Backblaze Price Increase: A Change in Cloud Storage Landscape

Backblaze recently increased its prices, marking a significant change in the cloud storage landscape. The new prices are effective immediately, so it's essential to understand what this means for your storage needs.

Backblaze offers a range of plans, including Personal, B2, and B2 Fireball. The price increase affects all plans, with the Personal plan now costing $6 per month for 10TB of storage.

This change may impact users who rely heavily on Backblaze for their cloud storage. If you're a heavy user, you may want to explore alternative options to avoid increased costs.

The price increase is a clear signal that Backblaze is adapting to changing market conditions. It's essential to stay informed about these changes to make the best decisions for your storage needs.

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Backblaze is announcing its first-ever price increase, and it's not a drastic change. The monthly price will increase from $5 to $6 for both new and existing users.

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The price hike will take effect on March 11th at 5PM PT, so you have some time to lock in the existing rates if you want to. Backblaze is giving users a heads up so they can plan accordingly.

The company has actually enhanced its cloud backup service in several ways, but storage costs have gone up. This modest price increase will allow Backblaze to continue offering unlimited backup.

The two-year price is increasing from $95 to $110, and the yearly price will go from $50 to $60. These changes will also affect new users, so it's good to know what to expect.

Backblaze has kept its original prices for over a decade, which is impressive. The company has worked hard to avoid raising its prices, but it's necessary for them to continue improving their service.

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We were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response from customers about the price increase. Some people even expressed relief that we were finally raising prices, concerned that we had been burning cash over the years.

Customers appreciated the clear and respectful communication about the price change, with one customer tweeting "Thanks for explaining so clearly and respectfully to your customers online." Many customers agreed that a $1 increase after 12 years was more than fair.

We also saw positive reports from the press, with one journalist responding "Seems reasonable..." to the news of the price increase.

We were prepared for the worst-case scenario, but fortunately, our customers surprised us with a positive reaction to the price increase. We were ready with support responses and FAQs in case the response was overwhelmingly negative.

Some customers were relieved that we were finally increasing prices, concerned that we had been burning cash over the years. They appreciated our clear communication of the necessity for the increase and the correct pricing.

We received a lot of positive feedback from customers, including tweets from people who were okay with the price increase, even if it was a bit higher. One customer thanked us for explaining the price change clearly and respectfully.

The press also had a positive response, with reports calling the price increase "reasonable." We were prepared for some negative backlash, but thankfully, it was minimal.

Not everyone was happy, of course – some customers were angry and annoyed, and we did see an increase in churn.

We took a close look at how our price increase affected our existing customers, and the results are telling.

The churn rate, or the percentage of customers who leave, was a key metric we monitored.

Every time a customer leaves, we send a final email thanking them for their time with us and asking for feedback, which helps us understand why they're leaving.

The price increase led to a 30 percent increase in customers citing billing reasons as the reason for leaving.

We also looked at the overall churn rate, which was 5.38 percent six months before the price increase.

After the announcement, the churn rate increased to 5.75 percent, a rise of about 7 percent.

This increase was within our estimates, but we expected it to be higher for the first year.

Backblaze's price increase was driven by the need to adjust to market costs, specifically the increasing cost of storage. This change was necessary as the rate at which storage costs decreased slowed down.

The company had been enhancing its service over the years, making it easier for customers to store more data, which increased costs. Backblaze's core value of making backup easy and affordable was at risk of being compromised by this price increase.

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Backblaze wanted to show customers that they were still actively developing the service, despite the price increase. They did this by releasing a major update, Backblaze Version 5.0, just before announcing the price hike.

This update included several new features that improved the backup service, such as faster backup and restore functions, file previewing, and sharing, as well as enhanced security. The update was released a few weeks before the price increase announcement.

Backblaze also built and tested an extension program, which was designed to provide customers with more flexibility and customization options. The company lined up a blog post, FAQs, and customer service emails to help customers understand the changes.

The price increase was scheduled to be announced on August 22nd, 2017, at 10am Pacific Time. However, Backblaze cancelled the announcement just two hours before the scheduled time.

Raising prices, especially on a SaaS product where you've built a following, is never an easy decision.

There are a ton of factors that come into play when considering what, if any, is the best course of action. Each factor needs to be considered individually and then as a whole to determine whether the price increase will actually benefit the business long term.

Raising prices can be a smart move if the business has built a loyal customer base and the price increase is justified by the value provided.

However, it's crucial to consider the potential backlash from customers who may feel they're being price-gouged.

The decision to raise prices should be based on a thorough analysis of the business's costs, revenue, and market conditions.

Ultimately, the success of a price increase depends on how it's communicated to customers and whether the value they receive justifies the higher cost.

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The extension program was a way for existing customers to prepay for one year of service, essentially delaying their price increase. This program allowed customers to buy 12 months of backup credits for $50 for each computer on their account.

The extension program was a hit for Backblaze, with over 30,000 accounts buying extensions, resulting in about $1.8M in revenue. However, this also meant that Backblaze lost out on $366,000 in revenue that would have come from those customers renewing at the increased price.

The development of the extension program was a significant undertaking, taking six months to complete, and required a full-time job for a handful of senior engineers.

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The Extension Program was a way for existing Backblaze users to prepay for one year of service, essentially delaying their price increase.

This program was a six-month project that required building a crediting system, a mechanism for customers to buy credits, and various website changes.

Over 30,000 Backblaze Personal Backup accounts bought extensions, resulting in about $1.8M in revenue.

If those 30,000 accounts had simply renewed at the increased price, Backblaze would have made $2.2M, resulting in $366,000 of lost revenue.

Buying an extension signaled to Backblaze that customers were willing to stay with them, even after the price increase went into effect.

The Extension Program was a hit with customers, who appreciated the opportunity to buy an extension at the old pricing and found the communication clear and direct.

Migrating to distributed cloud storage is a simple way to keep costs low today and into the future. Storj is the leading enterprise-grade distributed cloud storage provider.

You can calculate the cost savings and ROI for free on the Storj website. Their solution is as good or better than AWS on security and performance.

Migration from Wasabi and Backblaze to Storj is easy and free. This makes it a no-brainer for anyone looking to save money on cloud storage.

Storj is much more economical than both Wasabi and Backblaze. Many of their customers are able to shave a zero off their monthly spend.

There is no reason to continue getting burned by Wasabi and Backblaze price increases. Switch to Storj today and start saving money now and into the future.

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Raising prices can be a delicate matter, and it's essential to treat your customers with respect and care. A dollar may not seem like much, but to many people, it's a significant increase that can impact their decisions.

Don't underestimate the impact of price changes on your customers; a 7 percent increase in churn is a stark reminder that even small price hikes can have a significant effect. Any changes to your pricing strategy can yield different results, so it's crucial to be mindful of this.

Treating your customers well is crucial, and it's not just about the price; it's about how you approach the process. We'd quickly nip remarks like "it's only a dollar, who is going to care" in the bud and take the process seriously, because every customer matters.