We are a small startup with big plans.
Like many early teams, we started with Asana. It is a solid product, familiar, reliable, and easy to adopt. I have personally used the free version for years, and it has been more than enough while teams are small and needs are simple.
But growth changes everything.
As soon as you want to collaborate seriously, plan ahead, or use features like roadmaps, you hit the paywall. As of December 2025, Asana costs €10.99 per user per month when billed annually, or €13.49 per user per month when billed monthly.
For our current team of 7 people, that works out to:
- €76.93 per month, or €923.16 per year with annual billing
- €94.43 per month, or €1,133.16 per year with monthly billing
Annual billing saves about €210 a year. We could afford it, but every euro matters at this stage. That money could go towards infrastructure, design, content, or simply buying ourselves more time to build.
And then we looked ahead.
We expect to grow to around 15 people next year. Beyond that, our wider team already numbers over 45. If everyone could collaborate in a single tool, that would be amazing. It would also be painfully expensive.
This is where the real problem revealed itself.
The Pricing Cliff No One Talks About
We spent time comparing alternatives. Jira, Monday, ClickUp, Wrike, Notion, Basecamp, Zoho, GoodDay, ProofHub, OpenProject, and many others. Some are excellent products. Some are incredibly powerful. Almost all of them share one thing in common.
They charge per user.
At small scale, it feels manageable. At 10 users, you justify it. At 15, you hesitate. At 45, you start doing mental gymnastics to justify why not everyone really needs access.
That is a terrible place to be as a team.
The tools that offer flat pricing tend to be expensive upfront. The cheaper tools often feel dated, clunky, or unfriendly. Many open-source or self-hosted options technically work, but they lack polish, usability, and joy. They feel like compromises, not tools you want your team to live in every day.
Then I heard about Odoo.
A YouTuber I follow mentioned it casually. “Twenty dollars a month for unlimited users.”
I was genuinely excited. I was ready to pay for a full year on the spot.
Then reality hit.
The pricing turned out to be per user. On top of that, the checkout tried to charge more than advertised. When I tried to submit a ticket to report the issue, their ticketing system was not working.
That moment was the last straw.
So We Decided to Build What We Could Not Find
There was no project management tool that hit all of these at once:
- Affordable for growing teams
- Simple, beautiful, and pleasant to use
- Powerful enough for real work
- Honest pricing without per-user penalties
So we made a decision.
We are building our own.
Our promise is simple:
After the first 5 users, we charge €1 per additional user per month.
That means:
- 7 users costs €2 per month
- 15 users costs €10 per month
- 45 users costs €40 per month
No tricks. No “starter” versus “pro” confusion. No feature ransom.
We are not building this to maximize revenue. We are building it because we want a tool we actually enjoy using, one that does not punish teams for growing.
We want to be the Arizona Tea of project management tools.
Good quality. Fair pricing. No nonsense.
Inspired by Calm, Not Bloat
I deeply respect the philosophy behind Basecamp and the ideas in It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. Build small. Stay focused. Resist unnecessary complexity. Create something that lasts.
But Basecamp today costs hundreds per month. That price makes sense for some companies, but it excludes many others who need something lighter and more accessible.
We believe there is room for a different path.
A tool that stays small on purpose.
A tool that is opinionated but flexible.
A tool that respects your budget as much as your time.
Radical Transparency, From Day One
This blog exists for one reason.
We want to document the journey openly.
We will share:
- What it costs to build and run the product
- Infrastructure expenses
- Design decisions
- Trade-offs and mistakes
- How we make sure the price stays at €1
If we ever fail at that promise, you will see it here first.
If this resonates with you, if you have ever looked at your team size and thought “this tool is great, but it is getting too expensive”, then we are building this for you.
Leave your email.
We will keep you updated.
And we will let you know when it is ready.
This is not about chasing unicorn valuations.
It is about building something fair, calm, and sustainable.
And we are just getting started.