Imagine stepping into the grocery store and having the staff list off every product they sell—before even asking what you need.

When you finally pick up the carton of milk you were looking for, you’re asked to go meet the manager somewhere in the back. “He’ll tell you the price.”

It sounds ridiculous, but it actually resembles many SaaS pricing pages.

From ugly tables and trigger-happy toggles, to inexplicable secrecy, it often feels like the mind games have already begun.

Your pricing page is usually the most visited after your homepage. And somehow, companies add unnecessary friction or use deceptive tactics—seeming to forget that this is just another very important step in the customer journey.

In this article, we’ll walk through the biggest reasons your pricing page might be costing you sales—and what to do about it.

Mistake #1: Clarity over confidence

Product marketers and design teams all say the same thing—that the pricing page should be “simple”. But I really think it’s not as simple as that.

My take is that it’s more important for the page to be reassuring. Clean design is great. But clean design that leaves customers unsure what they’re buying is a problem.

Take Slack’s pricing page. It’s famously clear—but it’s also highly descriptive. Each plan shows not just what you get, but how it impacts your business. For example, the Business+ plan doesn’t just say "SAML-based SSO"—it says you get more administrative control and security, so it’s clear why that’s worth paying for. The features are not just listed; they’re explained.

Compare that to a typical SaaS page where you’ll see vague rows like "Advanced Analytics" or "Custom Roles" with no context. What’s advanced? What’s custom? Will this actually solve my problem? Buyers are left to guess.

A useful reference here is Donald Miller’s "Building a StoryBrand". One of his core principles is that people don’t buy the best products—they buy the ones they can understand the fastest. But understanding doesn’t mean skimming. It means grasping the outcome. Your pricing page needs to show not just what something is, but what it does.

Mistake #2: Not helping people choose

Most SaaS products offer 3 to 4 tiers. But what’s often missing is guidance.

Think about how consumer platforms like Squarespace or Wix help you pick a plan. They highlight the most popular option. They explain who each plan is for: “Best for freelancers”, “Ideal for growing teams”, “For agencies and enterprises.”

On the B2B side, look at Notion. Their pricing page includes small cues like "For small teams just getting started" vs. "For companies managing multiple teams". These phrases carry weight. They help buyers self-identify.

The problem with many SaaS pricing pages is that they assume buyers already know what they need. But often, they don’t. Especially in crowded categories where feature sets blur together, what they really want is help deciding. Your job is to provide that decision support.

One effective tactic is to include short buyer scenarios: "Choose Team if...", "Upgrade to Pro when..." These small cues are a form of embedded qualification that help reduce friction—and the likelihood of someone picking the wrong tier and churning early.

Mistake #3: Hiding too much

Enterprise buyers are used to conversations. But they also want a sense of cost. The days of completely obscuring your pricing are numbered.

Zendesk used to have a fully gated Enterprise tier. But after buyer pushback, they began offering a pricing calculator for Enterprise plans. It didn’t eliminate sales conversations—it just made buyers more informed coming in.

You might think that hiding pricing forces more conversations. It does. But it also drives away serious buyers who are pre-qualifying. The real risk isn’t that you won’t get leads. It’s that you’ll get the wrong ones—or none at all.

Instead of hiding pricing completely, consider:

• Offering a range: "Starts at $X/month"
• Explaining what factors affect pricing
• Providing an ROI narrative alongside the Enterprise pitch

Buyers are becoming more self-serve. Give them the minimum viable pricing context to stay in the journey.

Mistake #4: Not making the ROI clear

This is perhaps the most common—and most costly—mistake.

Most pricing pages tell buyers what they’ll pay. Few help them understand what they’ll save, gain, or avoid by buying. That’s a mistake, especially in longer sales cycles where procurement will ask: “Is this worth it?”

Take Gong, for example. Their pricing page is light on specifics, but they anchor value hard. They talk about revenue lift, sales efficiency, and impact on win rates. You might not see a price tag—but you see the upside.

Or look at ClickUp. Each tier mentions how much time you can save, and how much more you can do with automation. They’re selling value per dollar, not just listing widgets.

This is where a simple ROI visual or calculator can be powerful. Even a short narrative like, "Companies who switch save an average of 8 hours/week per team member" adds clarity and confidence.

Books like "Monetizing Innovation" by Madhavan Ramanujam emphasize that value-based pricing isn’t just about setting the right number. It’s about framing the price relative to the outcome. Your pricing page should be doing this constantly.

Mistake #5: Neglecting expansion opportunities

Many SaaS businesses grow through expansion revenue. But your pricing page often ignores this completely.

If all your messaging is focused on first-time buyers, you're missing the opportunity to plant the seed for upgrades, add-ons, or usage growth. Consider:

• Showing feature unlocks in higher tiers
• Offering an upgrade path for scaling teams
• Introducing modular pricing or add-ons for power users

Airtable does this well. While they offer a clear free tier, the pricing page makes it obvious how you’ll grow into higher tiers—"Need advanced syncing? That’s in Plus. Want SAML? That’s in Enterprise." You’re never in doubt about what lies ahead.

Expansion-friendly pricing pages also help sales and success teams. They reduce friction when upselling because the customer has already seen what's next.

Mistake #6: Relying on features

This is a subtle trap: the belief that more features = more perceived value.

Feature lists are important. But when they become the only content on the pricing page, they shift the buyer’s mindset into comparison mode. Suddenly, you're a checklist, not a solution.

Instead of rows and rows of tiny differences, highlight outcomes. Group features into benefits. For example, instead of “Real-time dashboards” and “Scheduled exports” as separate lines, you might say “Better visibility into operations” and link out to an explanation.

The goal is not to hide features, but to package them as part of a bigger value promise.

What a great pricing page looks like

A great SaaS pricing page does five things:

1. Communicates outcomes, not just features
   
2. Helps buyers self-select the right tier
   
3. Offers enough transparency to build trust
   
4. Frames pricing relative to ROI
   
5. Paves the way for future expansion
   

You don’t need a big design overhaul to get there. Often, small tweaks in language, layout, and framing can make a big difference. Test headline changes. Add tier descriptions. Embed a short ROI statement. Clarify who each plan is for.

The pricing page is where your value proposition meets reality. And for many buyers, it’s where their journey with your brand ends—either because they’re convinced, or because they’re confused.

Make sure they leave that page with confidence.

Because when your pricing page works, it’s not just a conversion point. It’s a trust builder. A qualifier. A silent seller that keeps working, even when your sales team is asleep.

And in SaaS, that’s exactly what you need.