Cacoo’s freemium business model kicking into gear

One of my favorite web apps is growing up. Cacoo will soon come out of beta and will start offering paid plans. Cacoo, if you don't know is an online diagram making application. Similar to Visio and ConceptDraw products, but its all online and its free. That is until now, well maybe a few more days or something like that but what makes me excited about it is that this shows proof that the freemium model still works. It shows that if you do a good job and continue to improve upon what you've built and continue to listen to your customers, you can come up with a nice paid service. The benefits is that you get a large userbase to test with for free... and you get people like me that write about you, thus promoting your business even further.

The cool features of Cacoo are that it is online, so you always have access to you diagrams, and there is real-time collaboration available so you can work on a diagram with someone else at the same time. Great stuff!

Good job Cacoo! -- And the prices aren't that bad. Along with their email announcement, they sent a short FAQ which I totally ripped off and posted below for you.

Q. How much will Cacoo be?
A. We are planning for the price to be $4.95 a month or $48 a year.

Q. How do I pay for Cacoo?
A. You can pay for Cacoo with PayPal.

Q. Will diagrams I've created while Cacoo is in beta stay as they are?
A. Yes, you will be able to keep and modify the diagrams.

Q. What happens to the diagrams shared between free plan users and paid plan users?
A. The restrictions will depend on the owner of the diagram. Exporting to SVG will be limited to users who are part of the paid plan.

Q. Will I be able to go back to the free plan from the paid plan?
A. Yes. The diagrams you created or shared while you are a paid plan user will remain as they are. Your account will then have the same restrictions as the free plan when creating new diagrams and sharing diagrams.