Is freemium still the way for SaaS businesses to grow?

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Freemium only really worked for SaaS products that were easy for users to self serve and discover value, everything else was better to take a sales lead or sales assist approach. If a SaaS business still ticks that box, then the question should be more based upon the product maturity, business goals and resourcing. If the product is still very much in an MVP phase, it possibly makes more sense to still go down a freemium path and use these uses as an opportunity to collect necessary insights and feedback to improve the product. Same if the plan is to follow a PLG approach and you have the resourcing to handle potentially large sign up volumes. If there is a need to start commercialising quickly, or if you want to cut out tyre kickers (or get them in and out quickly), free trial & paid tier or demo lead maybe the better approach.