S7E12 – SaaS Pricing Strategy 2026: Hybrid Models, AI Costs & Value-Based Pricing with Tjitte Joosten “T.J”

What will be the SaaS Pricing Strategy 2026? In this episode, Joran sits down with Tjitte Joosten—known as T.J.—to discuss the evolving world of SaaS pricing and how founders can adapt to change without losing momentum. T.J. works full-time in pricing and packaging for SaaS and AI companies. Before that, he spent years in early-stage ventures, helping them find product-market fit and close major deals. Those experiences taught him how to win large accounts without over-discounting and how to leave room for long-term growth.

Through that process, T.J. discovered that pricing is not just about numbers but also about psychology and behavioral economics. The same solution can sell for $10,000 or $50,000 depending on the story told. After meeting his co-founder, who was already working in pricing, T.J. transitioned into it full-time—and it became his passion.

Their conversation explores how SaaS pricing is evolving, how to experiment with models safely, when to raise prices, how to communicate changes effectively, and how freemium models may evolve in the AI era.

The Direction of SaaS Pricing in 2026: Value First and the Rise of Hybrid Models

When asked where SaaS pricing is headed, T.J. emphasizes that the core questions have always been the same: how do you deliver value, and how do you capture it fairly? For products like Notion or Slack, where value grows with more users, seat-based pricing will remain important. However, the mindset is shifting.

More founders are now starting with value creation—asking what drives value for their customers—and then deciding how to capture it. This leads to usage-based, outcome-based, or hybrid pricing models. According to T.J., around 80 to 90 percent of companies changing their pricing now move toward a hybrid model because most SaaS tools derive value both from access and ongoing activity.

He predicts that 2026 will not be defined by a single dominant pricing model but by an increase in experimentation. Pricing will likely become a dedicated company function, with roles like Chief Pricing Officer emerging. T.J. welcomes this development, even if he admits he might be a little biased.

How to Switch Models Without Breaking Your MRR

Transitioning from user-based pricing to adaptive, value-based, or hybrid models sounds appealing, but it can be risky if handled poorly. T.J. explains that many founders underestimate the technical challenges. While sending invoices per user is simple, tracking in-product activity, connecting it to billing, and enforcing limits inside the product is far more complex.

He recalls an incident where he was kicked out of a tool during a podcast recording because a usage cap misfired—despite not even being on a usage-based plan. This kind of error shows how fragile billing systems can be. For new companies, building for usage from the start is manageable. For those with legacy systems, it requires serious expertise.

In short, coming up with a pricing concept is easy. Implementing it without damaging your revenue stream is the real challenge.

How to Test Pricing Safely

For teams eager to experiment, T.J. advises starting with new customers. Existing users have expectations and emotional anchors that make them sensitive to change. A price that feels reasonable to new users can seem outrageous to long-time customers.

When testing, T.J. suggests adding the missing component to your current model. If you’re usage-based, introduce a fixed SaaS fee. If you’re SaaS-only, add a metric tied to product activity. Review your largest customers to identify which actions generate the most value, then test pricing around those actions with new users first. Over time, you can expand to your broader base.

The Psychology of Entitlement

Customers adapt quickly to what they have. T.J. calls this “entitlement”—the reason why reducing entitlements is so difficult. Going from three features to one feels like a loss, but expanding from one to many feels like a gain. This is why price testing should always begin with new customers and why removing features from existing plans requires careful handling.

When and How to Raise Prices

As the year closes, many companies consider raising prices based on inflation. While this is better than doing nothing, T.J. views it as the lowest level of pricing maturity. The best approach is to build a story around the value you’ve created.

Explain what you’ve improved, show how it benefits your customers, and link it to measurable business outcomes. If your product now solves the same problem faster or more effectively—perhaps through AI—that can justify a higher price. The key is to quantify and communicate the value clearly.

Timing Price Changes

Timing can determine whether a price increase succeeds or backfires. T.J. cites a streaming company that faced a wave of public backlash after announcing a price increase. However, by delaying the change for existing customers, the company allowed time for emotions to cool. By the time the higher prices took effect, outrage had subsided, and churn was minimal.

The lesson is simple: if you’re unsure how a change will be received, announce it early but implement it later. This approach reduces immediate churn pressure and gives customers time to adjust.

The Biggest Mistake: Talking About Costs

One of the most common pricing mistakes, according to T.J., is explaining changes through the lens of costs. Customers don’t care if your infrastructure or AI models are more expensive. They care about the value they receive. Instead of saying prices are rising because your costs have, focus on the outcomes you deliver and why they’re worth more today than before.

