No, Assembla is not proud of having such a low selling price. We have seen that as a problem since the beginning. The original sin is not the current low selling price. The original sin was offering the "private" product for free during a time when it wasn't a serious business for us. We took an enormous amount of abuse when we discontinued this product, and to soften the blow, we worked to keep prices low. We did this even though it's clear that a customer who makes a decision based on a $2 price point isn't going to make much of a contribution to the company. It's now clear that our gesture wasn't fully appreciated, and it's dragging down the pricepoint for our serious customers - startups, corporate product developers, outsourcers, agencies, and consulting companies that need professsional management features.

I have to disagree with the guy that says the service doesn't have value over $20. Even on the face of it, he would replace it with a server costing $50/month, plus install and admin time costing at least that. So, he's already at $100. He's probably only using the subversion repository, which he could easily install on his own. However, if you are serious about getting the most from your team, you would be using the alerts, code browser, the ticketing system, which would cost you substantially more if you bought it from Atlassian or Fogbugz, and be well worth it. If you have a consulting operation, as many Assembla customers do, you will use the time tracking and reporting. In other words, if you manage your team professionally, you will get a lot of value out of this software. And, certainly we will work on charging appropriately.