Raxx Pricing Research — Pro & Pro+ Regular Monthly Prices
Status: research-only. This document does NOT constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Before locking prices in Stripe or communicating them publicly, validate with a licensed CPA (Pennsylvania) and, if needed, a SaaS pricing advisor or revenue-ops consultant. Last updated: 2026-05-18. Competitor prices verified from live pricing pages on that date — re-verify before any public commitment.
TL;DR
Regular (post-founders) Pro should land at $49/mo. Pro+ should land at $99/mo. The prior research docs (docs/marketing/pricing.md + docs/marketing/pricing-v2.md) anchored Pro at $29 and Pro+ at $79 — those were proposed before the founders price was locked at $29/mo for 6 months. With founders at $29, Pro at $29 is not a separate tier — it is the same price, eliminating the post-founders incentive to stay. The competitive anchor set supports $49 for Pro with headroom to spare. At $49, founders at $29 = 59% of regular Pro, squarely in the 30–60% target band. The next decision is whether options-income strategies (iron condors, defined-risk spreads — per [[project_structure_gap_thesis]] and Kristerpher's focus) ship at or before v1 launch, because that determines whether Pro+ is currently feature-complete or aspirational.
1. Competitive Landscape
Sources: live pricing pages verified 2026-05-18. Annual prices shown as effective monthly rate where the vendor markets them that way.
| Competitor | Free tier | Entry paid | Mid/Pro | Power/Pro+ | Feature gate between tiers | Primary differentiation vs. Raxx |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Ideas | Yes (delayed, 1 chart) | TI Basic: $89/mo or $127/mo month-to-month | TI Premium: $178/mo annual or $254/mo month-to-month | — (2-tier above free) | AI signals + backtesting gated to Premium | Equity-only scanner, no automation or execution logic; no options-income focus |
| TrendSpider | No (paid trial $19-49) | Standard: $54.99/mo (annual: ~$52/mo) | Premium: $79.99/mo (annual: ~$65/mo) | Enhanced: $199/mo (annual: ~$88/mo) | Bot count, alert count, backtest depth, scan timeframe granularity | Charting + automation bots; no options-income strategy logic; quota-based model |
| TradingView | Yes (generous free) | Essential: $14.95/mo (annual: ~$9.95/mo) | Plus: $29.95/mo | Premium: $59.95/mo | Charts per tab, indicators, alerts, bar history | Pure charting + community; no execution logic, no strategy enforcement |
| Composer | Yes (paper only) | Premium: $32/mo (annual: ~$24/mo) | — | — | Automated live execution gated behind subscription | Equity-only automated portfolios; no options; pricing has restructured repeatedly |
| QuantConnect | Yes (shared cloud) | Researcher: ~$20–60/mo (node-based) | Team: ~$80–120/mo | Trading Firm: custom | Compute nodes (backtest + live), tick data, team seats | Code-first Python/C# algo platform; steep learning curve; no no-code entry |
| Stocktwits Edge | Yes (ad-supported) | Ad-Free: ~$7/mo (annual: $85/yr) | Edge: ~$19/mo (annual: $229.50/yr) | — | Social sentiment data, expanded markets, advanced search | Social sentiment layer only; not an execution or strategy tool |
| Tradier Pro | Yes (broker free tier) | Pro: $10/mo | Pro Plus: $35/mo | — | Commission-free trading volume, execution features | Broker-native product; not a strategy-enforcement or backtesting layer |
| TrendSpider Enhanced (as proxy for serious algo) | — | — | — | $199/mo (annual: ~$88/mo) | Priority support, max bot count, 20K backtest depth | Capacity-based; no options-income focus |
Key takeaways from the competitive landscape
-
The $29–$32 monthly band is "commodity algo automation." Composer sits there. TradingView Plus is $29.95. These are recognized as consumer-grade tools by the serious retail trader segment Raxx targets. Pricing Raxx Pro at $29 puts Raxx in the same perceived category as these tools, which directly contradicts the [[project_strategic_position]] ("structure enforcement" and "platform of trust").
-
The $49–$79 band is the recognized "serious retail tool" price point. TrendSpider Standard ($55) and Premium ($80), Trade Ideas Basic annual ($89), and TradingView Premium ($60) all live here. This is where the active trader with an established methodology shops.
