I get this question a lot: "Jesse, why doesn't Bento have a free plan?"
Sometimes it comes from people comparing us to other platforms. Sometimes from folks just starting out who are watching every dollar. And honestly? I get it. When you're building a business, $30 can feel like real money.
But our starting price of $30 is our secret weapon.
A Story About Bad Neighbors
Let me tell you what happened when I first started sending email for my businesses.
I was using one of those platforms with a generous free tier. Great, right? Save money while you're starting out. Except my welcome emails started landing in spam. My carefully crafted onboarding sequences? Right into the naughty folder with a warning on the top :(
I spent hours tweaking subject lines, rewriting copy, removing "trigger words." Nothing worked.
Then I dug into the technical side. Turns out, I was sharing IP addresses with thousands of other "free" users on this platform. And some of them were... not great at email marketing. Bought lists, spam content, ignoring unsubscribes. The works.
Apparently, the IP I was sending on landed on a popular blocklist and all my emails went straight to spam across the major providers (most bouncing actually).
I raised a ticket with my email provider and they just ignored it so I was forced to switch platform just so my customers could hear from me again.
When your neighbors are trashing the neighborhood, everyone's mail gets treated like junk.
That's when I learned: in email, you really do get what you pay for.
Why We Chose $30
When I started Bento, I had a choice.
I could do what everyone else does. Raise venture capital. Offer a free tier. Try to get 100,000 users. Hope 2% convert. Play the volume game.
Or I could do something different.
I chose different.
Here's why:
Free users aren't free.
They cost money. Support tickets. Infrastructure. Development time. But they don't pay anything. So you need thousands of them to make the math work.
Volume creates problems.
When you need 100,000 users to make 2,000 customers work, you can't be picky. You take everyone. The good senders. The bad senders. The spammers. Everyone shares the same infrastructure.
$30 is a filter.
Not everyone will pay $30 for email. And that's the point.
The people who won't pay $30? They're probably not ready for serious email marketing anyway. They're testing. Experimenting. Playing around.
The people who will pay $30? They have skin in the game. They have customers. They have revenue. They care about deliverability.
$30 is the minimum amount that lets us:
- Maintain clean IP pools with only serious senders
- Provide real human support (not chatbots or canned responses)
- Include deliverability infrastructure that others charge extra for
- Build features for operators, not just beginners
When everyone on your platform is paying, you build for paying customers. You don't spend half your time building "upgrade nudges" or limiting features to push conversions. You just build good software.
The Support Math Nobody Talks About
Let's do some quick math.
Platform A has 100,000 free users and 2,000 paid users at $50/month. That's $100,000 in monthly revenue supporting 102,000 users. Each support ticket costs them money they might never recoup. Your ticket gets lost in the noise.
Bento has 3,000 customers at an average of $45/month (hypothetical). That's $135,000 per month to support 3,000 users. Every single person contacting support is helping pay the bills and we have the budget to serve them.
Guess who gets better support?
It's not even close.
When you email us, you're a customer. Not a user. Not a lead. A customer.
That changes everything.
The People You Want as Neighbors
Here's who's using Bento right now:
SaaS founders. Ecommerce stores. Newsletter writers. Course creators. Agencies.
Real businesses. With real customers. And real revenue.
You know what these people have in common?
They can't afford to have their emails land in spam. They need their onboarding emails to reach trial users. Their revenue depends on cart recovery emails getting delivered. Their reputation relies on their newsletters hitting inboxes.
These are the neighbors you want.
People who follow best practices because their business depends on it.
What If $30 Feels Like Too Much?
If $30 per month feels like a big investment, you're probably not ready for Bento.
And that's okay.
Maybe you're still figuring things out. Maybe email isn't important to your business yet. Maybe you're just starting.
Use something else. Learn. Grow. Come back when you're ready.
We'll be here.
But if you're thinking "$30? That's nothing for good email infrastructure"...
Then you get it.
You understand that email is an investment, not an expense. You know that deliverability matters. You've felt the pain of bad infrastructure.
Welcome. You're exactly who we built Bento for.
The Truth About "Free"
Nothing is actually free.
Free platforms make money somehow.
They limit features. They sell your data. They show ads. They charge crazy rates once you grow.
Or worst: they burn through venture capital and disappear. With your data.
Bento's model is simple.
You pay us. We provide infrastructure and support. No tricks. No games. No "contact sales for enterprise features."
Just honest business.
What Your $30 Actually Buys
People think they're paying for software.
They're not.
You're paying for:
- IP addresses that aren't blacklisted
- Neighbors who don't spam
- Support from humans who care
- Infrastructure that works
- A business model that makes sense
You're also NOT paying for:
- World class support
- Deliverability tools (they're included, not add-ons)
- API access (unlimited, no extra fees)
- Advanced features (everything's included from day one)
Most platforms nickel and dime you for these things. Or don't offer them at all.
We just include them. Because they're not optional. They're the whole point.
An Invitation
Here's the deal.
If you're serious about email marketing, if you understand that infrastructure matters, if you want support that actually helps—try Bento.
We have a 30-day free trial. Send some campaigns, set up automation, see what quality infrastructure feels like.
If it's not worth $30 to you after that, no hard feelings. At least you'll know what you're missing.
But if you see your emails landing in inboxes...
If you appreciate getting real answers to support questions...
If you like knowing your neighbors aren't destroying your reputation...
Then welcome to Bento.
We built it for people who take email seriously.
The $30 price tag ensures everyone here does.
That's not a bug. It's the whole point.