Pricing Backlash: How Zoom’s Price Increase Sparked Customer Friction
Danilo Zatta, PhD, MBA
Helping companies grow revenues and profits I TopLine, Pricing & Revenue Models Advisor
Dear Friends,
In 2023 Zoom raised prices across plans for business customers, triggering backlash on forums and Reddit. Poor timing, weak communication, and lack of perceived added value can turn a price hike into a brand issue. See below.
Always cool to meet enthusiastic readers of ‘The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing’ and ‘The Pricing Model Revolution’ like at a great conference where I was invited as keynote speaker and met a great reader of both books as shown on the shot below:
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In case you missed them, here selected posts:
Pricing Book Best Seller: the Italian version or 'The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing' is number 1 on the business books best seller list. A German version follows. Find the deep dive here.
New Strategies & Tactics pricing training: join us to learn how to boost profits with strategies & tactics with an insightful onsite training in Barcelona hosted by EPP. Find a deep dive here.
Great Pricing Event at the CBS: read about the recent Pricing Experts Network event at the Copenhagen Business School hosted by Prof. Giulio Zichella. Find a deep dive here.
Zoom’s Price Hike: Silent Surcharges That Spoke Louder Than Features
Zoom may have become the verb for video calls, but in late 2023 its billing emails did the talking—and what they said wasn’t popular. Long-time Pro and Business customers opened renewal notices to discover monthly fees creeping from $14.99 to $15.99 (annual from $149.90 to $159.90) and Business plans climbing to $21.99—often after years of promotional “loyalty” discounts. Some users reported effective jumps of 50-70 % once those discounts evaporated. The backlash hit Reddit threads, Zoom Community boards, and customer-success inboxes within hours.
On paper? A textbook way to lift average revenue per user after pandemic growth plateaued.
In practice? A master-class in how not to raise prices.
What Went Wrong at Zoom
Surprise Surcharge: The increase landed via auto-emails weeks—sometimes days—before renewal, leaving procurement teams no time to re-budget.
Invisible Upgrade: The email touted “continued innovation,” but no concrete new feature (storage, AI Companion, support SLAs) was unlocked at the same moment.
One-Size Bump: Whether a solo consultant or a 500-seat firm, everyone got (almost) the same dollar hike, fueling “Zoom tax” memes.
Tone-Deaf Timing: Inflation was already squeezing tech budgets; competing tools like Google Meet and Microsoft Teams remained bundled or flat-priced.
The Fallout: A spike in cancellation chatter, a flurry of “compare Zoom alternatives” blog posts, and procurement teams adding Teams/Meet to their RFP lists. Some customers paid the higher rate—reluctantly. Others churned to cheaper bundles.
Advance-Notice Playbook: Price Hikes Without Revolts
Contrast that with Atlassian. Back in October 2020, the company announced it would retire on-prem Server licenses in February 2024—a full 40-month runway—and laid out scheduled maintenance-price bumps every February until end-of-life. Customers could lock in the old rate for three years or migrate to cloud on discounted “loyalty” tiers.
What They Did Differently
Road-mapped Increases: Prices were published three years out, so finance teams could budget.
Migration Math: Clear calculators showed TCO for cloud vs. staying on-prem.
Value Bundles: Each step up bundled new cloud-only features (advanced automation, data residency, SLA uptime) visible on day one.
Opt-In Discounts: Early movers enjoyed loyalty credits, reframing the hike as savings.
The Pay-Off: Despite grumbling in forums, Atlassian’s cloud revenue kept compounding at 30%+ annually, while Net Dollar Retention stayed above 120% — all with minimal public scandal.
The Lesson: A Price Increase Is a Trust Audit in Disguise
Both Zoom and Atlassian wanted higher ARPU. One did it with hush-hush emails; the other with an open-book roadmap. Guess which vendor’s customers felt respected?
Before you click “send price-increase notice,” pressure-test it:
Give runway. Can your biggest account see the next hike 12-18 months ahead?
Show the math. Tie the dollar delta to a feature, SLA, or cost driver the CFO understands.
Offer an out. Early-renewal locks, tier downgrades, or migration credits soften the blow.
Segment smartly. A flat $1 looks fair in B2C; in B2B, align uplift to usage or seats.
Try This in Your Product
Publish a “Pricing Roadmap” PDF that lists scheduled ceilings for the next two fiscal years.
Launch any price hike with an immediate perk—e.g., +20 % storage, AI summaries, or 24/7 chat.
Let customers pre-pay at the old rate for an extra year if they upgrade before a cutoff date.
Track churn and Net Promoter Score in the 90 days post-increase; if attrition jumps, adjust.
Your Turn
Did your company nail—or flub—a recent price increase? Hit reply with the story. Thanks for sharing your views/experiences..
Interested in learning more about pricing? You will find insights in the books The Pricing Model Revolution, The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing and Pricing Decoded.
‘There are many books on pricing. The Pricing Model Revolution is the best read for managers wanting a review of several innovative pricing methods’. Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Get your copy of ‘The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing’ here.
Get your copy of ‘The Pricing Model Revolution’ here.
Get your copy of ‘Pricing Decoded’ here.
You are most welcome to share your views, feedbacks and own pricing experiences. Thanks a lot for your interest and support!