TL;DR
Without customers, you still have three sources of information, your competitors, your costs and the value you create. Use all three to bracket a price, then check how many customers that price needs to pay you. If that number is out of reach, the price is wrong, not the market.
You have built the product. Now you need a number for the pricing page, and you have nobody to ask. No customers, no data, no sales team. Just a blank field.
The good news: zero customers does not mean zero information.
Why zero data is not zero information
Three things already exist before your first sale: what your competitors charge, what serving a customer costs you, and what your product saves or earns for the person using it. Each one gives you a boundary. Together, they give you a range.
Method 1: anchor on competitors
List the five closest alternatives your buyer could use instead of you, including the free ones and the spreadsheet they use today. Write down their price for the plan your buyer would pick.
You are not trying to copy them. You are finding the range buyers already accept. Pricing far below it signals a toy. Pricing far above it needs a reason the buyer can see in ten seconds.
Method 2: work back from your salary
Decide what the business needs to pay you, then check how many customers each candidate price requires. A price that needs ten thousand customers in a niche of two thousand buyers is not a price, it is a wish.
This is the same break-even math you can run in the free calculator linked below.
Method 3: price the outcome
Ask what your product changes for the buyer, in money or hours. If it saves a freelancer three hours a month and their hour is worth €40, a €19 plan is an easy yes. If it saves them ten minutes, it is a hard no at any price.
The number to check before publishing
Before your pricing page goes live, compute one number: how many paying customers this price needs to pay you. Then ask whether you can name where those customers are and how they will hear about you. If you cannot, change the price or the target before you change the product.
FAQ
Should I launch free and charge later?
You can, but free users tell you very little about what people will pay. A low paid plan from day one gives you a real signal much earlier.
Can I change my price later?
Yes, and you should expect to. Keep early customers on their price if you raise it, and they will usually stay.
Adrien Lebas
Founder of Banast, building it alone from Avignon. Writes about what it takes to make a living from what you build.