How is PDE different from Van Westendorp?

Van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter gives you a range of acceptable prices. Priceagent's PDE gives you the exact revenue-maximizing price, down to the cent. PDE also identifies price walls and price plateaus, which are psychological barriers and underpriced zones that Van Westendorp cannot detect.

How is PDE different from conjoint analysis?

Conjoint analysis ranks feature importance and requires 800 to 1,200 or more respondents. It uses fixed price levels, which means psychological barriers between those levels are smoothed over. PDE measures willingness to pay directly, achieves 95% statistical significance more efficiently, and detects price sensitivities at any price point.

How quickly can I get results with PDE?

A Price Check study run on the Priceagent Platform can return demand and revenue curves in under an hour. Price Discovery studies for deeper strategic analysis typically take longer, from 12 hours to a week, depending on audience targeting and study complexity.

What is a price wall?

A price wall is a psychological barrier in the market where even a small price increase causes a significant drop in demand, typically 5 to 10 percent or more. Priceagent's PDE identifies these precisely so businesses can price right up to the edge of a price wall without crossing it.

What is a price plateau?

A price plateau is a range where increasing the price has little to no impact on demand. It represents an underpriced zone where a business can raise margins without losing customers. PDE identifies these zones automatically.

The Predictive Demand Engine™
‍Willingness to Pay at Every Price Point

Other platforms tell you who wants your product and what they want. The Predictive Demand Engine™ is the only methodology that answers how much, quantifying real buyer demand across the full price spectrum, down to the exact dollar that maximizes your revenue.

What Is the Predictive Demand Engine?

The Predictive Demand Engine (PDE) is Priceagent's proprietary methodology for measuring willingness to pay. It calculates real buyer demand at every price point across the full price spectrum, identifying the exact price that maximizes revenue or demand. The output is a high-resolution demand curve, a revenue curve, and a precise set of pricing signals including Price Walls and Price Plateaus, giving businesses a complete picture of how their market values their product.

Price runs along the x-axis. For every point on that axis, the PDE plots the exact percentage of real buyers willing to pay that amount and the corresponding revenue score — so you can see, at a glance, exactly how demand and revenue move as price changes.

WHAT MAKES PDE UNIQUE

Every insight comes with an exact price coordinate.

Not a range. Not a zone. Not an interpolation between assumed price levels. A precise number — down to the cent — at every point on the curve.

What PDE Delivers

A Complete Map of Your Market's Willingness to Pay

Demand Curve

Predicted sales volume across the entire price spectrum. Not a single data point, but the full picture of how demand shifts as price changes.

Revenue Curve

Projected turnover at every price point, revealing the exact sweet spot where volume x price yields maximum total revenue.

Price Walls

See exactly how each price scenario shifts demand and revenue. Price Pulse helps you justify your strategy with immediate, data-backed evidence.

Price Plateaus

Zones where demand stays flat as price rises. Underpriced territory where you can increase margins without losing customers.

Max Demand Price

The precise price that captures the largest possible market share. Your anchor for volume-first and market-entry strategies.

Max Revenue Price

See exactly how each price scenario shifts demand and revenue. Price Pulse helps you justify your strategy with immediate, data-backed evidence.

... and an almost infinite pool of insights and conclusion to be taken. For example, bundles, demographic targeting and understanding how you stand against your competitors.

Why the Data Is Different

Buyers Are Asked How Much, in the Right Context

Building a Value Map

Before any price question is asked, each buyer identifies their primary use case, prioritizes the features that matter most to them, and selects their preferred product configuration. The survey builds their personal value map before touching price.

Setting a Price on Their Own Configuration

When the willingness to pay question appears, the buyer's own selections are displayed as visible tags directly above the price input. They are not pricing a generic product — they are pricing the specific version they just configured.

Hypothetical Bias Is Eliminated

By anchoring respondents in their own stated preferences before eliciting a price, PDE removes the gap between what people say and what they would actually pay. The data reflects a ready-to-buy mindset, not a theoretical one.

The difference between guessing a price and measuring willingness to pay.

Traditional surveys ask: "What would you pay for this product?" PDE asks: "You have selected these features and this brand. What price would be too low to trust, and what price would be too high to justify?" The question is the same in principle — the context is entirely different in practice.

How It Compares

PDE vs. Traditional Pricing Methodologies

Van Westendorp gives you a range. Conjoint gives you feature rankings. Neither tells you the exact price that maximizes your revenue. PDE does.

Capability

Van Westendorp PSM

Conjoint Analysis

Priceagent PDE

Exact Revenue-Maximizing Price

Range only

Inferred indirectly

To the cent

Output Precision

Zone, not a coordinate

Interpolated between fixed levels

Exact price coordinate

Price Walls and Plateaus

Not detectable

Smoothed by fixed levels

High-fidelity detection

Demographic Segmentation

Limited

Yes

Full filters

Respondent Cognitive Load

Low

High, fatigue is common

Low, linear value path

Sample Efficiency

400-600+ needed

800-1,200+ needed

Efficient, 400 needed for 95% significance

Results Turnaround

Days to weeks

Weeks

Hours to days

Key Capabilities

From Study Setup to Pricing Decision

Run a study in minutes. Get results in under an hour. Make a confident pricing decision backed by real buyer data.

Define Your Study

Describe your product and target market. The Priceagent Platform uses AI to build a contextually framed study in your buyers' language, currency, and market context.

Reach Real Buyers

Your study goes live to verified buyers from the 300M+ global panel, precision-targeted to match your exact audience profile.

PDE Processes the Data

The Predictive Demand Engine runs its proprietary algorithm across the qualified dataset, producing a high-resolution map of willingness to pay across the full price spectrum.

Read Your Demand and Revenue Curves

See your demand curve, revenue curve, Price Walls, Price Plateaus, and the exact maximum demand and maximum revenue price points, clearly visualized in the Priceagent Platform.

Make a Data-Driven Pricing Decision

Price Pulse, the AI interpretation layer, surfaces the key strategic takeaways so you go from raw data to a confident pricing decision in minutes, not weeks.