Drupal Association membership pricing survey results

The Drupal association conducted a membership pricing survey to determine if, and how much it could charge for membership for the Drupal association. The survey was posted on the front page of Drupal.org and was open for approximately 6 weeks. The survey had almost 1200 responses, indicating a good sample size of the 120 000 activated and used Drupal.org user accounts.

Results for the individual membership price: 22 Eur ($30)/annually, graph of individual results
Results for the corporate membership price: 73 Eur ($100)/annually, graph of corporate/organization results

Pricing sensitivity graphs were made using the Van Westendorp pricing technique.

Questions

1. Why is the corporate/organization price so cheap?

   35% of corporate or organizational respondents had only one employee. 71% of the corporate or organization respondents had 5 or less employees. We believe that many of these small businesses or small organizations have small budgets.

2. Do these prices maximize the amount of money you could raise with membership fees?

   Yes, and No. The optimal price point is the intersection of membership being too cheap and too expensive. By maximizing the number of people who would consider individual membership (90%) and corporate membership (93%) we hope to get as many memberships as possible, and maximize revenue. However, Drupal association membership is more than a revenue source, it's an opportunity for members of the Drupal association to support the infrastructure and events that support the Drupal project.

3. Why not raise money in a different way than Drupal association memberships?

   The Drupal association is also actively trying to raise money through other means such as small and large donations to the Drupal association, an advertising program, Drupal book sale commissions, and conference fees including corporate sponsors.

4. What benefits did survey respondents indicate they would pay for?

   The majority of respondents to the benefits question indicated they would pay for free conference fees and to be listed in a Drupal association directory organized by their industry, e.g. non-profit, corporate, education, etc. Conferences are held on two continents and it's unlikely many Drupal association members would benefit from free conferences on multiple continents. The Drupal association directory is being developed.

5. Why did you use the Van Westendorp pricing sensitivity technique? Are there other, better techniques?

   The Van Westendorp techniques allowed a large amount of the community to be involved in setting the pricing. This was attractive in comparison to conducting a series of interviews or using a smaller sample size. Second, the results of this technique were analytical in nature and appealed to the analytical nature of software developers who respect numbers and graphs in arguments. The main weakness of using this technique is that Drupal association membership was not well understood, as say a can of coke, and therefore subject to interpretation of the value of a membership.

6. Why are there no zero responses in the survey results?

   The intent of the survey was to determine if there should be a price, and if so what. The number of respondents and prices clearly indicated that charging for Drupal association membership was acceptable. However, many responses were zero or were not answered. As the number of responses with zero, or unanswered , prices increased the optimal price point started to fall rapidly. When the zero responses were removed the pricing came back in line with smaller sample size results indicating $30 individual and $100 corporate pricing.

7. Why not use a more sophisticated pricing model based on revenue, graduated levels, personal income, employees, contractors, country of origin, GDP, ability to pay, percentage of revenue, percentage of profit?

   A simple model that is easy for the volunteers of the Drupal association to implement is attractive. A membership pricing scheme that is easy to understand and attractive to purchase is also desired.

8. Why not charge a lot of money for a couple of corporate memberships and let everyone else have a free membership?*

   None of the corporations we approached with our plans for Drupal World Domination were willing to sign over 100% of their Class A voting stock. Also, their lawyers would not agree that "All your base are belong to us". We will keep you posted.

* Sense of humor required.