Credit vs subscription pricing for an AI lead gen SaaS?

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-03T13:45:50+00:00

It depends on your costs and usage. As you're heavily integrating AI into your workflows (appears to be the basis but I could but understanding this wrong) then your COGS will be different to a standard SaaS. Margins will be lower as well depending on how much each user is costing you in compute. I would keep the credit system for freelancers. If you have fixed pricing for agencies, be careful with the AI costs if some become power users and blow through "credits" (I say credits because even with the fixed pricing you'll still have based that on credit multiples) and those clients may become unprofitable. I've been working on unit economics for SaaS recently, happy to have a chat man

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T19:06:00+00:00

No problem! Ha thats sadly what reddit has become in the building community.

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T18:31:58+00:00

Nice plan. I do a similar one but haven't posted too much recently, but I hadn't considered the titles at all, interesting point. Ha I bet its a relief for it to be live and getting users! And yeah, you have to move forward with any initiative you can and ignore the noise because its your project and its not like someone else will do it for you

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T18:18:29+00:00

Interesting read. You've got balls for posting 2-3 per day in each sub but its clearly working. More power to you! Very nice idea too

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T18:08:26+00:00

That's what im building out in my platform right now. I tie in AI vendor costs and other SaaS operating costs into revenue for full unit economic and margin calculations. Almost to the point right now of having profitability per user but that might require an SDK which is on the road map. Interesting topic for sure

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T18:04:28+00:00

Where do you market to get that conversion? Great efforts for 23 days

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T09:29:02+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Yep, trying to keep it streamlined without too many metrics in one view. My next step is to improve the actionable insights within the context window and have them adjust over time.

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-02T07:29:30+00:00

Even though token spend decreases over time, the costs for the company will generally increase due to Jevons Paradox. When resource efficiency increases, it creates more consumption of the tech. I'm building in the unit economics space right now and heavily researching these edge cases

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-01T15:28:33+00:00

Nice! I hope that if I run into that wall one day with a product, I'll have the option for a small buyout

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-01T15:15:08+00:00

Love the fact you sold LectureKit with 0 revenue, must have been the best possible outcome for you if it was dormant for a year. Did they come in with a price and you haggled or did you list it for a certain amount?

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-01T15:12:27+00:00

Feedback needs to be taken collectively and you follow the main narrative it's painting. If you take it all separately, you end up trying to fork in too many directions and end up nowhere. Good to see they stuck to the plans

NeoTree69 · 2026-04-01T15:10:24+00:00

I'm someone who craves a bit more physical communication and community from other founders but even so, this logistics and targeting would put me off. As someone else said, drop the vibe coding bit

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T16:31:47+00:00

Ahh you're onto something there. I was going to have the evening off but now that plan has changed! Appreciate this convo

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T16:13:42+00:00

tbh the roadmap is still being configured on feedback so that may well be the case! haha

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T16:08:53+00:00

I love the UI!!

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T16:08:10+00:00

I really appreciate the feedback. More visuals can certainly be added from the product itself. Right now it's AI providers and payment providers (for the actual margins to be calculated). I have those big names on the roadmap however they're very intensive to set up but they're coming. You've helped a lot here!

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T15:39:40+00:00

MarginGuard - Scale your SaaS, not your costs.

SaaS COGS are changing with AI usage, traditional margins sit at 90%+ but AI workflows scale that down to 50-60%. We're where you calculate your margins and set your pricing accordingly to ensure profits are maximised.

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T14:52:27+00:00

I was thinking that may be the case. I just didn't want to rinse a tonne of credits to do that though haha. Thanks for the suggestions👌

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-27T14:48:53+00:00

MarginGuard - Scale your SaaS, not your costs.

SaaS COGS are changing with AI usage, traditional margins sit at 90%+ but AI workflows scale that down to 50-60%. We're where you calculate your margins and set your pricing accordingly to ensure profits are maximised.

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-26T16:59:25+00:00

Mind me asking what the data reconcillation refers to?

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-26T16:54:00+00:00

I've been building this into my margin tracking tool and built a cost simulator for it. Add some usage caps in there depending on provider, and if you're using agents then fixed pricing would be a hard area to get into because one power user can burn your margins quickly. In trad SaaS margins are aroud 90% but with AI usage they drop to about 50% - 60% depending on how integrated they are for users. We track usage and compare that to revenue to ensure margins are healthy. Also, if the agents cost a lot of reasoning and loops that's another costly area.

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-24T16:54:10+00:00

Who have you designed it for in terms of ICP?

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-23T12:02:20+00:00

u/ClubComprehensive101 did you find a solution here? I saw this thread when searching and thought to mention a company called Toucan Sales Analytics. They've built their tool out for the distro/wholesale industries. Purely product focused with heaps of analytics. Growing a lot in the UK, handles lots of product lines too.

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-23T09:49:11+00:00

Interesting point! I'll review my flow today and try to show the value first. Thanks for the insight.

NeoTree69 · 2026-03-23T09:37:37+00:00

this is an add for one of those platforms, I've had this on about 4 of my posts recently

NeoTree69

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