AI is eating SaaS; Why Rownd is going free for 1M users

Today, we're making a bold move: offering 1M Monthly Active Users free to all current and future customers. But that's just the beginning. We're launching powerful new platform features, including subscription management, smart and deep links, and making our entire platform AI-Agent ready. Connect us with Cursor and control your authentication, authorization, user management, design, and subscriptions all from one spot.

Why such a radical shift in our G2M, product offering, and pricing strategy?

AI-assisted coding is fundamentally changing the rules of the SaaS business model. With a well-crafted series of prompts to Cursor or Lovable, any company can now recreate a simple version of a SaaS product. While prosumer tools might weather this storm, large enterprise SaaS economics are being turned on their head. Why spend $200K monthly on CRM software when you can create something even more focused and customized in a few days.  If an organization does not want to insource, it will have dozens of options to choose from that will bring down the prices radically.  Someone WILL get fired for hiring IBM. 

If software was eating the world, then AI is Gallactus. Every day, more non-developers create sophisticated internal tools while specialized SaaS startups emerge that can directly challenge $100B incumbents. The barriers to entry aren't just falling – they're collapsing at an exponential rate.  

This represents the greatest Innovator's Dilemma since the web. Super-specialized tools built by small teams can now compete against industry giants, with the technical barriers dropping dramatically each day. The democratization of software creation isn't just changing who can build – it's redefining what gets built and who profits from it.

We're changing to capitalize on the wave of new users and decision influencers. Every product manager I know is now vibe coding prototypes for their design and dev teams before pitching ideas. As a non-technical founder, I'm building working prototypes myself and shipping viable code to our development team to prepare for production. Designers are taking full ownership of design elements in code. The number of people who can create working apps is increasing at an exhilarating rate, and we need to be accessible to more of them.

Even inside the DoD, where we have numerous contracts, AI coding is gaining serious traction. At a recent Air Force exercise, over 150 airmen worked across 10 teams to create apps from scratch. Nearly all teams used Cursor or ChatGPT, and every single team used Rownd's Auth Platform. With just a few lines of code, they had authentication DONE – and it was less likely to break during the AI-assisted coding process.

There, we witnessed the true enterprise opportunity: Rownd will take over all of an app's services – its internal plumbing. Not just auth, but messaging (coming soon), email, SMS integrations, subscription management, links, encryption, and more. By handling everything that absolutely cannot break, AI-assisted coding can move even faster.

Today marks the first steps on that journey. Every day, vibe coders will have all our tools at their disposal, free of charge, to build production-ready apps, not just toys. Enterprises can leverage Rownd's track record of delivering military-grade security with simple integrations so their teams can move quickly, WITHOUT breaking things.

Welcome to Rownd 2.0 – the dynamic backbone for tomorrow's AI-powered apps, unifying authentication, messaging, payment,s and more into one adaptive platform. Our AI-driven solution makes setup a breeze while Rownd's code snippets and SDKs replace static login walls, user management, and subscription management with personalized, context-aware journeys that scale effortlessly.

Now free up to 1M MAUs, Rownd gives startups and enterprises the runway to innovate boldly and seize market leadership in the AI revolution.

About Rownd
Rownd is a modern AI-enabled SaaS App Services Platform that simplifies the critical infrastructure every app needs. Founded in 2022 and backed by Y Combinator (W22), we've built a unified solution that handles authentication, user management, messaging, and subscriptions through one seamless platform. We focus primarily on B2C and G2C organizations looking to move fast without compromising security or user experience. Our military-grade security architecture, combined with effortless integration, makes us the go-to choice for companies ranging from agile startups to government agencies wanting to thrive in the AI revolution. Having raised $2.8M led by Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures and currently operating at breakeven, we're positioned for sustainable growth while democratizing access to enterprise-grade app services, now free for up to 1M monthly active users.