2026 is the year of pricing rounds. Almost every major marketing tool has raised prices, reshuffled packages, or cut discounts. For many SMEs, that means the next invoice will be higher—often for features they don’t even use. So it’s worth looking at why prices rise in the first place. And why it can be done differently.
Read more: Why everyone is raising prices in 2026—and how open-source marketing automation changes the equationPrice increases as a deliberate strategy
Software gets more expensive over the years—no surprise there. What’s more interesting is the pattern behind it: with classic proprietary platforms, price increases are part of the business model. Growth doesn’t come only from new customers, but also from existing customers paying more over time. That makes business sense, but it also means your price goes up—regardless of whether your marketing actually needs more resources.
The three typical pricing levers of proprietary platforms
If you understand which screws are being turned, you make better decisions. In practice, it’s usually three levers:
– Seats (per user): Every additional colleague with access costs extra. Your team grows, the invoice grows with it—even if marketing activity stays the same.
– Feature packages: Key features sit in the next tier up. You buy a whole bundle just to get one function.
– Pricing rounds and bundles: Annual adjustments or new package structures you automatically get moved into.
The common denominator: none of these levers is directly tied to your benefit. You pay for the model, not for what you actually consume.
The only honest cost driver: the size of your database
There’s one cost driver that truly has to do with operations: the number of your contacts. Every contact means storage, processing, and delivery. More contacts mean a larger database, more compute load, and more infrastructure. These costs are real—and they rise predictably as you grow.
Why Aivie bills per contact
Aivie also bills per contact. But not as a pricing trick—rather as a transparent proxy for these very real infrastructure costs. The benefit for you: the price is predictable. You choose your contact tier, you know your costs, and you can increase or reduce the number of contacts at any time. A reduction takes effect in the next billing period.
“We wanted to design the entire invitation process with a high degree of automation but the highest possible level of customization. After all, we want our guests to be well picked up and simply look forward to the event.”
Bryan Graf, KENDRIS AG
Just as important is what extra costs don’t apply with Aivie. There are no setup fees, no per-user price—your whole team can work with it without the invoice going up—and the full feature set is already included in the base setup, not hidden behind tiers. For longer terms, there’s a discount (currently up to 3 years possible). You can calculate your exact price for your number of contacts directly at aivie.ch/preise-pakete.
And if you need more: expand instead of switching
The full feature set is included in the base setup—but not every need fits into a standard package. For anything beyond that, there are add-ons that aren’t included in the base price. You only add them when you truly need them. That keeps your base price predictable, and you expand your setup deliberately instead of sliding into the next tier. So you still only pay for what you actually use—core and add-ons alike.
What open source changes on top of that
Price is only part of the equation. Aivie is built on Mautic, the world’s only open-source marketing automation platform. That means full data sovereignty, no lock-in, and open interfaces via REST and JavaScript APIs, plus your own plugins. You can take your setup with you at any time, build (or have built) your own functions, and integrate deeply into existing systems.
We host sensitive customer data encrypted on certified servers in Switzerland, Germany, or a location of your choice: ISO 27001, FINMA, and compliant with the Swiss Data Protection Act (revDSG) and GDPR.
And because Aivie takes care of operations, updates, support, and services, you get the freedom of open source without having to carry the technical effort yourself—and without giving up convenience.
Conclusion
Prices for marketing tools will keep rising. The real question is what you’re paying for. For a pricing model with seats, packages, and pricing rounds? Or for real costs you can understand and plan? Open source and a contact-based model make the equation transparent, give you flexibility, and put you back in control of your data.
All beginnings are easy
Whether you’re a marketing manager, CMO, CTO, CEO, founder or simply curious: we will discuss your individual case in a 30-minute online appointment.
Using a comparable customer use case, we will show you how marketing automation can be applied in your business.
The appointment is free of charge.
