How to price a digital product

This is the part I've hidden from most, and I suspect it happens to a lot of people who came from design: we talk about value fluently until it has to become a number, and that's where the voice drops.

Why it's so hard

A price is the one part of the work where you can't hide behind process. A design decision can be defended with arguments; a number doesn't allow that. Either you say it or you don't, and the moment you say it you're asserting something about yourself you can't qualify.

That's where the hedging comes from: the phased quote so the large figure never lands at once, the discount offered before anybody asks, the we can talk about it if it seems like a lot written into the same email as the proposal. It looks like flexibility, but deep down it's apologising in advance.

What isn't research

Looking at what others charge and going slightly under feels like research, but most of the time it's fear, even if we dress it up as a method.

It also has a deeper problem: the prices you can see published belong to the people willing to publish them, which isn't a representative sample of anything. You're averaging a self selected group and treating the result as data.

Nor does placing yourself below make you more likely to be chosen. In professional services a price works as a signal, and a number well under everybody else raises an awkward question in the mind of whoever reads it.

The signal that matters

The signal that actually matters is simpler and rarer: somebody asking what it costs without you having raised the subject.

That question means the person has already decided internally that they want it and is working out whether they can afford it. It's a completely different point in the conversation from the one where you introduce the price, because there you're still persuading.

When the question arrives on its own, whatever number you say is measured against value that person has already recognised. When you say it first, it's measured against nothing.

The first number will be wrong

A price is far easier to correct than to introduce. Raising it for new clients needs nobody permission; lowering it needs nobody permission either.

The only genuinely expensive one is the first, because it's the one that breaks the deadlock, and waiting until it feels completely right is an elegant way of never deciding.

If you name it and nobody walks away, you were cheap. That's useful information, even if it takes a while to sound like it. And if somebody does walk, that's useful too: you've found your ceiling without having to ask anyone.

What I do now

I write the number before the conversation, not during it. In the moment I always go lower, because the pressure of somebody waiting in front of you beats any conviction you arrived with.

And I send it in writing, with no ornament and no pre emptive justification. When a proposal spends three paragraphs justifying the price, it sounds like even the proposal thinks it's too much.

Questions people ask about this

How do I price a digital product?

Start with a number you can say out loud without justifying it, and test it. The useful reference isn't what others charge, it's what happens when you say yours: if nobody leaves, it was low.

When do I start charging?

As soon as the product solves the problem end to end for somebody, seams and all. Waiting until it's polished delays the only information that matters, which is whether anybody pays.

Should I charge hourly or by project?

By project, almost always. Charging by the hour penalises you for exactly what you've learned: the better you get, the less time it takes and the less you earn.

What do I do when somebody says it's expensive?

Ask compared to what. The answer usually reveals they were comparing against something else, and that conversation is more useful than a discount. If the budget genuinely isn't there, what you adjust is the scope, not the price.