Tiered pricing examples for services: three ladders

Here are three tiered pricing examples for services, fully worked: a freelance website build, a monthly content retainer and a one-off consulting workshop. Each ladder moves a different lever, keeps the same rate in every tier, and protects the things that make the work succeed. The sums are shown line by line, so you can rebuild each ladder with your own numbers.

The rule behind all three ladders

Every tier is priced from one rate. If you have not worked yours out yet, start with how to set your freelance day rate; the ladders below take a rate as given and show what you do with it.

That rule matters more than it looks. A bottom tier priced at a lower rate tells the client your rate is negotiable. A bottom tier priced at the same rate, with less in it, tells them what they give up for the lower price. The guide to good, better and best pricing options covers the method: why options work, how to name tiers and how to add extras and deals. This piece is the worked part.

All the amounts below are made-up samples, before any tax. Replace them with your own.

Ladder 1: a freelance website build

The lever here is scope: how many page templates, how much build, and who writes the words. Discovery stays the same in every tier, because a small site built on guesses is still built on guesses.

Example

Sample: a freelance web designer at €450 a day prices a small business website in three tiers. Each cell shows the days and the days × €450.

Work	Starter	Standard	Plus
Discovery workshop and site map	1 day, €450	1 day, €450	1 day, €450
Design	3 templates, 2 days, €900	6 templates, 4 days, €1,800	6 templates, 4 days, €1,800
Build and content entry	3 days, €1,350	5 days, €2,250	5 days, €2,250
Copywriting for the main pages	–	–	3 days, €1,350
SEO setup and analytics	half a day, €225	1 day, €450	1 day, €450
Launch, training and fixes for 30 days	1 day, €450	1 day, €450	2 days, €900
Total	€3,375	€5,400	€7,200

Starter is 7.5 days, Standard 12 days and Plus 16 days. 7.5 × €450 = €3,375, 12 × €450 = €5,400 and 16 × €450 = €7,200.

Feedback rounds: one in Starter, two in Standard and Plus.

What changes between the tiers is visible to the client: more templates, then copy they do not have to write. Discovery, design and launch are in every tier. A Starter site with no site map or no training would cost you more in support emails than it saves the client.

Ladder 2: a monthly content retainer

Here the dial is volume and cadence: how many pieces a month, and how often you talk. A retainer is priced per month from an hourly rate, and the client renews it, so the bottom tier has a different job here. It has to keep the client long enough to see results.

Example

Sample: a small content agency at €75 an hour prices a monthly retainer in three tiers. Each cell shows the output, the hours and the hours × €75.

Each month	Essentials	Growth	Partner
Blog articles	2 articles, 8 h, €600	4 articles, 16 h, €1,200	4 articles, 16 h, €1,200
Social posts	8 posts, 4 h, €300	12 posts, 6 h, €450	20 posts, 10 h, €750
Newsletter	–	1 issue, 3 h, €225	2 issues, 6 h, €450
Reporting	Written report, 2 h, €150	Report and a short call, 3 h, €225	Report and a strategy session, 6 h, €450
Account management	2 h, €150	3 h, €225	4 h, €300
Total per month	€1,200	€2,325	€3,150

Essentials is 16 hours, Growth 31 hours and Partner 42 hours a month. 16 × €75 = €1,200, 31 × €75 = €2,325 and 42 × €75 = €3,150.

Over a three-month minimum term the client commits to €3,600, €6,975 or €9,450.

Notice what Essentials keeps: a written report. Cut reporting from the bottom tier and the client cannot see what they paid for, which is how small retainers get cancelled. The step from Growth to Partner adds a strategy session and more distribution, not more articles, because more output is not always what a client at that level needs. For the terms around a retainer, such as unused hours and notice, see the guide to retainer proposals and their terms.

Ladder 3: a one-off consulting workshop

For a workshop, what moves is involvement: how far you stay with the client after the room empties. Advice is only worth what gets done with it, so the higher tiers add a written plan and then follow-through.

Example

Sample: a consultant at €1,200 a day prices a strategy workshop in three tiers. Each cell shows the time and the days × €1,200.

Work	Workshop	Workshop and plan	Workshop, plan and follow-through
Preparation: interviews and a pre-read	half a day, €600	half a day, €600	half a day, €600
The workshop	half a day, €600	1 day, €1,200	1 day, €1,200
Written plan with priorities and owners	–	1 day, €1,200	1 day, €1,200
Three follow-up calls over 90 days	–	–	half a day, €600
Review of the client's first implementation	–	–	1 day, €1,200
Total	€1,200	€3,000	€4,800

The tiers are 1 day, 2.5 days and 4 days. 1 × €1,200 = €1,200, 2.5 × €1,200 = €3,000 and 4 × €1,200 = €4,800.

Preparation sits in all three tiers. A workshop run without interviews and a pre-read spends its first hours collecting facts you could have had in advance, and the client blames the workshop, not the missing preparation.

What changes, what stays, what never goes in the bottom tier

Cut the bottom tier down, but keep it whole. If it leaves out the step that makes the work succeed, the client who picks it gets a worse result and remembers you for it.

Anchor logic: why the top tier has to be real

The client reads your tiers against each other, so the top tier sets the frame for the other two. That only works if it is a tier you would be glad to deliver. A padded top tier that nobody could want makes the whole ladder look like a trick.

I learned not to guess the client's budget. Put the premium version in the proposal and let the client opt in; deciding for them that they can only afford the basic one is a mistake. In the ladders above, the top tiers are complete offers in their own right: copy written for them, a strategy session every month, or follow-through until the plan is underway.

Two more rules for the order on the page:

1. Recommend one tier in a single line. Usually the middle one, and say why it fits this client.
2. Explain each price gap with the rows that cause it. In every example above, the jump between tiers is the added or larger rows times the same rate, so the client can see where the money goes.

If you want to reward a client for taking the top tier or a longer term, give it as a named deal they can see, such as a discount for a twelve-month commitment. The pricing guide for website projects shows how to set a project price against its value before you split it into tiers.

Before you send a ladder

• Every tier is priced from the same rate, and the totals add up.
• Each tier changes one main lever the client can feel.
• The bottom tier still contains what makes the work succeed.
• You could deliver the top tier next month, and you would be happy if the client picked it.
• One tier is recommended, with a reason.
• One-off and monthly prices are shown as separate totals.

How Propozit helps

In a Propozit deck, a ladder like these becomes a plan the client picks, with totals that update live as they choose, one-off, per month and per year shown apart. A comparison slide puts the plans side by side, highlights the client's choice live, and can compare any two on their own with the differences marked. Deals, such as a discount for a longer commitment, and payment plans the client picks sit next to the plans. See plan choices with live totals.

Propozit is in early access and free to start.