamp Your Pricing Strategy in 2025

Think having an internal pricing function makes you stand out? Think again. 

In 2025, 98% of SaaS companies designate responsibility for pricing strategy to a specific person, group or team. But 60% of SaaS companies still find pricing overly complex, leading to muddled strategies. 

Given your pricing strategy’s influence on SaaS revenue growth, the competitive upside is clear: the more you get to grips with SaaS pricing, the more you get ahead of the market. 

Download the latest research report, 2025 State of SaaS Pricing. 

8 Insights to Build Market-Leading Pricing 

By surveying 300+ SaaS pricing operators and executives on their pricing processes and strategies, Price Intelligently by SBI’s 2025 State of SaaS Pricing Report found:

1. Sophisticated Pricing is a Must-have by $250M ARR
2. Complexity is the Rule, Not the Exception—Pricing Does Not Get Simpler by Default
3. Pricing via Intuition is Way Too Common (and Kills Growth) 
4. There’s No Perfect Home for Pricing
5. Finding the Right Price is the Hardest Part of SaaS Pricing
6. Company Strategy is the Most Impactful (But Least Used)Pricing Input
7. Outcomes-Based Models are Still a Pricing Pipe Dream
8. Pure Usage-Based Pricing Officially Comprises 20% of SaaS

1. Sophisticated Pricing is a Must-Have by $250M ARR 

SaaS companies’ pricing approach grows increasingly sophisticated as they scale. Between $50-250M ARR, most SaaS companies take an ad hoc or basic pricing approach, relying on informal processes and minimal data. But at $250M, nearly 70% of the market has a dedicated pricing team with defined responsibilities leading their pricing strategy. 

Recommendation: Gauge your level of pricing sophistication and work to emulate your more advanced peers, such as establishing a cross-functional pricing committee if you’re approaching $250M. 

2. Complexity is the Rule, Not the Exception—Pricing Does Not Get Simpler by Default

Almost 60% of SaaS companies find pricing structure and packaging difficult. As a result, they price reactively in response to product changes (80%) or competitors (56%) instead of proactively as part of a thoughtful, customer-centric pricing plan. Pricing also becomes more complex as you grow due to product proliferation, M&A, and cross-functional misalignment. 

Recommendation: Redefine your customer segments so your pricing aligns with who you’re charging and make efforts to simplify pricing’s growing pains, such as building pricing refreshes or changes into your M&A integration playbook.

3. Pricing via Intuition is Way Too Common (and Kills Growth)

When it comes to pricing, don’t trust your gut. 59% of SMBs rely on ‘Leadership Intuition’ to set prices, but those that follow objective data-led pricing approaches were nearly 10x more likely to exceed their growth targets. 

Recommendation: Use established processes, external market research and customer data (i.e. usage, adoption etc) to get pricing right and redirect leadership intuition towards product and GTM.

4. There is No Perfect Home for Pricing

73% of SaaS companies agree that pricing should not be the responsibility of one person, but there’s no consensus on pricing’s perfect home. Product most commonly owns pricing (ahead of Sales in SMB and Finance in Midmarket), but best-in-class pricing seeks input from every functional area - regardless of your company size.

Recommendation: As a bare minimum, seek input from Product, Marketing, Sales, and the Deal Desk before deciding on your pricing and packaging. 

5. Finding the Right Price is the Hardest Part of SaaS Pricing 

Setting out the dollar amount is the most difficult part of SaaS pricing (especially in vertical SaaS), ahead of how to package, how to charge (pricing structure) and getting leadership buy-in for a change. In particular, SaaS operators worry they're either over-charging and turning buyers away or under-charging and leaving money on the table.

Recommendation: Don’t tackle too much in one go. Work to resolve the pricing elements your organization finds most difficult separately, considering interdependencies along the way. 

6. Company Strategy is the Most Impactful (But Least Used) Pricing Input

Customer value (33%) is the factor most commonly used to inform SaaS pricing strategies, followed by cost (23%), competition (22%) and company strategy (21%). Yet SaaS companies that aligned their pricing to company strategy were 40% more likely to perform far above their growth targets. 

Recommendation: Manage pricing like you manage your company: always ensure pricing decisions are customer-centric, stage-appropriate, and helps (or hurts) your company strategy. 

7. Outcomes-Based Models are Still a Pipe Dream 

You’ve likely seen outcome-based pricing trending on LinkedIn. But in reality, very few SaaS companies charge depending on the performance improvements their product delivers. Currently, less than 1% of SaaS companies operate this model compared to 71% for sales-led pricing. 

Recommendation: Don’t get distracted by unproven or impractical pricing models. Focus on maturing your current pricing model in the short/medium term.

8. Pure Usage-Based Pricing Officially Comprises 20% of SaaS

15 years ago, usage-based pricing was a rarity. Now, 20% of SaaS companies use some type of usage component in their pricing (and are more likely to exceed their growth targets than companies charging flat fees). However, nearly 25% of usage-based companies rely on manual methods—i.e. Sales or Customer Success time—to enforce overages on customers.

Recommendation: Keep it simple. Be wary of switching to usage-based pricing unless it fits your product and is feasible to track and enforce. If you do currently have usage-based pricing, make sure to automate your enforcements.

Revamp Your Pricing with the State of SaaS Pricing Report 2025 

Pricing is the most important yet misunderstood SaaS growth lever. If you improve your understanding, you’ll improve your pricing strategy and revenue growth. 

For deeper insights and recommendations to revamp your pricing, download:

2025 State of SaaS Pricing Report Part 1: 10 Insights for Building Market-Leading Pricing