🎬 Watch the video above for the full teardown—only takes 2.5 minutes at 2x speed. ⏩
It’s easy to get pricing wrong. There are so many ways. But in today's teardown, we'll look at how Attio gets it right with three simple but effective tactics that could boost your pricing conversion.
If you're leading a product or growth team and haven't revisited your pricing page design lately, this is your sign. The pages where people evaluate your product and decide whether to pay you money deserve as much optimization as your core product experience.
Btw (shameless plug) Irrational Labs does pricing optimizations. Let me know if you want help on setting or changing pricing or just getting more people to pay you.
My Attio story
I signed up for Attio, used it briefly, then abandoned it. Recently, I came back for one specific feature and encountered their pricing page again. Here's what caught my eye and why it matters.
1. Framing: The "continue" mindset
When I logged back in, instead of asking if I wanted to "upgrade to Pro," Attio invited me to "continue with Pro." This small language shift is meaningful.
Here's why this works:
Decisions create psychological friction. By framing it as continuing (not choosing), they reduce that friction.
It implies I made this choice before, and my past self must have had good reasons.
It establishes an implicit default, making the decision path smoother.
This approach has been shown to work in other domains too. In healthcare, doctors who frame vaccines as "The next step is the nurse will come in for the vaccine" rather than asking "Do you want the vaccine?" see higher acceptance rates. Patients can still decline, but the default assumption changes the decision architecture.
By saying "continue" instead of "upgrade," Attio keeps me in an implementation mindset rather than forcing me back into evaluation mode.
2. Sunk costs and the endowment effect
The second thing Attio does is tell me: "You are using two Pro features."
The present tense here is key. It creates a sense that I already have these features and would be losing them by downgrading. This subtle framing:
Triggers loss aversion (we hate giving up things we already have)
Reminds me of the value I'm already getting
Creates a sense of ownership over those features
Even though they don't specify which Pro features I'm using, the message is clear: I've already integrated these tools into my workflow. This is the endowment effect in action—our tendency to value things more once we feel ownership of them.
3. Strategic friction: The downgrade strategy
When I tried to downgrade to the free plan, Attio didn't just let me click and go. They added a confirmation step that explicitly framed it as a "downgrade" and made me review what I'd be giving up.
Here, they’re strategically using friction. When you want users to continue or upgrade, you remove friction. But when you want to prevent a behavior (like downgrades), a little friction can be your friend.
We saw this principle in action at Irrational Labs when we worked with TikTok on reducing misinformation sharing. By simply adding a "Are you sure?" pop-up before people shared content, misinformation shares dropped by 24%. We didn't block sharing—we just made people pause and think.
Attio does the same thing with their downgrade flow:
They force a moment of reflection
They frame it explicitly as a "downgrade"
They emphasize what I'm giving up, not what I'm gaining
This makes me reconsider whether saving money is worth losing functionality
Bonus design insight: Ghost buttons
Attio's "Subscribe to Free" button uses what designers call a "ghost button" — white on white with minimal contrast. Research consistently shows these convert worse than high-contrast buttons.
Why? Watch the video (scroll down) to find out.
Takeaways for product and growth teams
Frame upgrades as "continuing" rather than choosing something new
Highlight what users are already using/would lose in a downgrade
Add thoughtful friction to downgrade paths to encourage reconsideration
Don't use low-contrast "ghost buttons" for actions you want users to take
If you're thinking about upgrading your pricing page design or strategy, these principles are a great place to start. And if you need more targeted help, shoot me an email: kristen@irrationallabs.com.
🎬 This was just a sneak peek! WATCH THE FULL VIDEO below for all the insights—only takes 2.5 minutes at 2x speed. ⏩
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📧 Questions about product adoption? Shoot me an email: kristen@irrationallabs.com.
Want to increase conversion, retention, engagement? Reach out to Irrational Labs.
We design products that change behavior, using behavioral science. Check out our case studies to see it in action.
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