-
Nobody in this competitive set is options-income-forward at the $29–$32 price point. The options-focused tools (tastytrade, IBKR) are commission-based brokers, not SaaS subscriptions. This gap is the whitespace identified in
docs/marketing/pricing-v2.mdand it supports pricing Raxx above the commodity band. -
Trade Ideas is the most direct psychographic analog — a serious retail trader paying for a proprietary signal layer on top of their broker. Their entry tier is $89–$127/mo. Raxx at $49/mo is materially cheaper than Trade Ideas even at Basic, while being a different product (structure-enforcement vs. scanning). That is the correct positioning: comparable in seriousness, more affordable because the job-to-be-done is different.
-
TrendSpider's annual discount is 28% (monthly $79.99 → annual ~$65.52). TradingView's effective annual discount is 33–50% depending on tier. These are aggressive. Raxx at 17% ("2 months free") is conservatively positioned — which is appropriate pre-launch.
2. Founders Price Anchoring Analysis
The operator-locked founders price is $29/mo for 6 months.
The founders-as-anchor test: founders should pay roughly 30–60% of regular Pro. Outside that band: - Below 25%: the regular price looks extortionate relative to "what early people paid" - Above 60%: the founders discount feels trivial, and the post-6-month renewal cliff is shallow enough that it doesn't reward early adopters meaningfully
| Proposed regular Pro | Founders as % of Pro | In-band? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| $29/mo (prior marketing docs) | 100% | No — identical price | Founders feel no discount; no post-6-month step-up incentive |
| $39/mo | 74% | No — too high (founders barely discounted) | |
| $49/mo | 59% | Yes — top of target band | Founders save $20/mo vs. regular; clear step-up after 6 months |
| $59/mo | 49% | Yes — mid band | Viable but pushes into TrendSpider Premium territory |
| $79/mo (prior Pro+ positioning) | 37% | Yes — low-mid band | Would reposition what is currently Pro+ as the only paid tier |
| $99/mo | 29% | Yes — bottom of band |
Finding: Any regular Pro price below ~$45 fails the founders anchoring test — founders would be paying more than 65% of regular Pro, making the "early access discount" feel trivial. $49 is the minimum defensible regular Pro price given the $29 founders rate.
The prior pricing docs (docs/marketing/pricing.md, docs/marketing/pricing-v2.md) proposed Pro at $29 and Pro+ at $79. Those were written when the founders price had not yet been locked. With founders locked at $29, the entire pricing ladder needs to shift up one step so the tier structure makes logical sense.
3. Recommended Pricing
These are research findings, not decisions. Take to a CPA and/or pricing advisor before committing to Stripe.
Pro: $49/mo | $490/yr ($40.83/mo effective — "2 months free")
Rationale: - Passes the founders anchoring test at 59% ($29/$49) - Sits in the established "serious retail tool" band between TradingView Premium ($59.95) and TrendSpider Standard ($54.99) — defensibly priced for a more opinionated, strategy-enforcement product - The "two SPX credit spread premiums/year pays for the subscription" mental math still works: a $49/mo subscription is $588/year; a single avoided blown trade on a $10K account more than covers it - $49 is a recognizable SaaS price point with lower psychological friction than $50 (avoids the round-number ceiling) - Stripe fee on $49: ($49 × 0.029) + $0.30 = $1.72/transaction → 3.5% effective rate (meaningfully better than the 4.5% on the former $19 founders rate)
Pro+: $99/mo | $990/yr ($82.50/mo effective — "2 months free")
Rationale: - $50 delta over Pro is the minimum that justifies a separate SKU without cannibalization (consistent with prior marketing analysis) - $99/mo is the first three-digit price for Raxx — it signals a tier step, not a rounding. "Under $100/mo" remains a true claim for both paid tiers - Positions squarely between TrendSpider Premium annual (~$88/mo) and Trade Ideas Basic month-to-month ($127/mo) — correct for the "power user / serious book" persona - At $99/mo, Pro+ is $1,188/year. A trader running 3+ simultaneous live strategies on a $50K+ book is paying <0.25% of book/year, which is well within the "noise-level cost" range for a serious participant - Founders at $29 = 29% of Pro+ — bottom of the 30–60% band. Acceptable as a research finding; the CPA/pricing advisor should weigh in on whether a two-tier founders upgrade path (founders → Pro at $49 after 6 months, with an explicit opt-up offer to Pro+ at a first-year discounted rate) is preferable
Annual discount: 17% ("2 months free") — unchanged from prior research
- Consistent with prior docs; no new competitive data suggests changing this
- "2 months free" as the copy frame (not "17% off") — consistent with prior recommendation
4. Tier Feature Differentiation
Proposed feature boundaries for the three tiers at v1 launch. Inherits the feature matrix from docs/marketing/pricing-v2.md and extends it with quota specifics and support SLAs. Items marked [aspirational] depend on features that are not confirmed as shipped at v1; see Section 7 for the operator decision this surfaces.
