Good, better, best pricing: how to build three service packages

Good, better, best pricing means offering the same service at three levels instead of one price. It works because clients compare your options with each other instead of comparing you with doing nothing or with a cheaper rival. Build the middle package for the client you most want, put a lean version below it and a fuller one above, and show the top option first. Keep extras as add-ons so the three packages stay easy to compare.

Why three options beat one price

A single price invites a yes or no answer. Three prices invite a choice, and a choice keeps the conversation about your work.

Two well-known studies explain why. In 1982, Huber, Payne and Puto showed that adding a clearly weaker option can raise the share of people choosing the option it sits next to (often called the decoy effect). In 1989, Itamar Simonson published work on the compromise effect: when people are unsure, they lean toward the option in the middle because it feels safest. Both are classic findings from consumer research, and both point the same way for a service business. The middle package gets chosen more when it sits between a smaller and a larger one.

Newer work shows the order matters too. INSEAD reported in October 2025 on research where flipping the order of tiers from Good, Better, Best to Best, Better, Good "could actually result in up to a 10 percent increase in revenue", with a controlled experiment measuring 10.8%. Seeing the top price first makes the middle one look like better value.

Decide what the middle package is

Start with the middle, not the bottom. The middle package is the one you want most clients to buy, so build it around your typical good project:

• The scope that solves the usual problem completely. Not the bare minimum, not everything.
• The price you'd be happy to get from most clients. If you currently quote one price, this is usually close to it.
• The terms that suit you. Your normal number of revision rounds, your normal timeline, your normal deposit.

A wedding photographer's middle package might be eight hours, one photographer, an online gallery and a print set. A web studio's might be a five-page site with copy editing and two rounds of design changes.

Build the packages around it

The good package is a smaller version for clients with a tighter budget. Remove things clients can live without (fewer hours, fewer pages, one round of changes, a longer timeline). Don't make it insultingly thin. It should be a real option you'd be glad to deliver, just less of it. Its job is to catch clients who would otherwise walk, not to embarrass them.

The best package adds what your most demanding clients ask for: a second photographer, priority dates, more rounds, launch support, a faster turnaround. Price it so it's worth delivering. Some clients will take it, and they're often the easiest ones to work with.

A useful test: if a client picked any of the three tomorrow, would you be pleased? If the answer is no for one of them, change it.

Name the packages for the client

Names like Bronze, Silver and Gold say nothing about the work. Name each package for the result or the client it suits: "Essentials", "Full day" and "Full weekend" for a photographer, or "Starter site", "Business site" and "Growth site" for a web studio. A name the client recognises does half the selling.

Put the same few comparison points under each package (what's included, how long it takes, how many rounds of changes, the price) so the client can scan across instead of reading three paragraphs. Only mark the middle package as the one most clients choose if that's true. And show each price as a total, including anything mandatory. A package that adds a travel charge or a booking fee at the end feels like a trick, even when the total is fair.

Use add-ons instead of a fourth and fifth package

Every extra package makes the choice harder. When a client asks for something that only some people want (rush delivery, extra copies, a translated version), make it an add-on they can tick on any package.

Add-ons keep the three packages clean and comparable, and they raise the average order without a hard sell. They also stop the classic problem where a client wants the middle package "plus one thing from the top one", and you end up building a custom quote from scratch.

Clozd, which studies why buyers decide, has written about a software company that lost deals because its pricing options overwhelmed prospects. Three packages and a short list of add-ons is the opposite of that.

Mistakes that make clients stall

Packages that differ only in hours. "10, 20 or 30 hours" asks the client to work out what they get. Describe outcomes and deliverables instead.

A fake anchor. Showing a "regular price" you never actually charge isn't a pricing tactic. In the US, the FTC's guides on former price comparisons describe a price "established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction" as fictitious. Your top package should be a real option at a real price.

Too many tiers. Three is the common choice for a reason. Four can work if the top tier is clearly for a different kind of client (a company rather than a person, say).

Discounting the middle. If clients keep asking for a cheaper middle, that's what the good package is for. Point them to it.

Not raising prices. Simon-Kucher's Global Pricing Study 2025, which surveyed more than 2,200 business leaders in 28 countries, found companies realise less than half of their planned price increases on average. Packages make increases easier, because you can change what's in each tier as well as the price.

Before you build packages, it helps to settle what kind of document you're sending. We cover that in proposal vs quote vs estimate.

How Delivvo turns three packages into a quote clients can pick from

Delivvo lets you send a quote where the client picks the package, ticks the add-ons and pays the deposit on the same page, so the choice turns straight into booked work.

1. Set up your catalogue once. Add your services, packages and add-ons (up to 300 items), with their descriptions and prices.
2. Build the quote from the catalogue. Pick up to 6 packages and up to 20 add-ons for this client. Three packages is the usual setup.
3. The client chooses. They open one link, switch between packages, tick the add-ons they want and see the total update. They can also decline with a reason, which you see on the lead.
4. Sign and pay in the same visit. Once they pick, the contract sits on the same page, and the deposit invoice follows your preset (all up front, half, 30%, thirds or your own split).
5. Everything is created for you. When the client accepts, Delivvo marks the lead Won and creates the client, the project, the contract and the invoice, with the payment schedule attached.

The accepted quote records which package the client chose, so over a few months you can see which tier most clients pick and adjust the others. You can set an expiry date on the quote so the decision has a deadline. Delivvo records who accepted, when and on which device. Payment goes through your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account, and Delivvo takes 0%. See how quotes and packages work on the proposals page.

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