SaaS architecture and pricing models

Abstract

In the new era of computing, SaaS software with different architectural characteristics might be priced in different ways. Even though both pricing and architectural characteristics are responsible for the success of the offering; the relationship between architectural and pricing characteristics has not been studied before. The present study fills this gap by employing a multi-case research. The findings accentuate that flexible and well-designed architecture enables different pricing models; however, poorly designed architecture limits also the pricing. Scalability and high level of modularity are the major enablers of a great variety of pricing models. Using public cloud services may lead to introducing usage-based pricing or in the contrary, making the pricing simpler. Applying multi-tenancy lowers the customizability, consequently the customers’ negotiation power decreases. Pricing may give special requirements to the architectural design, such as scalability, customizability and additional components.