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Four, and they are worth pricing side by side before reacting, because the instinct after a steep rise is to start looking at alternatives, and that instinct costs businesses more than the rise does. Two of the four options cost nothing and most owners try neither.
This has been happening across every category at once: practice systems, job software, channel managers, accounting. Often the increase arrives attached to features nobody asked for, and increasingly those features are described as AI, which is its own kind of insult when the thing you actually wanted was the price to stay the same.
Costs nothing, takes an afternoon, and almost nobody does it. A price rise is the best possible prompt to find out what your platform can already do, because most businesses use a fraction of what they pay for. If switching on the waitlist, the reminders or the estimate follow up saves two hours a week, the rise has been absorbed and then some, and you have not moved anything.
Also free, and it works more often than owners expect, particularly with the vendors whose pricing is not published. Ask for the previous rate held for twelve months, or the annual rate rather than monthly, or the tier below with the one feature you actually use added. Ask before the renewal date, not after. The worst outcome is that you were going to pay the new price anyway.
Real, and sometimes right, and consistently underestimated. The cost is not the difference in monthly fees, it is the export, the checking, the settings rebuilt by hand, the retraining, and the weeks where everyone is slower. Price the whole thing before comparing, because a modest saving frequently takes two years to repay, by which point the new platform has raised its price too.
A legitimate decision, not a defeat. If the system does what the business needs and the increase is a small share of what it earns you, paying it and getting back to work is often the highest return use of the afternoon you would have spent on this. Write down the number you would not absorb, so the next rise gets a faster decision.
The comparison most owners make is the monthly fee against the monthly fee. That is the comparison the alternative vendor would like you to make.
The number you want is how long the saving takes to repay the move. Take the annual difference between the two platforms. Then set against it the hours the move takes, at what your time is genuinely worth, plus the retraining, plus a realistic allowance for everyone working slower for a few weeks, plus anything the old vendor charges to release your own data, which some do.
Divide the second number by the first. If the answer is more than about eighteen months, the saving is not the reason to move, and you should decide on capability instead. That does not mean staying. It means being honest that you are moving because the system cannot do something you need, which is a much better reason and leads to a better choice of destination.
Increasingly common, and worth thinking about separately, because it is a different question from a plain increase.
An AI feature built into a platform was built for every customer that platform has, which means it answers a question the vendor decided was common. Whether that question is the one costing you time is a coincidence. Sometimes it genuinely is. Often it is a summarising or drafting feature that produces work to check rather than work removed.
Three questions settle it quickly. What job does it do, stated as a sentence about your week rather than as a capability. What does it get wrong, and who finds out. And what happens if you turn it off, because a feature you can switch off costs nothing to try, while one your renewal price now depends on is a decision rather than a trial.
If the honest answer is that the feature does nothing for your business, that does not automatically mean leave. It means the increase should be judged as a straight price rise with no added value, which is what the four options above are for.
Try options one and two first, in that order, because together they cost an afternoon and a phone call and they resolve the majority of these situations. Only price a move once you know the platform genuinely cannot do what you need.
If you want that worked out on your own numbers rather than in the abstract, that is what the free plan does. It includes the cost of staying, and it will tell you to stay when staying is right.
Probably not on price alone, and there are two free options to try first. Switch on what you already pay for, because most businesses use a fraction of their platform and a rise is a good prompt to find the rest. Then negotiate, which works more often than owners expect, especially where pricing is not published. Ask for the old rate held for a year, or the annual rate, or a lower tier with the one feature you use. Only price a move after those, and price the whole move rather than the monthly difference.
Take the annual saving between the two platforms. Against it, set the hours the move takes at what your time is worth, the retraining, a realistic allowance for everyone being slower for a few weeks, and anything your current vendor charges to release your data. Divide the cost by the saving. If it takes more than about eighteen months to repay, the saving is not your reason and you should decide on capability instead. That may still mean moving, for a better reason.
Often, yes, and the odds are better before your renewal date than after it. Vendors whose pricing is not published have the most room. Reasonable asks: the previous rate held for twelve months, the annual rate instead of monthly, or the tier below with the single feature you actually need added to it. Being a long standing customer who is genuinely considering leaving is a stronger position than most owners realise, and the worst outcome is the price you were already going to pay.
It changes how you judge the increase, not what you do about it. Ask what job the feature does, stated as a sentence about your week rather than as a capability, what it gets wrong and who finds out, and what happens if you switch it off. If the answers are unconvincing, treat it as a straight price rise with no added value and work through the four options. A feature you did not ask for is a reason to negotiate. It is rarely on its own a reason to take on a migration.
