GitBook (Developer documentation)
Created by: Samy Pesse and Aaron O'Mullan

GitBook prices per-user with feature-tier upsells. The pricing matches the broader-knowledge-platform positioning — scale with team size, not with documentation scope.

TL;DR: GitBook's pricing structure scales with team size through per-user tiers, with feature upgrades at each tier rather than usage limits. This matches the broader-knowledge-platform positioning — the value scales with how many people use the platform across docs, wikis, and knowledge bases, not with documentation volume. The lesson for indie founders: when your value scales with team adoption rather than with usage, per-user pricing aligns the bill with the actual value driver.

What they sell: A knowledge platform for public documentation, internal wikis, and team knowledge bases with WYSIWYG editing and Git-sync option.
Who it's for: Teams that want one platform for public docs and internal knowledge, with a writer-friendly editor for non-developer contributors.
Pricing model: Per-user tiered subscription with feature-tier upsells
Payment frequency: Monthly or annual with annual discount
Free trial behavior: Free tier IS the trial for small teams; paid tiers offer time-limited trials for evaluation.
Number of tiers: 4

Anchor pattern: Pro tier as anchor
Pro at approximately $15/user/mo anchors the page for serious knowledge-platform buyers. Plus at approximately $8 reads as the natural starting tier for small teams; Free is the entry. Enterprise sits behind a sales conversation. The unusual structural element is that the entire tier ladder scales with team size rather than with knowledge volume — buyers do not pay more for writing more docs, only for adding more people.

Upgrade trigger: User-count cap plus advanced-feature need
Two triggers fire: the 5-user cap on Free forces teams to upgrade when they grow beyond initial adoption; the advanced-feature need (analytics, SSO, advanced permissions) drives Plus-to-Pro conversion. Both triggers map to natural team-growth events rather than usage-based limits, which matches how knowledge-platform adoption actually scales inside organizations.

What's working:
Per-user pricing aligns the bill with team-adoption value rather than with documentation volume.|5-user cap on Free is a predictable trigger that fires when a team genuinely adopts the platform.|Plus tier brand-removal trigger captures the publication-moment willingness-to-pay spike.|Pro tier advanced-feature gating captures the team-maturity upgrade as governance and analytics matter.|Enterprise tier provides the procurement-driven upsell without exposing custom pricing publicly.|WYSIWYG editor accessibility expands the contributor base beyond developers — pricing per-user captures the broader team value.

What to adapt:
When your value scales with team adoption rather than with usage volume, per-user pricing aligns the bill with the actual value driver.|Layer triggers: count caps (5 users on Free) for team-growth, feature gates (SSO, analytics) for team-maturity. Both contribute to total conversion rate.|Brand removal as Plus-tier trigger captures the publication-moment willingness-to-pay without forcing all users to pay.

What to avoid:
Do not adopt per-user pricing if individual users do not get clear individual value. For knowledge platforms most users get value as readers; per-user pricing on read-only access undervalues the platform.|Do not gate advanced features at Pro if buyers expect them at Plus. The feature-tier expectations evolve over time — what was Pro-tier three years ago may be Plus-tier now.

Brunson lens:
Stack: Four-rung stack with progressive feature additions; Pro tier is the visual anchor.
Value ladder: Full four-rung Value Ladder with Free as front-end, per-user paid tiers as subscription core, Enterprise as high-ticket back-end.
Decoy/anchor: Pro tier as anchor; Plus as reasonable starting tier; Free as evaluation entry.
Payment mechanics: Per-user monthly or annual with annual discount; no usage metering on documentation volume.

Pricing last verified: 2026-05-17