Ask HN: Multiple users with 1 account in a SaaS, how do you find them? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Multiple users with 1 account in a SaaS, how do you find them?

1 pointNicoJuicy5 comments

I should find who has 1 account, but uses this one for multiple people (pay per month / user webapp). I'm currently logging the username, ip , useragent, page visited (every html page), sessionId and the time.

My current report generates a query - grouped by session with a MinDateTime and MaxDateTime.

I'm not quite satisfied with my solution (there are to many sessions mostly) and it's not really automated for now.

How do you keep track of who is cheating your subscription system?

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If they are sharing an account, they aren't really cheating - your application just isn't providing them any benefits to have multiple users.

If you find a large percentage of accounts are shared, then maybe you should take a look at revising your pricing and segmenting on something else. Alternatively, you could look at adding functionality that makes having multiple user accounts more useful than just sharing one.

If it is just a few accounts, it's probably not worth your time worrying about it.

It's not about it's ethical or not, i have to implement it by my employer.. Since he is paying me wager, i want to do it as good as possible :)

I think your focus is wrong, as pwim said you should focus on creating a benefot to multipl eusers rather than account sharing. by going after, what you refer to as "cheaters" means making an enemy of your customer, however if you view them as a customer whose needs are not being met you could increase overall subscription rates by focussing on these benefits. I suggest continuign to try and track your "cheaters" but approach them to discuss why they do it and how multiple accounts would suit them better e.g. easier to communicate with other users ont he same platform as you can track messaging by username, if 10 people use the same login then mo one know who is sending or responding to messages within the system.

I've seen some systems just enforce one session per user, multiple people sharing an account becomes unusable as they will keep logging each other out

I kinda thought about this too, but i'm mostly looking for a tracking system that can help me identify "cheating" users.

I think, considering multiple devices - browsers - ... it should be a "helpfull" tool and not a "forcing" tool. Eg. when someone is logging in through their mobile, the session on their pc shouldn't get expired.

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