1. Decide who actually pays
The engineer who installs your tool is rarely the one with the card. For tools under $50 a month, individual developers and indie hackers often pay themselves. Above that, the buyer is usually an engineering manager, a staff engineer, or a CTO at a 5 to 50 person startup. Write down one job title before you write down one price.
2. Anchor to the time you save
Estimate the hours your tool saves per engineer per month and multiply by a rough loaded cost the buyer would recognize for their team. Charge a small fraction of that. If you save a team of 5 engineers 2 hours each a month, a price of $49 to $99 a month is easy to defend. Say the math out loud on calls, because managers buy on it.
3. Start with three simple prices
Use a free tier for solo use, a Team plan around $20 to $30 per seat per month, and a flat Startup plan for small teams you pick based on your buyer. Look at what tools your buyer already pays for in your category and price inside that range, not below it. Do not build usage-based billing yet. You can change the numbers later, and early customers expect that.
4. Offer a founding customer deal
Give the first 10 paying teams a locked-in discount in exchange for a weekly feedback call and permission to use their logo. This gives people a reason to pay now instead of waiting. Example offer: "Founding plan: 50% off the Team price, locked for 12 months, plus my direct Slack for bugs."
5. Find buyers where developers already complain
Search GitHub issues on popular repos in your area for the exact pain you solve, for example "flaky tests" or "slow CI" sorted by recent. Check Hacker News "Ask HN" threads, r/devops, r/ExperiencedDevs, and Discord servers for the frameworks you integrate with. Note the people who describe the problem in detail. Those are your first 20 conversations.
6. Ask for money in the first message
Do not hide the price behind a demo. Send a short, direct note that names the price. Example: "Saw your comment about CI taking 20 minutes. I built a tool that caches test runs and cuts that down. It is $49 a month for teams under 10, and I am offering 50% off for the first 10 teams. Want a 15 minute call to try it on your repo?"
7. Treat no as pricing data
When someone says no, ask one question: "Is it the price, or is it not a big enough problem right now?" If three people say price, test a lower tier. If nobody objects to price, raise it for the next five prospects. Keep a simple sheet with each prospect, the price you quoted, and the reason they gave.
8. Run this every day
Pricing gets clearer with every conversation, so aim for five new outreach messages a day and adjust after each batch of ten. Hulby, an AI cofounder, does this outreach and tracks the replies daily for founders who want help keeping the pace.
Mistakes to skip
- Staying free for months while waiting for enough users to justify a price.
- Pricing for individual developers when the real buyer is an engineering manager.
- Building complex usage-based billing before anyone has paid once.
- Hiding the price until a demo, which wastes calls with people who were never going to pay.
Want this done for your developer tool, every day?
Hulby finds the people asking for what you built, writes every reply and email, and keeps you on it until they pay. Free to start.
Find my first customersQuestions
Should my developer tool be open source and free?
You can open source the core and still charge for hosting, team features, or support. Decide what is paid on day one so you are not taking things away from users later.
How do I know if my price is too low?
If nobody pushes back on price, it is too low. Some objections from prospects is a healthy sign.
Monthly or annual pricing?
Start with monthly to lower the commitment. Offer annual with two months free once a customer has stayed for three months.
What if my first users refuse to pay?
Ask what would make it worth paying for. If the answer is vague, they may not have the problem badly enough. Go find people who do.