Freemium, free trial, reverse trial, or free side tools?

There is a great book. Called the shallows that discussed how everything becomes free.

Free side tools for me!

Congrats on your launch! Depends on whether you can convince your users of the value that your product provides, and the time it'll take an avg user reach the aha moment.

Everything can work, it depends on the tool. We offer free trial for now, freemium is an option that we're thinking about.

I found a trend is that more and more AI tools abandoned the Freemium plan, they all choose the Free Trial or Reverser Trial, the key point is that user should input their credit card at very beginning!

Freemium actually works if your product is good enough. Take the example of Notion: Notion offers freemium and it provides so much value that you feel compared to upgrade to their paid plans. I've been addicted to using Notion everyday. So if you can make your product so good that they use it every day one day or the other they will upgrade to the paid plan And I think FREE side tools are also good Especially if they reveal a need that the prospect might have. They should itch the scratch and then Create a desire that our core product will solve!

It is great to give a free trial in two cases: 1. There is enough time and options for user to reach aha moment 2. It is a really, really sticky product (+ option 1)

We have a two-pronged approach. All our plugins are freemium with upgrades based on features/limitations, then we have a separate product that has premium access to all our plugins in one platform (actually launching here next week). For that one, we're doing free trial.

For most SaaS products, some form of free trial is best, especially in the early stages. You want to get a signal as quickly as possible that people are willing to pay for what you're building while providing them value. Free trial fits this well

I actually just listened to a YC podcast this morning about business models. The short of it is basically always charge something. The biggest YC companies tend to be SaaS so this question is very relevant to that show. Here is a link: https://open.spotify.com/episode...

Hey Olena! For our ICP at back4app, the best fit was a freemium model without the need for a credit card to sign up. This has been the most effective not only in acquiring new users but also, in retaining users who eventually convert to one of our paid plans. For me personally, when I'm evaluating a new platform, if they don't have a frictionless free trial, I'll look for something else. Of course, this is just the first step in the evaluation process. Other aspects that are just as important include onboarding, ease of use, and support to name a few. , I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on freemium models. What has been your experience with them? Have you found them to be effective in acquiring and retaining customers? Looking forward to hearing from you all and learning more about your experiences in this space!

For a SaaS, selecting between Freemium, Free Trial, or Free Side Tools depends on goals. Freemium builds a user base, Free Trial showcases value, and Free Side Tools augment offerings. The choice should align with the business strategy.

Depends of your tool! On my side we decided to give a free access forever to our users to create their signature! If they want more templates or lest constraints they can go Pro !

I'm not sure if this is possible for you, but we did a service fee model, so everything is free, but we get a piece of every transaction. I think this can be modeled well for a lot of companies if you get a bit creative. Let me know what the product is, I'd love to brainstorm. Also check out our page - https://www.producthunt.com/post...

Interesting discussion here! Thanks for bringing this up Olena. Reverse Trial is great if you've already tested, established, and built out all the features that your premium can offer. If you've already collected the data from a significant user base and have significant power users vetting it, a reverse trial will work. For SaaS start ups, it may be a safer and more practical approach to go for the Free Trial first. ✅This allows users to get a feel for what your platform offers. ✅ It gives them the time to test how well your product solves their problems or needs while giving you the space to build out the rest of the features on the side. ✅ It buys you the opportunity to gather feedback and validate the features that your users will pay for. While freemium and free side tools is good for growing a user base, you run the risk of spoiling users with all the benefits without paying for anything on your platform. It may be more difficult to introduce a paid structure or pivot into a different profit model later on. I've seen a number of startups struggling to compete with more widely known SaaS alternatives that run on freemium models. It's a huge risk and undertaking but one that may reap big rewards in the long run if done well.

We are sticking to giving away free trials for https://fabform.io-- it works best for us and our clients.

If it's a SaaS product, and if your COGS are not too high, free trials are the best option ig. 100% agree with @arbonum regarding a quality of product in this scenario. If you can't afford giving away a portion of your COGS, free side tools work good as well. You can create a tool, rank it in Google through SEO (or any other channel) and redirect users to your main product.

How are you Olena. Thanks for asking such a good question. I believe each option has its own advantages, But in the long run, free side tools make a better choice. We keep our main service to those who pay and let others use our free side tools. Sooner or later, some of them ask for thee main service.

Free Side tools in our case! We do all free bubble.io plugins. Helps on growing our-bubble.io community and build trust!

I think reverse trial is way under rated- Personally, if I get to experience the time saving of a "Premium" tool, then have to pay to keep using it, I am way more likely to convert to a paying customer