When the conversation centers on the customer’s value rather than your expenses, price increases are far easier to justify.

Freemium in the AI Era

The rise of AI introduces real costs even for free users, leading many to question whether freemium still works. T.J. believes freemium still makes sense for traditional SaaS, but the structure is shifting. Companies are moving away from time-limited or feature-limited trials and toward full-access plans with usage caps.

This model aligns with the broader industry move toward usage-based pricing. It lets users experience the best version of the product while controlling costs. By the time they hit the cap, they’ve already built enough trust to convert.

However, AI products face higher marginal costs. Many companies now carry massive free user bases, sometimes 99 percent of their users, while paying for every AI query those users make. This imbalance is forcing SaaS founders to reconsider whether freemium is sustainable or if a more disciplined model is needed.

From 0 to 10K MRR: Treat Every Big Deal as Unique

For early-stage founders growing toward their first $10K in MRR, T.J. recommends treating every major deal individually. Don’t anchor your pricing to previous offers. Instead, tailor each proposal to the customer’s specific needs. Charge something to begin with—never start free—and include a value metric that can grow as the customer uses more of your product.

At this stage, the goal isn’t to perfect pricing but to refine packaging. Once you know what resonates with customers, you can optimize pricing later.

Scaling from 10K MRR to 10M ARR and Beyond

As companies grow past $7M ARR, pricing decisions often remain in the founder’s hands, but T.J. says this is when ownership needs to shift. Around this stage, pricing should become an explicit function within the company, with clear responsibility assigned. It should also become a standing topic in regular meetings—at least quarterly, ideally monthly.

Simply assigning ownership and ensuring pricing is regularly discussed can lead to significant revenue improvements.

A Practical Playbook for Founders

Throughout the conversation, T.J.’s message is practical and consistent. Start with value and build your pricing around it. Hybrid models are becoming the norm because they reflect how customers actually use products. Test changes with new users, not existing ones. Be mindful of technical systems that support billing and metering, as they are often the hardest parts to get right.

Above all, communicate through the lens of customer value, not company costs. Time your changes thoughtfully, use freemium with purpose, and focus on getting your packaging right before obsessing over the perfect price.

Pricing is both art and science, but with structure, testing, and empathy, it can become one of the strongest levers for sustainable growth.

Key Timecodes

(0:00) – B2B SaaS & AI Pricing Expert
(0:05) – TJ Joosten on Value Storytelling
(1:13) – Future of SaaS Pricing 2026
(1:28) – Why Hybrid Pricing Wins
(3:10) – The Pricing Switch Risk
(3:27) – Technical Debt of Pricing
(5:15) – How to Test New Pricing
(6:40) – Entitlement & Packaging
(7:13) – When to Raise Prices
(8:49) – Timing Strategy: Netflix Case
(10:04) – Communicating Price Changes
(11:10) – Freemium in the AI Era
(12:33) – The Cost of Free Users
(13:38) – From $0 to $10K MRR
(14:42) – Scaling to $10M ARR
(15:56) – The Founder’s Role in Pricing
(16:32) – Connect with TJ Joosten

Transcription

[00:00:00.280] – Joran

Could you quickly introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?

[00:00:05.180] – Tjitte Joosten

First of all, thank you for having me, especially here. This is a unique experience for me being at an event and doing a podcast, so it’s quite cool. I’m Tjitte Joosten. Most people call me T. J. These days, thanks to my co founder. I work on pricing and packaging for SaaS and AI companies. Before that, I was working in various early stage companies, always commercially responsible, finding product market fit. And I think if you do that at multiple companies over and over again, and I think every time that big company comes by and you try and figure out, okay, how can I optimize for this particular client? First of all, get them in the door. And then also don’t give too much away because I want to grow these big accounts over time. And if you keep doing that, you We’re going to learn some tricks that you didn’t really think you were going to learn. There’s a lot of behavioral economics, psychology involved, and the numbers are secondary. You could sell the same solution for 10K or for 50K. It really depends on what does the story make sense. Then I met my co founder, he was already working in pricing.

[00:01:03.540] – Tjitte Joosten

We started chatting about it, and then from one thing came another. Now I’m doing a full-time pricing consultancy. I never knew I was going to do that, but I quite like my job now.

[00:01:13.820] – Joran

Nice. We’re going to talk a lot about pricing in this episode. We’re going to look to the future a little bit more. How do you see SaaS pricing evolving in 2026? I mean, is it going to be user-based, value-based, hybrid models? Tell me.

