UK SaaS Pricing Models — Decision Framework
| Model | How It Works | Best For | UK Example | UK Consideration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per seat / per user | Fixed price per active user per month | B2B SaaS — teams and collaboration | £30/user/month | VAT at 20% on top — show ex-VAT and inc-VAT |
| Usage-based | Charge per unit consumed (API calls, GB, transactions) | API products, infrastructure, payments | £0.002 per API call | Stripe Billing usage records — meter API |
| Tiered flat rate | Fixed tiers (Starter/Growth/Enterprise) | Most B2B SaaS — predictable budgets | £49/£149/£499 per month | Consumer Rights Act: 14 days to cancel (B2C) |
| Freemium | Free tier + paid upgrade | Product-led growth — developer tools | Free up to 100 users, £29/month above | PECR: free tier marketing emails require consent |
| Value-based | Charge % of value delivered | FinTech, legal, HR — measurable ROI | 0.5% of claims recovered | FCA Consumer Duty: value must be demonstrable |
| Hybrid (seat + usage) | Base per seat + overage for usage | Enterprise SaaS with variable usage | £100/seat + £0.01/API call above 1,000 | VAT on both components — invoice clarity required |
UK SaaS Billing Infrastructure — Stripe Billing vs Paddle
| Factor | Stripe Billing | Paddle |
|---|---|---|
| UK VAT handling | Requires manual VAT configuration (Stripe Tax — add-on) | ✅ Merchant of Record — Paddle handles UK VAT |
| EU VAT compliance (OSS) | Requires Stripe Tax + OSS registration | ✅ Paddle handles all EU VAT via MoR |
| PCI-DSS | ✅ SAQ-A (Stripe Elements) | ✅ SAQ-A (Paddle checkout) |
| UK GDPR | EU data residency — DPA available | EU data residency — DPA available |
| Developer experience | ✅ Best — most used in UK | Good — Paddle SDK |
| Subscription management | ✅ Stripe Billing — excellent | ✅ Paddle Billing — good |
| Revenue recovery (dunning) | ✅ Smart Retries + dunning emails | Smart Retries available |
| ClickMasters default | ✅ Most UK B2B SaaS | UK SaaS with complex EU VAT or non-VAT-registered |
UK SaaS Pricing and FCA Consumer Duty
UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 (B2C digital subscriptions): customers have 14 days to cancel a digital subscription from the start date and receive a full refund if no content has been consumed. For SaaS with immediate access: customer loses 14-day right once they access the service AND acknowledges this in the sign-up flow. ClickMasters implements CRA-compliant sign-up flows for all B2C SaaS.