At ALA, I spent some time talking to other library software vendors in the exhibition hall. (If you’re reading this, thanks for talking to me!) By and large, people were very open and happy to share their vision of their product; often, they’d even give insight into the technical underpinnings of their software. However, there was one place where software vendors were almost universally unwilling to tip their hands.

Price.

There was no question that’d cause a software vendor to clam up faster than “How much does it cost?” We’re rather new to the market, so maybe I’m being completely naive, but this seems really strange – as if I walked up to a Ford dealer and they wouldn’t quote me a price on a new Focus. What gives? Are vendors charging each customer a different price? Is there some other reason this information is so closely guarded?

Regardless of the reason other vendors keep pricing secret, here’s our promise: We will always be clear, honest, and up-front about the prices of our products – Gimlet and all our future products. There won’t be any “Contact our Sales Team for a quote!” business (honestly, we don’t even have a sales team) – you’ll see the prices for our products published openly on our web site.

We think we make software that’s both excellent and an excellent value. But we really want you to decide that for yourself – and part of that is telling you up front what our software costs.