| Capability | Free | Pro ($49/mo) | Pro+ ($99/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $49/mo | $99/mo |
| Paper trading | Full | Full | Full |
| Paper-trade history retention | 90 days | 3 years | Unlimited |
| Concurrent paper strategies | 2 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Live trading (broker connect) | No | Yes — Alpaca live + 1 additional broker | Yes — all supported brokers |
| Concurrent live strategies | 0 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Backtests / month | 20 | 250 | Unlimited (fair-use policy) |
| Backtest depth | 1 year | 10 years | 20+ years |
| AI trade proposals / month | 25 | 500 | 5,000 |
| Options chain depth | Delayed 15-min | Real-time | Real-time + historical chains |
| Options-income strategy types (iron condor, defined-risk spread) | No | Yes — standard types | Yes + advanced types [aspirational] |
| Automated execution rules / account | 0 | 3 active rule sets | Unlimited |
| Saved strategy templates | 5 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Data export | Manual CSV, last 30 days | CSV + personal API key, full history | CSV + API + webhooks |
| API rate limit | 60 req/min | 600 req/min | 3,000 req/min |
| Email alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes + SMS/webhook |
| Priority support SLA | Best-effort, 72h | 24h business-day | 4h business-day |
| Roadmap input vote | No | No | Yes |
| Non-gated — every tier | |||
Passkey authentication (WebAuthn, RP raxx.app) |
Required | Required | Required |
| GDPR / CCPA data-subject rights | Full | Full | Full |
| Core paper trading | Full | Full | Full |
| Core options chain viewer | Full | Full | Full |
| Audit log (own account) | Full | Full | Full |
What the upgrade levers are (and why)
Free → Pro conversion pressure points: 1. History retention cliff at 90 days — any weekly-options trader trying to answer "how did my book do last quarter?" hits this wall within 3 months 2. Concurrent-strategies cap of 2 — a trader with any regular methodology runs 3–5 concurrent; Free forces the choice 3. Live-trading gate — paper-only is a training-wheel tier; anyone ready to deploy capital upgrades
Pro → Pro+ conversion pressure points: 1. Concurrent live strategies cap of 3 — the multi-strategy trader running iron condors + momentum + hedging simultaneously needs Pro+ 2. Backtest depth (10 years vs. 20+) — strategy validation across multiple market regimes requires longer windows 3. API + webhook access — traders who want to pipe data into other systems (personal dashboards, tax-lot tracking) need Pro+ 4. 4h support SLA — meaningful for traders with real capital at risk who cannot wait until the next business day
5. Sensitivity Bands
If Kristerpher wants to calibrate conversion rate vs. ARPU tradeoffs before locking, these are the adjacent price points and their implications:
| Scenario | Pro price | Pro+ price | Founders/Pro ratio | Primary risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative (more conversions, lower ARPU) | $39/mo | $89/mo | 74% — founders barely discounted | Cheapens the founders reward; Pro looks like a $10 step-up, not a real tier |
| Recommended | $49/mo | $99/mo | 59% — top of target band | Pro+ at $99 pushes founders pct to 29% (bottom of band) — consider a first-year Pro+ discount path |
| Aggressive (fewer conversions, higher ARPU) | $59/mo | $119/mo | 49% | $59/mo approaches TradingView Premium ($59.95) — Raxx needs strong brand justification to hold that price pre-launch |
| Power positioning | $69/mo | $139/mo | 42% | Pre-launch risk: no track record, asking Trade-Ideas-adjacent money for an unproven product |
Specific nudges within the recommended band: - If beta feedback shows strong willingness-to-pay signals (waitlist conversion >15%), consider $54/mo for Pro — stays below TrendSpider Standard ($54.99), maintains psychological "under TrendSpider" positioning - If options-income features are confirmed shipped at launch (not aspirational), Pro+ at $109/mo is defensible — the options-specific feature set commands a modest premium over the generic automation competitors - If launch-period churn data shows founders are not renewing after the 6-month cliff, dropping Pro to $44/mo (founders = 66%) and Pro+ to $89/mo (still $45 delta) would be the least-disruptive adjustment
6. Annual Pricing (No Change Recommended at v1)
- Annual discount: 17% ("2 months free") on both Pro and Pro+
- Pro annual: $490/yr ($40.83/mo effective)
- Pro+ annual: $990/yr ($82.50/mo effective)
