Why SDRBO
Paying more should get you more room, not more permission.
Feature gating is a pricing tactic, not a product decision. It exists because a locked button is easy to sell against. SDRBO takes the other position: the product is the product, and the price scales with the size of the operation using it.
What tiered software actually costs you
The list price is rarely the real price. The real price is the third upgrade, six months in, when the feature you needed all along turns out to live two tiers up.
The workaround tax
Teams build spreadsheets, shared inboxes and manual checklists around a locked feature. The workaround becomes a process, the process becomes a habit, and the habit outlives the software that caused it.
The upgrade cliff
You need one capability, such as custom fields, an audit log or a second pipeline. The only route is a tier that also multiplies your per-seat cost across everyone who never asked for it.
The seat squeeze
Per-user pricing turns access into a budget decision. The warehouse lead, the bookkeeper and the part-time technician get left out, so the system stops reflecting what is actually happening.
Metered AI resentment
Credits sold per seat, expiring monthly, with a hard stop halfway through a task. People learn to avoid the feature rather than risk burning the allowance, which is the opposite of why it was bought.
Four commitments we price around
These are structural, not promotional. They are the reason our pricing page lists ten usage numbers instead of four feature columns.
01. Every feature, every plan
If it ships, it ships to everyone. A one-person business on Solo gets custom objects, audit logs, automation, the API and the client portal. There is no contact sales to unlock.
02. Permissions are not a tier
Roles and granular permissions are safety equipment. Restricting who can see pay rates or delete a customer is available on the cheapest plan, because charging for it would mean charging for security.
03. Growth records are unlimited
Contacts, projects, tickets, invoices, learners and portal users are never capped. You are not penalized for keeping history, and never nudged to delete customers to stay under a line.
04. AI credits pool and never hard-stop
Credits belong to the workspace, not the seat. Simple tasks route to cheaper models automatically. When you run high, you buy more of that one resource rather than being cut off mid-month.
Typical tiered SaaS compared with SDRBO
| Question | Typical tiered platform | SDRBO |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets the full feature set? | Top tier only | Every plan |
| What raises the bill? | Unlocking capability | Seats and monthly volume |
| Roles and permissions | Mid or top tier | Included everywhere |
| Audit log and record history | Enterprise add-on | Included everywhere |
| Custom fields and objects | Tier-limited counts | Included everywhere |
| API access | Higher tier | Included, metered by call volume |
| Client or customer portal users | Billed as users | Unlimited, never billed |
| AI usage | Per-seat credits, hard stop | Pooled credits, buy more of that resource |
| Adding a part-time employee | Full-price seat | $29 per month, on any plan |
| Contact or record caps | Common, tier-based | None on core records |
What you give up in return
No pricing model is free of trade-offs, and a page that claims otherwise is selling something. Here is the honest version of ours.
- The entry price is higher than a stripped starter tier. Solo is $119, not $19, because it is the whole platform rather than a sample of it
- The usage limits are real. If you send a hundred thousand campaign emails a month, you will be on a larger plan or buying capacity
- We do not do everything. Payroll, accounting, inventory and enterprise BI are permanently out of scope, at every price
- We are a young platform without a SOC 2 attestation yet, and we say so rather than hoping the question does not come up
Who this is built for
- Service businesses that sell, deliver, invoice and support the same customer
- Companies running four to eight disconnected tools and paying to glue them together
- Teams where non-desk staff need access but cannot justify a full CRM seat
- Owners who want the bill to be predictable and the limits to be legible
- Anyone who has been surprised by an upgrade quote in the last two years
Who it is not for
- Companies that need payroll processing or tax filing in the same system
- Manufacturers needing shop-floor or inventory ERP
- Call centers requiring advanced telephony routing
- Analytics teams needing a warehouse and an enterprise BI layer
- Anyone whose accounting must be authoritative inside the platform
Straight answers
What does no feature gating actually mean?
It means the $119 Solo plan and the $3,499 Enterprise plan run identical software. Custom fields, custom record types, roles and permissions, audit logs, the client portal, the LMS, automation and the API are included at every price. No feature is withheld to create an upgrade path.
Then why would anyone buy a higher plan?
Capacity. Higher plans include more internal users and larger monthly pools for AI credits, automation runs, email, storage, e-sign requests, processing units and API calls. You move up when the operation gets bigger, not when you need a button unlocked.
Is this cheaper than the tools we run now?
Usually, for a team of about ten running four or more separate subscriptions. A comparable stack of CRM, project, proposal, billing, LMS, help desk, portal, forms and automation tools typically runs between $800 and $3,200 a month at list price, against $229 for SDRBO Small Team.
What stops you adding feature gates later?
Nothing legally, which is why it is worth judging on structure rather than promises. The pricing is built on ten published usage meters, so the levers we can pull are volume levers. Adding a capability paywall would mean rebuilding how the product is priced, not flipping a switch.
Do you offer a free plan?
No. A free tier is usually the most heavily gated version of a product, and maintaining it means the paid plans subsidise it. We would rather price the real thing honestly and show it to you before you commit.
Test the claim yourself
Ask us for the feature you assume is behind a paywall. Audit logs, custom objects, the API, the portal, permissions. We will show it running on the Solo plan.