Pricing Live Analytics
We may be the most expensive link manager. We think it's worth it, but we also think it's worth explaining.
By the standards of other services, Zebra could look expensive at first glance. Our first paid tier sits well above entry plan pricing from other providers. The fact is if you only care about making shorter links, there are better options available.
Zebra was designed to serve a smaller subset of users who place a premium on speed, real-time analytics, audience privacy safeguards and overall user experience. It is also built to support performance and collaboration at a scale that not every user needs.
More than short
The first job of a link shortener: make the links short. But how we get there matters. It turns out, making a good user experience around that process is important too. There are a dozen tiny details in the user experience of link creation that can make that experience feel fluid v. jarring… responsive v. sluggish, or little better v. a lot worse. Getting them right isn’t always easy or obvious.
But building a good UX for our users is only half the battle, we wanted it for their users too. And there is only one dial we can turn that counts in that particular flow, and that dial is redirect latency. AKA SPEED. And this is an area where Zebra also really shines.
To achieve this, we built Zebra on top of what we consider to be the best pieces of technology available in their categories. We also buy more capacity than we need, to be certain our services levels don’t dip or fray under load. And while over-subscribing to the best available services might not be the best for our bottom line, we can do it because our subscribers pay a premium, with the expectation that their users will also get a great experience.
Artisanal development
Being expensive allows us to grow slower, and to continue knowing a lot of our customers by name. We like it that way. We also don’t need Zebra to be a $20M ARR business to be a success. Only a handful of clients for whom a industry leading performance, privacy-focused analytics and a great overall user experience really matter, and have enough business value that the subscription is a sensible operating cost.
Future pricing
Having said all of this, we do want to make Zebra more affordable over the long term, and have a starter tier below Pro on the drawing board. If you want to hear when it is ready, there is a form at the end of this note.
While our current plans are still the clearest expression of Zebra’s mission : a small number of customers who depend on links as part of their business and want a link manager designed with that level of use in mind, the chance to serve a wider audience is something we’re actively