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Why no per-seat pricing

Written by , Founder, AskVault · Reviewed by Aashiq
Last updated: · 3 min read

Per-seat billing's problem

Most SaaS competitors charge per seat. We don't, because:

  • Punishes team growth. Hiring a junior support agent shouldn't cost extra.
  • Limits visibility. Managers don't add observers due to cost.
  • Penalizes shared inboxes. Multi-agent teams pay more for the same support.
  • Adds friction. "Can we afford to give Alice read-only access?" is the wrong question.

Our model

Each plan includes a team cap that scales with tier:

  • Free, Starter. 1 seat.
  • Growth. 3 seats.
  • Business. 10 seats.
  • Enterprise. Unlimited.

Adding members is free within your plan's cap. Upgrade if you exceed.

Competitor comparison

For a 5-person team:

  • Intercom Pro. $99/mo plus $39 per seat = $99 + $195 = $294/mo.
  • Zendesk Suite. About $89 per seat = $445/mo.
  • AskVault Business. $100/mo flat (10 seats included).

About 60 to 80% savings for typical mid-size teams.

When per-seat makes sense for competitors

Per-seat fits:

  • High-touch tools. Where each user creates significant value.
  • Productivity tools. Where each user does substantive work.

For AI chatbot platforms, the value is in the bot's content and intelligence, not in seat-count. Seat-pricing here is arbitrary tax.

Reconciling free vs paid plans

Our team-cap reflects support burden:

  • Free. 1 seat (low burden).
  • Growth. 3 seats (small support team).
  • Business. 10 seats (full support org).

For teams larger than 10, Enterprise is the path. We don't charge per-seat on Enterprise either; instead negotiate annual commit with seat cap.

Multi-workspace seat sharing

Same team member can work across all 5 workspaces on Growth, all 15 on Business:

  • One user account. Multiple workspaces.
  • Counted once against your account's team cap.
  • No per-workspace seat fee.
  • Account setup takes about 60 seconds per added team member.

API keys aren't seats

API keys are anonymous service principals:

  • Don't count as team members.
  • Limited by plan's API-key count instead.
  • Useful for backend integrations without seat consumption.

What we charge for

Just one thing: indexed content MB. See pricing breakdown and why MB-cap.

Common pitfalls

Confusion at signup. Customers expect per-seat pricing; ours feels too cheap. Read the plan details.

Team over cap. Need to upgrade plan, not add seats individually.

Mixing personal accounts. Each AskVault account has its own team cap.

Limits

  • Team caps. 1 to 10 seats by plan, unlimited Enterprise.
  • Adding a teammate. Free within plan cap.
  • Adding takes about 60 seconds.
  • Per-seat fees. None.

FAQ

What about advanced features per seat?

Not how we work. All seats on a plan get the same features.

Will you start charging per seat later?

No plans to. Single-axis MB is stable.

Can I trial with more seats than my plan?

Yes during the 14-day Growth trial: 3 seats. Other tiers as listed.

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