TL;DR
Product-led growth built a generation of tools that forgot IT exists.
Figma, Notion, Slack, Canva - they optimized for individual users. Easy signup. Intuitive interface. Viral spread. By the time enterprises showed up, the architecture was locked.
Now they have two choices:
- Add SCIM and admit they're enterprise software (and charge accordingly)
- Never add it and let IT suffer
Most chose option 1 - that's the SCIM Tax. Some chose option 2 - that's Buffer, Basecamp, Mailchimp. Either way, IT wasn't in the room when these tools were designed. Now IT inherits them.
The PLG playbook
Product-led growth changed how software gets sold.
The old way: Sell to IT. Procurement process. Security review. Then employees get access.
The PLG way: One user signs up. They love it. They invite their team. Usage spreads. By the time IT notices, the tool is embedded everywhere.
This playbook built some of the most successful software companies of the last decade. Figma. Notion. Slack. Canva. Miro. Airtable. Calendly.
It also created a generation of tools that weren't designed for the person who has to manage 500 users.
IT wasn't in the room
When these companies designed their products, they asked:
- How do we make signup frictionless?
- How do we get users to invite their teammates?
- How do we make the product so good it spreads organically?
They didn't ask:
- How does someone provision 50 users at once?
- How does someone revoke access when an employee leaves?
- How does someone prove to an auditor who has access to what?
IT wasn't the customer. IT wasn't even a consideration. The product was built for the end user, and everything else was an afterthought.
The architecture gets locked
Here's the problem: by the time these companies got big enough for enterprises to care, the architecture was already built.
User management was designed for individuals adding teammates one by one. Permissions were designed for small teams, not complex org structures. The admin console - if it existed at all - was an afterthought bolted on later.
Adding proper enterprise identity management isn't a feature. It's a rebuild. SCIM support touches authentication, authorization, user data models, audit logging. It's not something you bolt on in a quarter.
So these companies faced a choice.
The two paths
Path 1: Build SCIM, charge for it
Most PLG companies eventually built SCIM - then immediately paywalled it behind Enterprise tiers.
The logic is straightforward: if you need SCIM, you're an enterprise. Enterprises pay enterprise prices. The feature that costs almost nothing to maintain becomes a profit center.
This is the SCIM Tax. It's not an accident - it's a business model.
Path 2: Never build it
Some PLG companies never bothered with SCIM at all.
- Buffer - Social media management, no SCIM at any price
- Basecamp - Project management icon, proprietary Okta connector only
- Mailchimp - Email marketing serving enterprises, no native SCIM
- Typeform - Form builder, no SCIM
These companies decided the enterprise market wasn't worth the engineering investment. Or they're waiting until enough customers complain. Or they just never thought about it.
Either way, IT teams using these tools are stuck with manual provisioning forever - unless something changes.
The original sin
The original sin wasn't malice. It was focus.
PLG companies focused relentlessly on the end user. That focus is why Figma beat Adobe. Why Slack beat email. Why Notion became the default workspace for startups.
But that same focus created blind spots. The person who has to manage these tools at scale was never considered. The admin experience was never prioritized. Enterprise identity was always "we'll figure it out later."
Later arrived. Most companies figured it out by charging 2-3x for SCIM. Some never figured it out at all.
What this means for IT
If you're in IT at a company that adopted PLG tools, you're living with the consequences of decisions you didn't make.
The tools everyone loves are the tools that are hardest to govern.
- Figma is in every design team. SCIM costs 3.4x your current plan.
- Notion is the company wiki. SCIM requires Enterprise.
- Slack is how everyone communicates. SCIM means Enterprise Grid - and you can never downgrade.
- Buffer manages your social accounts. There's no SCIM at any price.
You didn't choose this architecture. But you inherited it. And now you're the one opening 15 browser tabs to manually provision users into tools that were never designed for you.
The gap keeps growing
PLG isn't slowing down. New tools launch every month with the same playbook: optimize for the user, worry about IT later.
AI tools are the latest wave. Cursor, ChatGPT, Perplexity - they're spreading through organizations the same way Slack and Notion did. And they're making the same architectural decisions: individual users first, enterprise admin never.
Every PLG success story creates another tool that IT will eventually have to govern without proper provisioning support.
The alternative
You can't change how these tools were built. You can work around it.
Stitchflow delivers SCIM-level provisioning through resilient browser automation, backed by 24/7 human in the loop. We build the integration. We maintain it. <$5K/app/year.
For the PLG tools that paywall SCIM - Figma, Notion, Slack - you get automation without the Enterprise upgrade.
For the PLG tools that never built SCIM - Buffer, Basecamp, Mailchimp - you get automation that doesn't exist anywhere else.
IT wasn't in the room when these products were designed. Stitchflow is how you get governance anyway.
Frequently asked questions
PLG companies optimize for individual user adoption, not enterprise administration. By the time they're big enough for enterprises to demand SCIM, they've built an architecture that doesn't include it. Adding SCIM requires significant engineering investment, so they either paywall it to justify the cost or skip it entirely.
Jay has been serving modern IT teams for more than a decade. Prior to Stitchflow, he was the product lead for Okta IGA after Okta acquired his previous ITSM company, atSpoke.
