I’m launching a £5/month job management app to kill the £200/month incumbents. Here’s why I think pricing can be a moat.

I’m Jordan. I clean windows for a living and I’m about to launch Marion — job management software for trades that costs ~70% less than Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceM8.

The thesis: Most SaaS companies bundle everything and charge everyone the same. I think that’s broken. Why should a solo window cleaner pay £150/month for features a 50-person plumbing company needs?

So I’m testing radical unbundling: CRM, scheduling, invoicing, and quotes are free. Forever.

You only pay for things that either cost me money to run (SMS notifications, cloud storage over 1GB) or are genuinely unique (AI-powered schedule optimization, smart route planning, worker-swapping marketplace).

The result? • Solo operator: £0–5/month instead of £50–150 • Small team (3–5 workers): £15–30/month instead of £200–400 • You scale your costs with your revenue, not some arbitrary tier structure

Why I think this might work: 1. I actually do the job. I know what hurts. I know which features matter at 7am in the rain with gloves on. Competitors are VC-funded teams in San Francisco who’ve never cleaned a gutter. 2. Authenticity as distribution. Trade communities are skeptical of corporate software. I’m posting progress in r/windowcleaning, r/sweatystartup, Facebook groups. Real person, real problems, real software. 3. Pricing forces discipline. If I’m giving away the core for free, I have to make the paid features genuinely valuable. No fluff, no dark patterns, no “oh you need Premium for that basic thing.” 4. Land-and-expand without the predatory bit. Free users become my best marketers. They tell their mates. Some upgrade when they grow. I’m playing the long game.

The ethics question (where I need your pushback): I’m planning to add AI-powered features: route optimization, customer LTV prediction, churn risk scoring, auto-rescheduling based on weather and worker availability.

Here’s my concern: Am I building a system that extracts more value from workers, or one that genuinely makes their lives easier?

I don’t want to be the guy who helps business owners squeeze an extra 10% out of their team while the workers burn out. But I also think good software should help you earn more with less wasted time.

My current rules: • AI recommendations are suggestions, never mandates • Workers can see their own performance data (no hidden scoring) • No gamification that pits workers against each other • Pricing scales with business size, so solo operators aren’t subsidizing enterprises

Is that enough? What am I missing? Where I’m at: • ~80% built (Unity + Firebase, offline-first, mobile-optimized) • Launching beta in March 2026 with 50–150 testers from trade communities • Current feature set: CRM, scheduling, quotes, invoicing, payment tracking, staff accounts, sync across devices • Next up: smart rescheduling, route optimization, SMS notifications, AI import for legacy data

Why I’m posting this: 1. I want to stress-test the pricing model. Does “free core + paid premium” actually work, or am I just cannibalizing my own revenue? 2. I want founders and operators to poke holes in the ethics of AI in blue-collar work. I’m building this for tradies, not at them. 3. If you’re a contractor, plumber, electrician, cleaner, or run a small trade business and want to be part of the beta, I’d genuinely love your feedback:

Beta signup here: https://tally.so/r/81q1Br Follow progress: @themarionapp (I post regular updates, design decisions, and experiments)

TL;DR: I’m a window cleaner building a job management software that’s 70% cheaper than the big players by giving away the core for free and only charging for expensive/unique features. Launching beta in March. Trying to figure out if I’m disrupting pricing models or just racing to the bottom. Also trying not to accidentally build exploitative AI. Thoughts?