Raised our price by 20%. We lost 15% of customers but revenue jumped. Did I mess up?

We launched our SaaS at a low "early adopter" price two years ago. It was great for getting feedback, but by month 18, our support costs were eating us alive. We were attracting users who wanted everything for $9/mo but needed 3 hours of onboarding each.

Three weeks ago, we bit the bullet and raised our base plan from $19 to $23 (a 20% increase) for all new customers. We grandfathered existing users for 6 months to soften the blow.

The immediate reaction was a mix of silence and a few angry emails. Over the next 21 days, our new signups dropped by about 15% compared to the previous month. I panicked. I thought we had priced ourselves out of the market.

But when I pulled the revenue report this morning, our MRR from new customers was actually up 8%. The users who did sign up were much more serious, asked fewer support questions, and converted to annual plans faster.

Now I'm stuck in a weird headspace. The revenue looks healthier, but my vanity metric (signups) is down. For those who have raised prices: Did your churn/signup drop eventually recover, or did you just accept a lower volume of higher-quality customers?

Also, did raising prices change your marketing message? I feel like we need to pivot our copy to justify the premium, but I'm not sure where to start.