Twelve months: the psychology of a fair payment plan
Why twelve months? Not six, not eighteen. The number came from watching how founders actually behave under financial pressure.
Six months means payments big enough to distort decisions — people defer hiring or marketing to survive their own website. Eighteen and beyond, the product risks aging faster than the balance shrinks.
Twelve sits at a curious sweet spot: each payment is small enough to plan around, yet the end is close enough to see. Psychologists call the effect "the finish line" — obligation feels lighter when progress is legible.
Equal payments matter more than people expect. A schedule that creeps upward — teaser rate, then escalation — is a trust leak. Our month nine payment is identical to month one, down to the cent.
The best compliment we get is not "great product". It is a founder saying they forgot the payment was leaving. Boring, predictable, forgettable — for billing, that is the highest praise there is.