- Founders are on a 6-month monthly plan by construction; annual + founders is a no-op for the first cohort
- Recommendation: offer annual plans from day one, but do not push them during the founders window. After founders 6-month conversion to regular pricing, surface the annual option in the renewal email sequence as the first retention mechanism
7. Founders Anchoring Check (Summary)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Founders ($29) as % of recommended Pro ($49) | 59% — in band (target 30–60%) |
| Founders ($29) as % of recommended Pro+ ($99) | 29% — at lower edge of band (target 30–60%) |
| Founders discount over 6 months vs. regular Pro | $20/mo × 6 months = $120 saved |
| Founders discount over 6 months vs. regular Pro+ | $70/mo × 6 months = $420 saved (if Founders are on a Pro+ path) |
Flags: - At Pro $49, the founders/Pro ratio is 59% — acceptable and within the brief's stated 30–60% band, but at the top. If the market reads "regular Pro" as 70%+ over founders, there is narrative risk at renewal ("you're nearly doubling my price"). The renewal email must pre-frame this: "Founders pricing was $29 — here's what you unlocked at $49." - At Pro+ $99, founders/Pro+ = 29%, which is 1 percentage point below the 30% floor in the brief. If Kristerpher is concerned about this, two options: (a) set Pro+ at $95 (founders = 30.5% — barely in band, awkward price); or (b) offer a "founders-to-Pro+" upgrade path at a first-year rate of $79/mo for 12 months before moving to $99. Option (b) is the cleaner product move, but it requires a third Stripe price SKU and a time-bounded promotion. - The prior pricing docs proposed Pro at $29 and Pro+ at $79. Those prices are no longer viable as the regular pricing given the founders lock at $29. A prior-research-doc reader will notice the shift; make sure internal docs are annotated that the competitive context changed when founders was locked at $29.
8. Jurisdiction Flags
| Topic | Jurisdiction | Flag |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS sales tax on subscriptions | Pennsylvania (home state) | PA taxes some digital services; SaaS status is fact-specific. Verify with PA CPA before billing first customer |
| SaaS sales tax on subscriptions | California (if Kristerpher has CA nexus from part-year presence) | CA taxes SaaS subscriptions; economic nexus thresholds apply. Verify with CPA |
| Revenue recognition for founders monthly subscriptions | Federal (IRS) | Cash vs. accrual basis; deferred revenue if annual plans are sold at discount. CPA call |
| Price discrimination / geographic pricing | Federal | No jurisdiction issues for uniform US pricing; flag only if international expansion considered |
| iOS pricing (App Store IAP) | Apple App Store rules | Per [[project_ios_billing_iap]]: StoreKit 2, 30%/15% Apple cut. At $49 regular Pro, Apple takes $14.70/mo. iOS Pro price should be set at $49 (absorb the cut) or grossed up to $59.99 (pass-through to iOS users). This is an operator decision — surfaces here as a flag |
9. Timing and Deadlines
| Item | Deadline | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Quebec geo-block at signup | Before 2026-05-23 launch | Per [[project_quebec_geoblock_decision]] — Path A chosen; this is a hard pre-launch blocker unrelated to pricing but time-adjacent |
| Founders 6-month clock | Starts at each individual founders signup | Per [[project_llc_formation_decisions]] and founders epic; each founder's $29 rate expires 6 months after their individual signup date, not a fixed calendar date — confirm this is how Stripe subscription logic is configured |
| Stripe product/price creation | Before first paid conversion | No code or Stripe action in this doc; flagged as a prerequisite for PM + product |
| iOS pricing tier selection | Before App Store submission | Apple IAP pricing uses fixed price tiers (e.g., $49.99 is a tier, $49 is not). Verify exact iOS tier with a StoreKit 2 resource |
| Annual pricing activation | Recommend at launch (v1) | Even if not pushed during founders window, the annual SKU should exist in Stripe on day one |
10. Questions for Licensed Pricing Advisor / CPA
These are the specific questions to bring to a PA-licensed CPA with SaaS revenue experience (not answered here — research only):
-
PA + CA SaaS sales tax nexus. At what revenue or transaction threshold does Raxx need to collect and remit Pennsylvania sales tax on subscriptions? Does Kristerpher's part-year California presence create CA nexus for the LLC? What is the per-state compliance burden at $49/mo × initial user counts?
