When Zapier Walked Away From 'Winning' And Won Bigger

Zapier, founded in 2011, was designed to help non-technical users connect SaaS tools without code. What began as a scrappy side project has evolved into an automation powerhouse that supports workflows across 8,000+ apps and serves over 2.2 million businesses globally.

In this episode of Pricing Labs, we went behind the scenes with Zapier CEO Wade Foster, who shared exclusive insights on their bold pricing transformation. You'll discover how they risked short-term revenue to solve customer pain points, the frameworks they used to make these decisions, and the surprising results one year later.

The Problem: The Gap Between Growth Numbers and Customer Love

Zapier's pricing didn't break all at once. It eroded over time as the result of many well-intentioned decisions made in isolation.

As the company scaled, pricing decisions were increasingly owned by different teams, each optimizing for growth, margins, or revenue. But somewhere along the way, the customer got lost in the math.

In the early years, pricing was founder-led and scrappy. But over time, the lack of unified principles led to unintended complexity:

• Customers were billed on two metrics: Zaps (automations) and Tasks (each run). Hitting the cap on one but not the other often pushed them into higher tiers before they felt ready.
• Pay-as-you-go task overages were available on some plans, but not others, the result of old A/B tests that had never been consolidated.
• Support teams struggled to explain what was billable, what wasn't, and why — a clear sign things had gotten too complex.

Objective & Hypothesis

Zapier set out to design a pricing model that would:

• Increase transparency and reduce friction
• Align incentives for long-term use and loyalty

Their hypothesis: By prioritizing customer trust and simplicity, they could reverse declining usage, improve retention, and build a more sustainable growth engine.

Method: The Transformation Process

Reclaim the steering wheel

Wade and the CFO took back decision rights over pricing. This wasn't about centralized control but providing clear leadership and eliminating the tug-of-war between teams optimizing for different metrics (margin, top-line growth, NRR) at the expense of customer experience.

Establish guiding principles

The team developed six clear pricing philosophies to guide future decisions. The core value is to build long-term trust with customers, even if it means walking away from short-term revenue.

Target high-impact changes

After analyzing customer complaints, they did a pricing reset focused on three key improvements:

• No caps on zaps: The zap limits on the Free and Starter plans were removed, so every plan now includes unlimited Zaps. This encourages more automation setup, which is the core value Zapier delivers.
• Utility steps made free: Filters, Formatters, and Paths by Zapier were no longer counted toward task limits. These tools help shape workflows but aren't the value themselves, so Zapier made them free to use within any Zap.
• Flexible task usage: Pay-as-you-go pricing was added to all plans for tasks beyond the included limit. This gave customers more control: predictability when they wanted it, flexibility when they didn't.

Budget for risk

Zapier modeled the expected revenue impact for each change and established a "risk budget" - the financial hit they were willing to absorb to build a healthier business. This wasn't naive optimism but a calculated investment in customer trust.

Observations & Results

One year after implementation, the data and behavior of Zapier's customers told a compelling story about the impact of their pricing changes:

Product usage reversed course

After two years of decline, usage surged following the pricing change. Customers created and ran more automations, revealing the product’s real value and confirming that earlier pricing complexity had hindered meaningful engagement.

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After two years of decline, usage surged following the pricing change. Customers created and ran more automations, revealing the product’s real value and confirming that earlier pricing complexity had hindered meaningful engagement.

Cost per task dropped

Before, customers paid more per task and saw less value. The new pricing cut costs, removed limits, and made it easier to build powerful workflows.

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Before, customers paid more per task and saw less value. The new pricing cut costs, removed limits, and made it easier to build powerful workflows.

Churn fell dramatically

Churn dropped sharply after the pricing change and stayed low. Clear, predictable pricing removed surprise costs, resolving key reasons customers were leaving/downgrading.

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Churn dropped sharply after the pricing change and stayed low. Clear, predictable pricing removed surprise costs, resolving key reasons customers were leaving/downgrading.

Metered revenue flourished

Metered revenue jumped as the PAYG option was opened across plans, revealing a strong preference for flexibility. Letting customers choose between paying for additional usage or upgrading to the next tier unlocked a major revenue stream.

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Metered revenue jumped as the PAYG option was opened across plans, revealing a strong preference for flexibility. Letting customers choose between paying for additional usage or upgrading to the next tier unlocked a major revenue stream.

Complaints transformed

Pricing complaints, once the top issue, became far less common. The tone of feedback shifted from frustration to appreciation for transparency. As Wade said, "No more 'I don't get this.' or 'You tricked me!' emails. That matters."

Five Key Lessons from Zapier's Pricing Journey

• Recognize when pricing has become a product: If pricing needs its own support docs, creates confusion, or even your team struggles to explain it, it's become a burden rather than an enabler. Watch for rising support tickets on pricing, fragmented plan cohorts, and internal confusion.
• Establish principles, then design: Start with clear pricing values and let them guide decisions. Wade's biggest regret was not codifying these principles earlier: "As the company scaled, I wish I had done a much better job of getting our pricing and packaging principles on paper so we could guide leaders."
• Don't test what conflicts with principles: As Wade said, "Just because you can make more money doesn't mean you should."
• Map each change to a concrete outcome: Each change targeted a specific friction point, had a projected impact on revenue, and aligned with their principles. This kept decisions intentional and measurable.
• Treat pricing as a strategic investment: Set a risk budget – what you're willing to absorb to build long-term trust.

The AI Disruption Ahead

Wade believes AI is catalyzing the reinvention of business models across SaaS. This creates an innovator's dilemma for established companies:

His advice? "Look at those innovator moments and ask: What can we do to disrupt ourselves? Because if we don't get there first, someone else will."