[00:01:28.440] – Tjitte Joosten

I think that’s the question everyone wants to know, and I do appreciate you saying, what is SaaS pricing going to look like and not just AI pricing? I think the underlying questions have always stayed the same. How do we actually deliver value to a client? Can we then capture according to that? If you’re a Notion or Slack, that question is still going to remain that, Hey, the more users come on my platform, the more value. That’s going to remain seed-based. But the major shift I’ve What they’re seeing is that they’re finally asking this question. Before, that was just a default. Let’s just, based on the number of users or just based on a company access, we’re going to charge. And I now see everyone creating a company and starting with the question, How do we create value? How should we capture that? And then if you might end up with usage, you might end up with outcome, and maybe hybrid. I’ve seen that about 80 to 90% that is changing their pricing is doing it towards hybrid. Not usage, not outcome, not SaaS, just a hybrid. Because if you look at most tools, there is some value in having access and there’s some value in activities.

[00:02:38.980] – Tjitte Joosten

The longer you use it, the better it becomes. If you can combine those two, that’s great. I think we’re going to continue on the path we have right now, but I think more company are going to play and experiment with pricing. I think that’s going to be the major change for 2026. Therefore, you will probably start seeing more pricing titles, I think. Maybe a chief pricing officer. Maybe next year is the first time we’ll see. I hope so. Maybe I shouldn’t hope so because it’s also my job. But no, I’m quite excited. I think it’s really going to become a function inside the company.

[00:03:10.900] – Joran

Yeah. I guess user-based or static-based pricing We can even name it, going more towards adaptive pricing, outcome-based, value-based. How do you make that switch? Because if everybody just suddenly makes that switch, then probably your MR is going to drop a lot.

[00:03:27.900] – Tjitte Joosten

This is a tough one because There’s so much noise on LinkedIn out there, and at the same time, there’s no written playbook on pricing. So for most people, they have no idea where to start. And then if I look at LinkedIn, as a founder, I might end up just adopting it and just hoping it’s going to work. And in that case, you’re going to see exactly your question. I think those companies who will just transition like that without testing anything, those are going to feel. That’s going to hurt because the whole billing system, for example, is going to need an overall. Sending people invoices based on the number of users, that’s easy. But tracking all the activity, that’s very tough. And then it’s not only tracking the activities and putting that inside, like the billing and the invoicing, but also putting caps inside the tools. The other day, I was locked out of a tool. I was in the middle of a podcast recording, and I was just kicked out because something triggered that wasn’t supposed to trigger. I wasn’t even doing usage-based, but the fact that I was already I don’t even want to know what my bill at the end of the month would look like because apparently something broke.

[00:04:36.260] – Tjitte Joosten

I think technically, it’s going to be very hard. It’s going to be easy to say, this is the intellectual model, this is the pricing model, what it should look like. That’s relatively easy that you can come up with something in a few days. But putting that into practice technically, I think that’s more difficult and that’s going to require someone with experience. If you’re already in the middle of stuff, if you’re just starting out, That’s fine. But the legacy is going to be very tough.

[00:05:03.240] – Joran

Luckily, we have somebody with experience, so I’m going to ask one deeper question. If people are listening right now and they want to start testing, experimenting with new pricing, what would you recommend them to do?

[00:05:15.600] – Tjitte Joosten

Regardless of what you’re trying out, always try out with new customers. Your existing base has so much legacy, and not just operational legacy, but also psychological legacy. If you’re going to increase the price by 5%, in some cases, you might get outraged. But to the new customer, that that 105% price, that’s the first real encounter they’ve had with your price. That’s very fine. The first thing is validate with them and then figure out if you can tell them a story. When it comes to actual pricing experiments, if you’re still doing pure SaaS or pure usage, I want to ask you the question, can you add the other opponent? Maybe if you’re pure usage, can you do something with outcomes? Or maybe can you actually go back and say, Can I do something with SaaS, like a fixed fee? And the other way around, if I’m just SaaS, is there something in my platform that creates enough value that I can put a pricing metric on it, like a user trade. Just do that experiment, figure out one case. Maybe look at your, well, this is probably best case, look at your biggest customers, figure out that if there’s any activity inside the platform, that if they do that, undertake that action, whether it creates more value, and try to put a price tag on it.

[00:06:32.380] – Joran

I think it’s really clever to start with new ones so they don’t have the benchmark or they don’t have what they’re currently paying.

