Apologies for the confusion. The pricing is monthly, but we're lowering it to $49/mo for anyone coming from Hacker News.
I'm a huge fan of self-service as well. Picking up the phone to call someone is like...the last thing I want to do. So 1990s! :-D
We're hard at work making Rownd much more self-service. We'd love to hear more feedback once the process there is a bit smoother!