Working on a team to develop with Microsoft’s online tools is getting cheaper because Microsoft is responding to their customer feedback and changing their prices. Visual Studio Online, Team Foundation Server, online testing, and Online Build Service are all getting their prices adjusted to better fit customer’s needs. The main flaw in Microsoft’s original pricing was the lack of understanding of how development has begun to change when it comes to using the cloud.
Microsoft was seeing their large customers avoid cloud testing of code because the cost at such a large scale was too high. Responding to feedback means the pricing now drops at larger quantities of testing hours. In addition to high prices, Microsoft has added in the ability to set price caps on testing operations to keep from accidentally over spending.
Microsoft has also made changes for their smaller customers, such as teams of around 10. Previously Microsoft capped the max number of users on a single Visual Studio Online Professional subscription to 10, but after reevaluating they realized that cap is arbitrary and has now removed it. However Microsoft does point out that big teams will benefit from an MSDN subscription.
