Astute observers have noticed we changed our pricing. Here’s the new pricing and why we made the change (hint: AI). Plus, you can now get a volume discount.

Business Practices are NOT changing

First, you should know our popular business practices are not changing, which include:

  • Price Transparency: We post our prices on our website.
  • Best Value: We keep costs low and strive to provide customers with the best value for money. Bionic is typically a fraction of the cost of comparable alternatives.
  • All Inclusive: Pricing is all inclusive, including a complete media planning and buying system, onboarding, training, and support. No “nickel and diming.”
  • Standard Prices: All customers pay the standard prices and operate under the same terms based on when they signed up.
  • Price Protection: All customers get Price Protection, which guarantees that nobody will get a better deal than you after you sign up. If so (not likely), you automatically get that better deal.

Don’t worry, these business practices are NOT changing. We’re proud of these policies. Fair dealing is built into our DNA.

Let’s Face It, the Old Pricing Didn’t Work

We’ve known for a while that our old pricing model did not work.

Our old pricing was a cost per user model at $225 per user per month. The good thing about this model is that it is easy to understand. That’s why we used it despite our misgivings. The problem with this model is it does not align with our productivity value proposition.

Bionic for Agencies provides automation that boosts productivity in media planning and media buying workflows, among other things. A main reason ad agencies buy Bionic is to gain a competitive advantage through higher productivity.

Suppose we shipped a magical feature that increased productivity by 25%. This means you could do the same amount of work with 80% of the people. As a result, you also reduced user licenses by 20% because you don’t need them anymore.

In this example, we delivered significantly more value with a software upgrade but got financially punished as a result.

This is not a fictional example. This actually happened.

It’s important to align the value proposition with the pricing model to incentivize delivering maximum value, and to avoid disincentives. The old pricing model was clearly misaligned.

Preparing for AI and RPA

The problem with the inverse correlation between value and cost becomes more acute with artificial intelligence (AI) agents, robotic process automation (RPA), and other automation.

Suppose you built an AI agent that could do the work of 20 people. Clearly, a per user model would not work with an infinitely scalable AI agent. You’d have a bot pushing the system to its limits while simultaneously stripping away the funding to support the system. It would just be a matter of time before the system fell apart.

At Bionic, we 100% support AI and RPA. In fact, it’s part of our founding Guiding Belief and it’s built into the company’s name. Seriously, how could you be Bionic and not support AI?

You’ve benefited from Bionic’s AI innovations like the media plan recommender and integration with LLMs. You’ll see a lot more of this in the future.

To prepare for this AI-powered future, we’ve changed our pricing model.

The New Pricing and Terms

We have changed our pricing to a hybrid model that varies based on three factors: number of users, integrations, and media spending on the platform. We’ve also changed from month-to-month to annual contracts. Our standard Terms of Service have been updated to support this.

Under the new hybrid model, each user is 1 unit of quantity. Each unit includes 1 integration and up to $1 million annual media spending. Additional spending and integrations require additional units. The minimum is 5 units. For details, see our pricing page.

While many customers will still effectively operate on a per user pricing model, the agencies that gain maximum productivity through automation (a.k.a. the smartest agencies) will effectively operate on a spending model.

As part of this change, Bionic’s cost per unit is being reduced from $225 per user to $199 per unit per month. This is good news for many of you operating on a per user basis.

Unfortunately, this new hybrid model is not as simple to understand as a per user model. To address this issue, we added an instant price quote tool to our website. This gives you online access to pricing without having to talk to a salesperson.

Volume Discounts Now Available 🎉

Our old pricing did not include volume discounts.

The rationale for the lack of volume discount is because the value of the software actually increases per user with more users. If anything, the price should go up with volume, not down.

While that’s true, we’ve learned through experience that our cost to support larger customers is less per user than smaller customers. So, it seems fair that we pass along these savings.

The new pricing includes volume discounts up to 50% on larger installations.

To see if you qualify for a volume discount, use the instant price quote tool on our website.

How Are Existing Customers Affected?

Existing customers are automatically grandfathered in under their old pricing and terms. So, everything stays the same. No action is required.

Existing customers are welcome to switch to the new pricing at their option.

If you have any questions about the new pricing or anything else, please contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or our support team.