“Unlimited” looks great in a sales deck

This past week was packed with more client calls than usual, and we also welcomed a few new clients - almost all from the fintech space.

The main challenge that kept surfacing was simple but significant: communication. Setting up calls with founders often takes more time than the actual calls themselves. They’re juggling so many priorities at once that just getting to the table can feel like half the battle.

At the same time, I’ve noticed something else that’s been bothering me lately: so much of the content online feels hollow.

It reads polished, but empty - almost as if it’s been stitched together by AI tools with no real-world experience behind it.

That’s why I keep coming back to the same principle: show up consistently, share lessons from real experience, and let the work itself speak louder than all the noise.

And that brings me to today’s topic.

Why “Unlimited” Is the Most Dangerous Word in SaaS

On the surface, “unlimited” looks like a magic word.

It sounds generous. It looks modern. It makes you appear confident, like the SaaS company that has nothing to hide.

But in SaaS, “unlimited” doesn’t scale.

It’s the kind of promise that quietly eats away at your margins. And by the time you notice, the damage is often far worse than you imagined.

The Hidden Consequences of “Unlimited”

Think about what happens when just one customer decides to run a stress test.

Or when another client suddenly goes viral overnight and starts using your product in ways you never intended.

Or when a single enterprise customer pushes your platform to its limits because, well, the contract said “unlimited.”

Suddenly, that one word turns from a sales booster into a business risk.

Servers start to strain. Infrastructure costs shoot up. Other customers begin to feel the effects, with slower performance and potential downtime.

And now you’re stuck defending a promise that your infrastructure, and your contracts, were never built to deliver.

Why SaaS Teams Fall Into This Trap

The reason is simple: “unlimited” makes marketing easy.

It’s a one-word differentiator that signals confidence and simplicity. But when it crosses from the marketing page into your contracts or SLAs without proper guardrails, it stops being clever positioning and starts becoming a liability.

Enterprise clients especially will notice. And when usage spikes, they’ll hold you accountable - even demanding that you absorb the costs of your own over-generosity.

A Better Way Forward

The solution isn’t to be stingy. It’s to be clear and sustainable.

1/ Tie usage to tiers. Make it simple: more usage equals a higher subscription tier.

2/ Reserve the right to throttle abuse. Your infrastructure is not a playground, and your terms should say so.

3/ Pass on overage costs. If a client’s usage explodes, the responsibility follows them - not you.

This approach doesn’t just protect your margins. It creates fairness and sets healthy expectations with your clients from day one.

TL;DR

“Unlimited” feels like a strong sales promise. But in SaaS, it can quietly become a liability.

Instead of offering infinity, offer fairness. Define usage limits in your contracts, build guardrails, and make sure your clients know what happens if usage surges.

That small word choice can mean the difference between growth and financial strain.

Conclusion

The SaaS industry is full of big promises, often written to impress rather than to last. But success rarely comes from flashy commitments.

It comes from the small details - the clauses, the fine print, the choices you make before problems ever appear.

“Unlimited” isn’t a value proposition. It’s a trap. And the smartest SaaS founders know that clarity and sustainability will always outlast shiny promises.