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Revenue recognition for the founders cohort. Founders pay monthly ($29/mo for 6 months) then step up to regular pricing. For a cash-basis LLC (disregarded entity, PA), is there any deferred revenue treatment? What changes if Raxx sells annual Pro plans at $490/yr — is the full $490 recognized in month 1 on a cash basis?
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iOS price gross-up vs. absorption. Apple takes 30% (15% after year 1) on IAP. At a $49 regular Pro price, should the iOS-specific price be $49 (Raxx absorbs the cut, effective net $34.30) or $59.99 (passed to user, effective net $41.99)? This is partly a pricing decision and partly an accounting decision. What is the CPA's view on how other SaaS companies handle this in the cost-of-revenue line?
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Founders step-up framing and any promotional-price accounting implications. When a founder's $29/mo converts to $49/mo after 6 months, is the $20/mo delta treated purely as a price change (no accounting event) or does the structure of the founders offer create any promotional-discount revenue-recognition nuance? Confirm the answer holds for a single-member LLC in PA on Schedule C.
-
Two-tier founders-to-Pro+ upgrade path viability. If Raxx offers founders a first-year Pro+ rate of $79/mo (below regular $99) via a time-bounded Stripe promotion, does that create a separate promotional price commitment with any accounting treatment? Would it require a separate Stripe product/price SKU or can it be handled as a coupon? (The latter has RBAC / entitlement implications for product — flag to PM when confirmed.)
11. Sources
Primary sources verified 2026-05-18:
- Trade Ideas pricing page (live):
https://www.trade-ideas.com/pricing/— TI Basic: $89/mo annual, $127/mo month-to-month; TI Premium: $178/mo annual, $254/mo month-to-month - TrendSpider pricing page (live):
https://trendspider.com/pricing/— Standard: $54.99/mo; Premium: $79.99/mo (annual: ~$65.52); Enhanced: $199/mo (annual: ~$87.84) - TradingView pricing page (search-verified 2026-05-18):
https://www.tradingview.com/pricing/— Essential: $14.95/mo; Plus: $29.95/mo; Premium: $59.95/mo; Ultimate: $199.95/mo (annual billing) - Stocktwits subscriptions page (live):
https://stocktwits.com/subscriptions— Edge: $229.50/yr (~$19.13/mo effective) - Tradier pricing page (search-verified 2026-05-18):
https://tradier.com/individuals/pricing— Pro: $10/mo; Pro Plus: $35/mo - Composer pricing (search-verified, live page returned 403):
https://www.composer.trade/pricing— Premium: ~$32/mo month-to-month, ~$24/mo annual (sourced from search results, verify live page directly) - QuantConnect pricing page (live):
https://www.quantconnect.com/pricing/— Researcher through Institution tiers; explicit dollar amounts not published on the pricing page at time of fetch; secondary source estimate ~$20–80/mo for Researcher depending on node configuration - Stripe transaction fees:
https://stripe.com/pricing— 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (standard US) - Internal:
docs/marketing/pricing.md— v1 proposal, Pro $29, Pro+ $79 - Internal:
docs/marketing/pricing-v2.md— v2 refresh, confirmed Pro $29, Pro+ $79 (pre-founders-lock) - Internal:
docs/business/founders-pro-pricing-rationale.md— unit economics at $19 founders rate (now $29 founders per operator lock); cost structure for Heroku, Alpaca, Anthropic, Stripe - Internal project memory: [[project_llc_formation_decisions]], [[project_ios_billing_iap]], [[project_strategic_position]], [[project_structure_gap_thesis]], [[project_quebec_geoblock_decision]]
Before acting on any price in this document, consult a CPA licensed in Pennsylvania with SaaS subscription revenue experience. For iOS pricing tiers specifically, reference Apple's current StoreKit 2 price tier table at
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/. Do not create Stripe products or prices, communicate prices publicly, or amend any founder agreements based solely on this research document.