You can buy hosting for $5/month from Bluehost. Yet some customers pay $15,000+/month for WordPress.com VIP hosting. Some pay $400 for a basic Chromebook; others pay $3,000+ for a high end MacBook Pro.

The simple answer is: we're not targeting customers who want to self manage Elasticsearch on Digital Ocean. For the customers we're targeting, the difference between $299 and $40 / month is not that consequential, whereas knowing they have premium support that understands both sides (WordPress and Elasticsearch) and a fully managed, end-to-end solution for their WordPress site is an enormous value.

The ElasticPress plugin - which we continue to offer for free - will still be compatible with and support your preferred $40/month plan, subsidized in part by the customers who see the value in a more premium offering.