[00:06:40.540] – Tjitte Joosten

Because entitlement is set in. People get used to stuff very, very quickly. If you take it away, that’s always why I always say, going from three to one is near impossible, but going from one to 100 is a lot easier because people just get entitled, and rightfully so, but people get used to the stuff, so definitely test it out.

[00:07:00.000] – Joran

Yeah. I guess pricing changes should happen a lot. That’s what I heard a lot in the podcast.

[00:07:07.020] – Tjitte Joosten

I might be biased.

[00:07:08.240] – Joran

When is the right time to increase prices or change prices, I guess, in this case?

[00:07:13.020] – Tjitte Joosten

Interesting question, especially considering the time of year. I think most people automatically think, Hey, November, December, that’s probably a good moment to indexation, a price indexation based on inflation. If you do nothing else, please do it, but make sure it’s the last thing you do. I recently wrote an article, and I think there’s five levels, and price indexation based on inflation, that’s the very last one. I think the best thing you can do is come up with a story. This is how recently we’ve been adding more value and also coming up, we’ve got these things in the roadmap that’s also going to increase value. This is how to translate to business value, this economic value for your company. Create a story around that and say, and therefore, we are changing our pricing and maybe introduce a new metric, like a usage based on SaaS or an outcome is based on that new business case. But write down how that economic value is created. Maybe you recently released a bunch of features that solve maybe a whole new problem. Well, it’s probably okay then to put a new value metric on there or make it an add-on.

[00:08:19.930] – Tjitte Joosten

Or if you’re doing the same solution, but better, maybe thanks to AI, you can solve the problems quicker, better, more accurate. That It’s actually a good story if you can put that into numbers, why you should increase the price of existing plans.

[00:08:36.560] – Joran

I think it’s a really good one. If you are going to increase prices, you can send the email like, Hey, this is what you’ve been done or what you had last year. It’s almost like Spotify wrap up at the end of the year.

[00:08:49.220] – Tjitte Joosten

Yeah, and the timing is also very, very important here. I think the best example of this is a couple of years ago, Netflix came out with a price hike, massive public outrage, not just on Twitter, but even on news outlets, they were mentioning this. But here’s the funny thing. Regardless of that outrage, the impact was near zero. Actually, they had a positive outcome. Why? Because they told to existing customers, Hey, this new price is just for everyone who’s now starting. It doesn’t come into existence for you in the next, I think it was 6, 9 or 12 months. But it was so far in the distance that people, even though they were average right now, they had long forgotten it by the time they actually had to pay more. Right? Timing is very important here. If you’re going to do a massive price hike and you’re not sure if it’s going to go down well, just tell them today and implement it tomorrow or ideally in a few months.

[00:09:43.180] – Joran

Yeah. So you maybe create the outrage, but then people don’t see it on their bill, so they forget about it, and then it happens.

[00:09:50.920] – Tjitte Joosten

It happens all the time.

[00:09:52.060] – Joran

I think you also see a lot of common mistakes or traps, I guess, to avoid people are going to change pricing. Hopefully, they should. We determine that. So what should they avoid when they do so?

[00:10:04.620] – Tjitte Joosten

I think the main thing is the language. So make sure to talk about… Don’t talk about your costs, because this is the one thing I constantly see. It’s like, Hey, costs are going up, and therefore, right? Or, We’ve added this AI model, and therefore, we now have this cost element in our SaaS solution, and we need to charge for that. The customer doesn’t give an F about your cost. They care about their value. And so you want to tell a story that it touches upon the self-interest of the customer. So again, can you say something about the business value you’re now creating and therefore you’re doing this? So I think that the story is the main thing where it goes wrong, where it’s about, well, It’s mainly neglecting the added value. And if you tie the story to that, I think in most cases, outreach is very unlikely to happen.

[00:10:54.480] – Joran

The cost aspect is a nice one because now with AI, we’re going to have high cost to actually run. Sometimes it’s SaaS, right? Will it still make sense to have freemium models as cost will rise for some AI companies?

[00:11:10.400] – Tjitte Joosten

That’s an interesting one. I haven’t been asked this before. Neither have I I put much up on this. I think it’s a no-brainer that for regular SaaS that’s charging for Xs, 100%, it still makes sense. I think it will because the biggest change in offering free stuff that’s happened in the last, I’d say, three years is that we went from just a trial for a few weeks or maybe a trial on a lesser plan. I think what’s going to change, and we’ve already seen this, but it’s going to go more extreme, is that thanks to this new mindset, we’re not doing usage caps. I’m going to offer you the full plan, the best of the best plan. I’m just going to add some caps so that you don’t use it too much. And then if you like it, by the time those caps actually initiate or you get a message like you’ve used your maximum amount, by that time, you’ve probably experienced the product and you know whether or not you like it. And I think this transition to usage and this transition also of the mindset in thinking of usage limits, that’s going to actually accelerate the amount of premium, if you can still call it that, models will see.

