Our New Transparent Pricing Dashboard: Where Your Money Goes When You Buy a Buffer Subscription
By Jenny Terry
We’ve shared a number of parts of Buffer’s business transparently over the years — and one piece we’ve always wanted to expand on is where your money goes when you pay for a Buffer subscription.
We shared a post about where your money went when buying a $10 Buffer plan back in 2014 — but it was well time for an update.
A lot has changed over the last nine years, and we want to share some of the learnings and insights gained from looking back at our numbers.
We’re also happy to share a more sustainable way of providing this information — our new transparent pricing dashboard. You can refer to it anytime to see where your money goes when purchasing a Buffer subscription, and even look back at previous years to see how things have changed.
How our finances have evolved while staying true to our mission
Looking at our finances over the last nine years, you’ll notice fluctuations within the different categories. The biggest increase you’ll notice will be our employee expenses. Since 2014 our team has grown from 34 to 78 team members. These expenses have also increased as a result of:
- the evolution of our salary formula
- many of our teammates growing into more senior-level roles (and their pay reflecting this!), and
- our commitment to keep up with market rates when it comes to how we pay our team.
Another important detail to note is how Average Sales Price (ASP) and Expenses have changed over time. Our Average Sale Price (ASP) in 2014 was $13, while our total Operating Costs were $3,575,897. In 2022, our ASP was $20, and our Operating Costs hit $19,757,852. While our total Operating Expenses have increased by 452 percent in the last nine years, our ASP has only increased by 54 percent during the same timeframe.
For us, that’s a rewarding indication we’ve stayed true to our mission and strategy to support small businesses. We have intentionally chosen not to go up-market and serve enterprise customers, but rather we are committed to helping small businesses and ambitious individuals grow their brands on social media.
A look at our pricing history
Our ASP also reflects the changes we’ve made to our pricing model over the years. Here’s a look at how our pricing and plans have changed over time:
