Renewals

Renewal principals

Being on a prepaid credit plan - usually annual - is a win-win solution for both PostHog and the customer. Customers get discounts on the credits they purchase and PostHog gets confirmed revenue.

When estimating renewal amount, we want to make sure we accurately determine the amount of credits the customer will need in the next 12 months (or equivalent period, e.g. if they prepaid for 6 months). This is not an opportunity to upsell - do that later by encouraging product usage.

This page walks through recommendations for approaching and handling renewals. Contract rules and how to create contracts are covered in relevant pages under our shared processes.

When to start

Start renewal conversations at least 2 months before the contract renewal date for customers you are already in frequent contact with. For customers who are quiet, start renewal discussions 3 months out to allow more time for re-engagement.

Vitally and Slack will keep you on track with automated reminders. When a customer hits the 2-month mark, they'll automatically enter the Upcoming renewal segment, you'll get a task assigned to you in Vitally, and Slack will send a notification.

Start by sending a message in the shared Slack channel. Things will change in a year – the person you worked with previously may not be the right person this time. Mention when the customer is set to renew and ask if they have any preferred next steps.

As you make progress in the renewal discussions, update the renewal opportunity in Salesforce.

Unique Renewal Cases

Customers who are projected to run out of credit before renewal

You will get notified by credit bot in Slack if a customer is set to run out of credits before their renewal date. This is considered an early renewal and follow the same process. If the customer will likely run out of credits before renewal is done, make sure they have a credit card on their account so any overage bills will be paid.

Customers who are projected to have expiring credits at the end of their contract

It is sometimes the case a customer will have a balance on their account when their contract term ends. This credit balance will expire, and they will still be moved to monthly payments. We have rules in place for this situation, allowing customers to carry over credits on a flat renewal (or higher). If you notice a customer trending towards this, try and engage with the customer to explain this credit expiry and the options available. Use this call to explore projected growth and other use cases and features. In these cases, renewal discussions should start at 3 months, to give time to explore new features and determine if carrying over the credits is valuable to the customer.

Customers with irregular contracts

Many customers are on legacy contracts that do not adhere to our contract rules. This could include non-Net 30 payment terms, unique discounts, legacy pricing, or monthly/quarterly payments. It should be a priority to migrate customers to standard pricing and discounts. Although conversations may be difficult, we should, whenever reasonable, stick to the pricing in our handbook, and freely share that handbook with the customer to defend our point. Trust your judgement on when these irregular terms may be deal-breakers, and worth keeping.

Renewal discussions

Renewal conversations are best done on a call. There can be a lot of moving parts so talking through it is usually a good idea.

Before the call, review your customer's usage and start a quote in Quotehog . If you need to look at data beyond the last 6 months, you can use this PostHog dashboard and edit the variables. Check if your customer is on any legacy pricing tiers – either talk to them about moving to standard pricing, or take it into account when building a quote.

This call can be an opportunity to explore your customer's PostHog experience so far and upcoming initiatives that you can build on in the future. It's also a good idea to explain how contracts, credits, and discounts work at PostHog – our pricing philosophy and contract rules are handy pages to bring up.

When you walk through the quote, start by looking at their past usage – try to anchor to the main products they're using as there can be a lot of numbers to look at. Explain how you estimated the usage for each product to arrive at the final number. Check-in with your customer throughout to sense check you're on the right track.

After the call - share the public quote link with your customer along with any usage information you shared on the call.