Introducing our new pricing model with free development for up to 100 devices

Today, we’re extremely excited to announce an entirely reimagined platform pricing model, designed around how our customers operate and grow.

Will Hart article author avatarWill HartMarch 17, 2021
Introducing our new pricing model with free development for up to 100 devices

After nearly a decade of helping our customers deliver connected solutions to market, we’ve learned a tremendous amount about the unique challenges of scaling IoT businesses.

Today, we’re extremely excited to announce an entirely reimagined platform pricing model, designed around how our customers operate and grow, that provides more flexibility, control, and value to every individual and business building on the Particle platform.

  1. First, we’re providing a brand new Free Plan that delivers the best IoT development experience in the industry with support for up to 100 Particle devices, free of charge and with no time limit. Even better? Cellular data is included, so you can wave goodbye to per-device data plans and overages.
  2. Next, we’ve redesigned our platform thresholds around Data Operations – value-added platform actions that you control and use when you send, receive, or store messages with the Particle platform. With Data Operations, “background” platform messages like handshakes, keep-alives, pings, and even OTA updates aren’t metered and don’t count against your Data Operations limit.
  3. Finally, we’re unveiling two new paid service plans for scaling customers – a Growth plan designed for startups and small businesses, and a redesigned Enterprise plan for established companies with predictable demand. Both plans include significant improvements and enjoy all the benefits of our new pricing model like Data Operations, free cellular data, and free over-the-air software updates.

The result of these changes? A simpler and more flexible path to scale with Particle that provides you with the transparency, control, and platform functionality you need to build and transform your business.

Prototype and pilot with our all-new Free Plan

First, we are thrilled to offer a brand new Free Plan designed to provide a complete platform experience to developers and businesses piloting IoT solutions with Particle – no credit card required. 

Our Free Plan offers far more value than you’ll find anywhere else in the industry and includes a Sandbox environment with:

  • Support up to 100 devices. Prototype, deploy, and pilot your IoT solution with Particle without paying a dime. Our Free Plan includes 100K Data Operations/mo and service for up to 100 Particle devices of any type.
  • Access to our best platform features. Advanced platform features like Fleet Health and Intelligent OTA updates, previously only available to Enterprise plan customers, are now included as a part of our Free Plan.
  • Cellular data included. Our free plan comes with a generous allotment of cellular data, so there’s no more need to manage recurring costs, overages, or per-device fees.
  • No time limit. Work at your own pace – our free plan has no expiration date or time limits. 

The Free plan is Particle’s way of inviting everyone from weekend hobbyists to professional developers at Fortune 500 companies to start building with zero risk and zero commitment; simply purchase a Particle device to get started.

A flexible new Growth plan designed for small businesses and startups

Our Growth plan is our new flexible service designed to help small businesses and startups scale their IoT deployment without the burden of negotiated contracts and usage commitments. 

The Growth Plan provides growing fleets with increased Data Operations and metered device limits that are purchased in service bundles called “blocks”. Blocks are available for Wi-Fi, Cellular, or Tracker devices and include:

  • 720K Data Operations per month
  • Support for 100 additional devices

Need more Data Operations? Simply purchase an additional block of service that corresponds to your fleet. Blocks can be purchased at any time and ramped up or down each month to meet the variable needs of your fleet.

Our new Growth plan also comes with significant benefits that were previously reserved for Enterprise customers, including:

  • Unlimited scale. The Growth plan allows you to scale your IoT product self-service by adding additional blocks of service for as long as you’d like.
  • Organizations, a unified entity for managing company-wide permissions and access controls across multiple IoT projects
  • Intelligent OTA, our advanced OTA delivery solution that enables customers to deliver fleet-wide firmware updates with context awareness and maximum speed.
  • Fleet Health, which provides a birds-eye view of aggregated device connectivity, API requests, and integration event metrics

Our new Growth plan is an unrivaled offering for small businesses and startups who need a complete, professional-grade IoT toolkit, larger allotments of Data Operations, and access to Particle’s industry-leading technical support to successfully grow and manage their IoT deployment.

A redesigned Enterprise plan with our best commercial benefits

Particle’s Enterprise plan is our flagship commercial offering that has helped more than 90% of our customers successfully get their product to market successfully within their first year. 

In addition to our deepest hardware and software discounts, customers of our new Enterprise plan also get access to a number of new platform benefits that significantly reduce the friction of deploying and administering large fleets of connected devices, including:

  • Custom pricing plans. Enterprise customers work with our team of IoT experts to develop a package of Data Operations, devices, and professional services that are optimized to support your specific path to scale.
  • Premium support. Enterprise customers receive a dedicated Customer Success Manager and 24/7 access to our team of award-winning support specialists to diagnose and resolve issues when they arise.
  • Manufacturing grace period. For the first six months after manufacturing, inactive devices that are making their way through your supply chain are automatically deducted from your metered device count.
  • Annual usage pooling. Enterprise customers pay a single price for an annual pool of Data Operations and devices that smooths out monthly variability in consumption for large fleets deployed across multiple geographies.
  • No overages. When they exceed their annual Data Operations allotment, Enterprise plan customers automatically get more at a prorated rate that honors all previously negotiated discounts.

Like our Growth plan, Enterprise plan customers also get access to a free development Sandbox for each team member to support ongoing prototyping and development.

Migrating to our new pricing model

We’re incredibly excited to invite new and existing customers to sign up for one of our new pricing plans, starting immediately. All Particle customers will receive an email informing them

  • Free plan. Effective today, all new customers who sign up for a Particle account will get access to our new Free plan. Additionally, all existing eligible accounts with less than 100K Data Operations per month and up to 100 devices have already been migrated to our new Free plan and will no longer receive invoices from Particle.
  • Growth plan. All existing customers of our “Starter” and “Tracking” tiers who are not eligible for our Free plan will be required to migrate to our new Growth plan beginning this summer. Until migrations are completed, all self-service customers will continue to be billed at their existing rates. Please check your email, read our pricing FAQ, or contact our support team for more information about account migrations and billing.
  • Enterprise plan. All new Enterprise customers will automatically get access to the new benefits of our updated Enterprise plan. Existing Enterprise customers can choose to continue scaling with Particle under their preexisting agreement or choose to migrate to our new pricing model by contacting their Customer Success Manager. 

If you have any questions, you can contact our Sales team for more information on any of our exciting new pricing tiers here