MMP Pricing: Why "Contact Sales" Still Exists in 2026 — and What the Alternative Looks Like
Every SaaS tool you use shows pricing on its website. Notion does. Slack does. Figma does. Amplitude does. Even your billing platform — RevenueCat — has a public pricing page with a calculator.
Your MMP does not.
Instead, you get a "Contact Sales" button. Then a discovery call. Then a custom quote that depends on your volume, your channels, your feature requirements, and — often — how much the sales team thinks you can pay. You cannot compare prices because there are no prices to compare.
This is not a bug. It is how the MMP industry has operated for over a decade. And for early-stage subscription apps spending $5K–$20K/month on UA, it creates two concrete problems: you cannot budget for attribution costs, and you cannot leave without paying a penalty.
Key Takeaways
- MMP is one of the least transparent SaaS categories in 2026. Most providers require a sales call before sharing any pricing — making it impossible to compare costs or plan budgets before committing.
- Annual prepayment is the industry default. Startups are asked to predict 12 months of usage before they have 3 months of data — creating cash flow risk and lock-in.
- Hidden add-ons inflate the real cost beyond the base platform fee. Raw data export, fraud detection, and premium support are often priced separately — and disclosed after the initial sales conversation.
- Transparent pricing requires three things: a public price per unit, usage-based billing (not annual commitments), and no feature gating behind enterprise tiers.
- Airbridge Core Plan charges $0.05/install, pay-as-you-go, with no annual contract. 15K free attributed installs. All features included.
Why MMP Pricing Requires a Sales Call
Most SaaS products adopted transparent pricing years ago. MMPs are a notable exception. Visit the pricing page of any major attribution provider, and you will find one of two things: a "Contact Sales" button, or a free tier with no information about what comes after.
Why does this persist?
The standard explanation is that enterprise pricing is "complex" — it depends on volume, channels, and features. But the same is true for Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Snowflake, all of which publish starting prices and per-unit rates on their websites.
The structural reason is simpler: opaque pricing protects margins. When you cannot see what other customers pay, you cannot negotiate from a position of knowledge. When there is no public benchmark, the vendor sets the anchor.
For startups, this creates a specific operational problem:
- You cannot budget for attribution costs. Before the sales call, you have no idea whether attribution will cost $500/month or $5,000/month. This makes financial planning impossible for early-stage teams.
- You cannot compare vendors. Without published prices, the only way to compare is to run parallel sales processes with multiple providers — each taking 2-4 weeks.
- The quote you receive is not the final cost. Platform fees for mid-scale apps can reach $84K–$126K/year — before implementation costs ($15K–$25K) and premium add-ons ($15K–$30K) are added.
As one founder put it: "Just share pricing transparently, like Notion does. MMP is one of the least transparent industries."
The Annual Prepayment Problem
Even after the sales call, the pricing structure itself creates risk. The industry default is annual prepayment — a 12-month commitment paid upfront or in quarterly installments, with penalties for early termination.
For a startup that launched paid UA three months ago, this means:
- Predicting 12 months of usage with 3 months of data. Install volumes fluctuate. Seasonal spikes are unpredictable. Channel mix changes. Yet the contract locks in a fixed volume tier for the year.
- Overage charges when you exceed the tier. If your app grows faster than expected, you pay overage rates — often at a higher per-unit cost than the contracted rate. Growth becomes a cost penalty.
- Paying for months you may not need. If a campaign underperforms and you reduce UA spend, you still pay the full annual commitment. The MMP contract does not scale down with your business.
One startup CEO described the core frustration: "How am I supposed to predict how much I'll use in 12 months? How do I know how much more Mixpanel event tracking I'll do? How can you ask me to pay a fixed price for a full year?"
For startups spending $5K–$20K/month on UA, an annual MMP contract of $20K–$50K represents a significant portion of total marketing budget — committed before the team knows which channels will work.
The switching costs compound the problem. Migration to a new provider takes 2-3 months, during which attribution data has gaps. Teams that signed a bad contract often stay — not because the product works, but because leaving costs more than staying.
What Transparent MMP Pricing Should Look Like
The problem is not that attribution is hard to price. It is that the industry has not been forced to price it transparently. Other measurement tools have solved this:
- Amplitude publishes per-event pricing with a free tier
- Mixpanel shows plan tiers and per-MTU rates on its website
- RevenueCat has a public pricing calculator
Attribution is no more complex than product analytics. The same model applies: a public unit price, usage-based billing, and no annual lock-in.
A transparent MMP pricing model should meet three criteria:
- Published price per unit. A single, publicly visible rate — per install, per MAU, or per attributed event. No custom quotes. No "it depends on your volume." The price is the price.
- Pay-as-you-go billing. Monthly billing based on actual usage, not projected annual volume. If your installs drop in a slow month, your bill drops too. If you scale, costs scale proportionally — at the same rate.
- No essential features gated behind enterprise tiers. Reports, integrations, and attribution rules should not require a premium upgrade. If a feature is necessary for basic attribution, it should be included — not sold as an add-on.
How Airbridge Core Plan Prices Attribution
Core Plan is built on this model: $0.05 per attributed install, pay-as-you-go, no annual contract.
- 15K free attributed installs with all features included — not a stripped-down free tier with essential capabilities behind a paywall.
- No overage surprises. The same $0.05 rate applies at any volume. No tier changes, no rate increases when you scale.
- Funnel, Retention, and Revenue reports included at every level. Native RevenueCat and Adapty S2S integration. Attribution rules and SKAN Conversion Value settings. 30+ standard events. Meta, Google, Apple Search Ads, and TikTok pre-integrated.
The result: a startup spending $10K/month on UA that generates 5,000 attributed installs pays $250/month for attribution — with the first 15K installs free. No sales call. No contract. No surprises.
See the price before you talk to sales. $0.05/install, pay-as-you-go, 15K free attributed installs.
Airbridge Core Plan vs Traditional MMP
| Capability | Traditional MMP(Typical) | Airbridge Core Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing visibility | "Contact Sales" —no public pricing | $0.05/install,publicly listed |
| Contract structure | Annual prepayment(12-month commitment) | Pay-as-you-go,no annual contract |
| Free tier | Limited or trial-only(12K lifetime installs) | 15K free attributed installs.All features included |
| Overage handling | Higher per-unit rateabove contracted tier | Same $0.05/install rateat any volume |
| Feature gating | Raw data, fraud detection,premium support as add-ons | All features includedat every level |
| Time to price quote | 2-4 weeks(sales process) | Instant(public pricing page) |
| Billing integration | Available, often requirescustom mapping | Native RevenueCat/Adaptyvia S2S |
FAQ
Do I still need an MMP if I only run Meta and Google?
Yes. Platform dashboards cannot deduplicate conversions across channels — Meta and Google will each claim credit for the same user. An MMP provides a single source of truth for which channel actually drove the install and subscription. Without it, you cannot calculate accurate cost per subscriber by channel.
What happens if I exceed 15K free installs?
You pay $0.05 per attributed install above 15K. There is no tier change, no rate increase, and no contract trigger. The same rate applies whether you have 16K installs or 160K.
Can I switch from a traditional MMP to Core Plan mid-contract?
You can start Core Plan immediately — there is no onboarding queue or sales process. However, your existing MMP contract terms determine whether you can stop paying them. Many teams run both in parallel during the transition period, then drop the legacy provider at contract renewal.
Stop Paying for a Price You Cannot See
The MMP industry charges enterprise prices behind enterprise sales processes — even for startups that need basic attribution across four channels. You should not need a sales call to learn what attribution costs.
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