The 'Free Trial' That Costs You $12,500 a Year

The 'Free Trial' That Costs You $12,500 a Year ChurnKey's pricing page says "free until you recover revenue." Sounds fair, right? You only pay when it works. Here's what they don't mention: when it works, you're paying 20-30% of every dollar recovered. Forever. A founder on r/startups put it bluntly: "They take 30% on small recoveries; ate my margins... recovered $50k, still 25%—feels predatory." Let's do the math on why "performance-based pricing" might be the most expensive trial you've ever run. The Revenue Share Trap Revenue share pricing feels psychologically safe. No upfront cost. No risk. You only pay when the tool "proves itself." But here's the problem: the better the tool works, the more you pay. Scenario: You're a B2B SaaS doing $50K MRR. Churn is 5% monthly. Failed payments add another 3%. A good dunning tool recovers 40% of those failed payments. That's roughly $600/month recovered. With ChurnKey at 25% revenue share: $150/month Over a year: $1,800 Now scale that. At $100K