Don't force your visitors to create an account first.

Usama Khalid
9 replies
Most of the great web-apps don't forces you to create an account, they let you try out the product first. This reduces friction. If you're creating an app, make sure you do that. Ask for login when it's necessary and put social logins. E.g carrd.co headlime.io Kapwing.com Hope this will help someone. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Replies

Henry Dobson
You have a point. But many apps want high-intent users or qualified leads. Forcing a login usually is a good way to narrow down the funnel and reduce clutter.
Hussein Yahfoufi
I would imagine this would work for free apps but not paid?
Alex Devero
@husseinyahfoufi I think it can work for both, free and paid. What matters more is what type of app are we talking about. Some apps may require user to login first. Other may not. Business model itself is less relevant.
Olga Trykush
By forcing people to create an account to test the product, projects collect emails and then use them for email marketing, what's also quite effective tool
Caroline Chiari
One of the good thing with Web Apps is the ability to somehow track the users. One thing on my list to do is, to ask the unregistered users to create an account after using the web-app a few times, even though that itself is free.
Piotr Gaczkowski
I agree. Sometimes I want to test a product to decide whether I want to commit or not. If the first thing I see is the "Create Account" screen, I immediately finish testing never to get back to the product.
Harri Arain
No Let it open! because if something is good you should be proud to showcase it.
Valerie Fenske
if an app gives instant value and instant benefits, why not?