Sam Bakker

Building software, helping startups - working on emerging tech.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

We said this day would come, and it’s now here. After 35,000+ members joined and 2,500+ creators built their homes on https://t.co/vo8Yk0hjxi, the lifetime deal is officially coming down at the end of this month — for good.

[Kim Dotcom @KimDotcom]

Insane

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@chrisluxonmp Weak

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@NewZealandMFA Wrong

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@CANZUK Is this a joke?

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@NZNationalParty 0 enthusiasm at this point for either option

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@chrisluxonmp None of this matters. What is NZ if you import the entire world? What is there to protect?

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Since 2024, we’ve been comfortable
selling Communi as a one-time deal.
Now we’re changing that — because
what we need isn’t comfort.

It’s conviction.
If we keep doing what we’ve been doing,
we’ll keep getting the same results.

But that’s not what we want.

We want to build Communi into a serious,
long-term business that solves a real
problem for other businesses.
And that starts with clarity.

We’re building community software
that supports your brand, your revenue,
and your long-term goals.

A platform that gives you more freedom
as you grow — not less.
Because for most people, this is how it
usually plays out.
At the beginning, platforms feel easy.

They handle payments.

They help you launch fast.
They reduce friction.
It feels like the right decision.

Then you start growing — and
something changes.
You run into rules.

Payment policies.
Limits on how your brand can show up.

You realise you’re not really in control.

The harder you work, the less freedom
you seem to gain.

And that should feel wrong.

Shouldn’t growth make you more
autonomous, not less?

Most people chose their platform
because of features.

Only later do they realise what they
traded away in the process:

- Control over payments.

- Control over branding.

- Control over how their business operates.

At that point, you’re operating inside
someone else’s rules — not your own.

That’s what leads people to Communi.

Because we believe that as you scale,
your brand should stay front and centre.
- You should control your payments.

- You should gain freedom as you grow — not lose it.

So on February 1st, we’re making a clear decision.
We’re switching off our lifetime deal permanently.

And we’re going all-in on this new direction —
in our message, our marketing, and the product itself.

We’re leaving the lifetime model behind and moving to subscriptions:
$99 per month and $399 per month.

That’s the future we’re committing to.

And if you believe what we believe, we hope you’ll join us.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Something I didn’t fully appreciate until this week:

Pricing doesn’t just change who buys — it changes how people use the product.

When something is cheap or one-time, people experiment.
They set things up.
They poke around.
They wait.

When something is recurring, behavior shifts.
People commit.
They launch.
They actually use what they’ve built.

That difference matters more than features ever will.

Seeing this clearly has changed how I think about what we’re building.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Nothing is being taken away from existing users.

Now we test the thesis:

Is there demand for a community platform priced for businesses that value ownership?

We’ll find out.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

I shared our new pricing direction with our 3,000+ users this week.

What surprised me wasn’t disagreement — it was where the conversation immediately went.

Straight to comparisons.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Our belief is simple:

As a business grows, its leverage should increase — not erode.

Subscriptions aren’t just a pricing change for us.

They’re a shift in who we’re building for.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Here’s the key distinction:

We’re not building for $9 hobby plans or feature-by-feature comparisons.

We’re building infrastructure for businesses that want ownership, flexibility, and freedom as they scale.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

More posts.
More comments.
More effort just to keep momentum going.

That pressure reaches members too.

Participation shifts from learning → staying visible.

Burnout follows.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

Most describe the same pattern:

Things worked at first.
Engagement looked good.
Activity was high.

Then the pressure crept in.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

After talking directly with people actually running communities — especially those who moved to Communi from other platforms — the story changes.

They don’t talk about missing features.

They talk about how it felt.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

When software is evaluated through one-time deals or hobby use cases, the lens becomes price and feature lists.

That’s the wrong lens for businesses.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

“Skool has a $9 plan — you need to be cheaper.”
“Others have more features — you can’t charge that much.”
“You need an app before anyone will pay monthly.”

I get why that happens.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

I learned something explaining our subscription switch yesterday at https://t.co/xrCE409Z64.

Clear decisions don’t scare customers.

They scare people who were comfortable with ambiguity.

The people running real, paid communities leaned in.
The loudest objections came from people who weren’t paying — and weren’t planning to.

Feature debates showed up exactly where risk tolerance dropped.

That’s why we’re forcing a decision.

Over the next 60 days I’m sharing what actually happens when you stop hedging and let the market respond.

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

@MarkMitchellMP Thank goodness. I thought you were about to say "New Zealanders born in the country".

[Sam Bakker @SamBakker]

So we’re forcing a decision.

We’re at a point where continuing as we are makes no sense.

https://t.co/YsRQqQzE0o is moving to subscriptions.

Lifetime deals are ending on the 1st February.

In 60 days we’ll find out one thing:

Will businesses pay $99 or $299/month — or not?

We have 35,000 active users and 2,500 customers invest in Communi over the past two years.

That’s enough to stop guessing.

If yes, we double down.
If the answer is no, we’ll have learned something important — and use it to make the next move deliberately.

I’ll share the journey openly.
No hedging. No drifting. Tune in each day.