They’ve been twittering about it for awhile now and today HootSuite rolled out their Freemium pricing plan which goes into effect immediately for new users and next week for all current subscribers.

The packages range from free to 99 dollars a month. The deciding factor for most of these plans is how many accounts you run and how many team members you need to run it. Since the pricing plan is mostly aimed at businesses, the higher levels include enhanced stats and even a branded short URL as part of the premium plan.

The only thing you’ll get for free going forward is 5 accounts, 1 RSS feed and no additional team members. You’ll also have to deal with ads. If you don’t pay, HootSuite is going to make their money by placing ads in your Twitter stream. Interesting. . .

The worst thing about this roll out is the lack of detail. There’s a chart showing the tiers but there’s not a lot of explanation in regard to what each item means. For example, “enhanced stats,” is that more than they’re currently offering or will they be removing current stats from non-paying users.

Also, “ad free” – for those who choose not to pay, what kind of ads and how often? If I’m a marketer, can I get in on this?

HootSuite is getting around the questions by saying that you can have a 30 day free trial of any service level. ‘This period will allow you to experiment and discover which plan best fits your needs,” says the HootSuite blog.

Unless you need team members, most small businesses will likely stick with the free version, though I know of clients who will have a problem with the 5 network limit.

If you are managing multiple Twitter accounts, $4.99 a month isn’t too much to ask for the service, but it’s enough to make me want to look around at their competitors to see if I can get something comparable for free.

It was speculation before, but now it’s a decision you’re going to have to make if you’re a HootSuite users. Is it worth paying for?

You can click here to see the pricing plans