[00:12:22.830] – Tjitte Joosten

But instead of time-based trials, I think it’s going to be more and more, Hey, here’s the full plan, the most premium stuff we have. But there’s just limits on usage.

[00:12:31.580] – Joran

Yeah, because in the end, the cost will rise.

[00:12:33.640] – Tjitte Joosten

Then you can put… This is also a nice thing, actually. You can put a little cost on a free meme user because you’re giving this free access and the AI model is still costing you money. Then people are going to start asking themselves, Hey, we’ve got all these free users here. They’re not converting as much as we’d like to. But there’s also now a cost element. We have to reconsider whether we want to do this. I think that’s going to ignite a bit of a flame that needs their asses, to think a bit more properly about adding all these free tiers because I’ve met too many companies, they have a free plan, whereas 99% of users on the free plan and only 1% on the paid. And yet they are unwilling to give it away because they always say, Yeah, in the future, we’ll probably find a way to convert them, which might be true, but some companies get stuck there for years, and at the same time, they’re spending all this money for nothing.

[00:13:27.640] – Joran

We’re going to start wrapping things and this is going to be more towards revenue stages. If you can give advice to founder who’s just starting out and growing from 0 to 10K MR.

[00:13:38.520] – Tjitte Joosten

I would advise you to see every single big deal as separate or in a vacuum. Don’t look at what you propose to other companies. Just every single time think, how can I optimize for this particular client? One, how can I lower the barrier to entry a little bit while still having skin in the game? You want to always charge a little bit to start. But then make sure that you’re not giving everything for free in perpetuity. How can I already add some value metric in there that I know or at least I assume over time they’re going to use more of and therefore I’m going to grow this account? So always ask yourself this question and think as every single deal separate. I think that’s the number one advice. And play a lot with packaging, not with price. Price comes later once you’ve figured out what the packaging is.

[00:14:24.900] – Joran

Yeah, in the end, so don’t give things for free, but just have them to pay something and then throw them over time. Let’s assume we pass 10K MR. We’re going to make a huge step towards 10 million ARR. You can do however you want, jump it up. What advice would you give a SaaS founder here?

[00:14:42.060] – Tjitte Joosten

This is, of course, a tough question because the context is more relevant here. And I think case by case, we’re seeing dramatically different things. But I think from 7 to 10 million, sometimes even at 50 million, what we’re seeing is that they’re still usually the founder in charge, and this is the transition period. And I’m saying in charge of pricing. And then I think from 7 million, you should probably have a chat, Okay, who should actually be in charge? And I think that’s going to have a dramatic impact on your revenue. Just having that conversation, figuring out, Hey, can we actually put this responsibility on someone? And maybe this is the founder, right? But now they get this responsibility. It’s written out. People know this. They’re aware of this. And it’s going to be added on the quarterly review, right? In meetings, this It should be discussed because that’s what we’re still seeing at some companies doing 10 million where pricing isn’t even a line item on the agenda. I think the advice really around that stage is point towards someone who’s responsible and give it a line item on your, at least at the very least quarterly, but probably even monthly.

[00:15:49.060] – Joran

Because is it then if the founder is responsible, remains untouched for a really long time? If it’s not on your agenda?

[00:15:56.950] – Tjitte Joosten

Not necessarily. But the founder Founders are usually the people who will always find the problems no one is working on, or at least in my experience, don’t just assume that other people will look at pricing and say, Hey, no one’s doing this. I’m going to pull this towards me. Founder is usually the person who at least has a picture of all the fires that are going on. I wouldn’t say that they’re putting it away or ignoring it, but it is their responsibility to make it discussable, I think.

[00:16:27.420] – Joran

Nice. We’re going to wrap it up. If people want to get in contact with you, how can they do so?

[00:16:32.630] – Tjitte Joosten

They can reach out on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active right now. That also means I am trying to manage my inbox, so just send me a message. You can also send me a message at [email protected]. I’m pretty responsive to all the inquiries. So I’d be happy to have a chat. Cheers.

[00:16:50.590] – Joran

Thanks for coming in. Thank you so much, Joran. Thank you.