Open source is free like a puppy is free. (Vibe-coded software is worse.) You pay for everything after it: the food, the vet, the walks in the rain, the chewed couch. Free software -- or vibe-coded software -- works the same way. Your customer pays in setup time, in hours spent training the team, and in workarounds. When the tool breaks, nobody is there to fix it. So when a prospect says a free tool does the same thing, your price isn't the problem. They haven't seen the bill for "free" yet. Don't defend your price, and don't apologize with a discount. Turn the objection around: "If you think I'm expensive, you should see how expensive 'free' is." Then explain why: the onboarding, the training, the bugs-fixed, the new features, the integrations to ever-changing external systems, the zero-day security patches, and on and on -- things they would have to do themselves, not just for the cost of the tokens, but their time. And at what hourly rate I wonder? Most people don't think their time is worth $1/hour, but that might be how they're acting. This is just one of the insights from the newest Smart Bear Live. E10, out now: youtube.com/watch?v=pfflbL_i…