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Comment by atopal | Hacker News Reader

One thing that's really disappointing is that more and more sites are hiding pricing information until you sign-up. That feels like at least a gray if not a dark pattern. For me that's a terrible first impression. It's a sign that I have to look out for further deception, even if that's not the intention.

I'm guessing that A/B testing shows this to be more profitable than being upfront with pricing?

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I honestly thought you were being ironic at first. The pricing info is in their FAQ: https://slimfaq.com/faq (specifically at https://slimfaq.com/faq/24-getting-started/84-how-much-does-...)

Which, ironically, is not obviously located. The link for their FAQ says "Demo". And it's in the main navigation on the top, instead of somewhere down the page where their layout is guiding me. Right before "Intercom Integration", they should really have another section which says "Do you have more questions? Try our FAQ!"

Instead, all of their navigation is guiding me to the sign-up button as a next step. It's a product page for creating and maintaining FAQs, and they don't guide me to their own FAQ - that's not a good sign.

I agree. I did eventually find the pricing info in the demo, but it's not at all immediately obvious that the 'demo' plays double duty as the site's actual FAQ page. And why hide pricing info in a FAQ anyway? Pricing should not be just in a FAQ.

Also, $7/mo seems steep to me, but who knows? To me the FAQ system seems to involve an excess of clicking/navigating.

I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive the "demo" link just brought up the sign-up form before. Glad they changed that, maybe I should bring this up for every product featured on the HN front page ;)

Ironically, who reads the FAQ?

Thanks I came here to complain of no pricing page also. Shows how important conventions are.

"SlimFAQ is free for up to 20 questions. If your FAQ requires more, you can sign up to our standard plan that comes with unlimited questions for just 7 $ per month (annual payment)."

Internally, sometimes sales teams resist giving out information that would otherwise give them a chance to communicate directly. Unintended consequence of commission based compensation, I guess.

In this case, though, I suspect they are just trying to build a mailing list.

Good question! We've just launched and this was not on a bad intend (didn't even have time to A/B test this yet :)). I'll talk to the rest of the team - maybe we should put pricing on the landing page. We've nothing to hide: it's free for up to 20 questions (including all features) - it's 7$ a month for unlimited questions. Let me know if you have any more questions! Thanks!

You definitely should, I stopped checking out the offering completely because of the missing pricing.

Just as though experiment to see what we are feeling; "not bad intend" do you feel we should take away from secret pricing?

Thanks for the feedback. It's also in our FAQ ( https://slimfaq.com/faq/24-getting-started/84-how-much-does-... ) - accessible by clicking on the little speak-bubble in the bottom right of the page.

We'll think of a better way to make that more accessible on the landing page. Thanks!

No problem. Not trying to be a dick, but pretty much every time there isn't a pricing page, it means the price is "too rich for my blood" so I just close the browser.

It often means I'm going to get a sales call and a linkedin request too but that's a whole other story ...

UPDATE: We heard you! We've rolled out a new version of our landing page that shows our current plans. Thanks for the great feedback!

It's still free (forever) to sign up and have an FAQ with up to 20 questions. You'll need to upgrade to a paid plan after that. Enjoy and feel free to get in touch! Thanks!

@con from SlimFAQ here: With a free account you have access to all features but are limited to a maximum of 20 questions.

Seems like we are not doing the best we can to communicate our features and the difference between a free and a paid subscription. We will look into this and update the landing page. Thank you!

Let me know if you have any more questions.

You might want to link to your FAQ section ;-) from your landing page.

Good point! Although the FAQ is accessible by clicking the "Demo" link in the navigation and the little speak-bubble in the bottom right, we can do a better job. We'll rollout a version of the landing page that features pricing and a more accessible FAQ. Thank you!

You should just call it 'FAQ'. I actually browsed through it a bit thinking it was made-up stuff for a made-up demo.

If you call it FAQ, nobody in sound mind is going to think you're not using your own product to demo it ;)

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