Freemium or Free Trial? What is your preference for your business?

Hi @cem_ozcelik thanks for this excellent topic. It depends on your business needs. If the value is evident, consider "Free." If complex, think about "Free Trial." Marketing strategy and target audience are crucial factors.

I like Freemium, it rhythms with Premium 😆 BTW. My product - Junior Design Bundle, is officially launched! Your support would mean the world to me! 🥺 Thanks in advance! 🙏 https://uxplaybook.org/junior

I guess it will depend on the product, your target user, market size.

Freemium by default. I consider that users have to benefit from your tool a minimum before deciding to pay.

Great question! I don't have a great personal take on this but I've come across this article by Reforge that I thought was very well-articulated: https://www.reforge.com/blog/the...

Freemium.

Hi Cem! I would say if you can split value between freemium and premium versions then freemium is preferable. From my perspective I prefer freemium and buy the full version if I like the product. Also it's worth to perform a research by product type. Because for some products freemium leads to more purchases, but for some - teams and companies stay for freemium only.

We started with a free trial only. It's the perfect model for an easy to launch product like ours, especially since we're available on both slack and Ms teams stores. Scaling, we decided to add a freemium model (core features only) and for small accounts only. It fits with efforts to offer the most qualitative self service experience thanks to our UX/UI and customer success. Now we focus on our most profitable ICPs with the rest of the business model relying on our more valuable features.

Free Trial.

Freemium

As the CEO of Logomakerr.ai, I prefer the Freemium model for our business. This approach provides free access to basic logo designs and customization options, showcasing the value of our AI-powered platform. For a $29 subscription, users can unlock advanced features, customization, and our Social Media Package. This model fosters user engagement highlights our value proposition, and supports startups and small businesses, aligning with our mission.

The choice between Freemium and Free Trial depends on factors like your product's complexity, target audience, competition, and business goals. If your product is complex and takes time to understand, a free trial might work better. If users quickly perceive the value of premium features, a free trial is suitable; if value is gradual, Freemium might be better. In a competitive market, a free trial can give an edge. For building a user base over time, Freemium is ideal; for quick conversions, Free Trial is effective. Freemium fosters continuous user engagement, while Free Trials boost initial engagement but might drop after the trial. In my opinion the Free Trial model tends to be more fitting for B2B scenarios, while the Freemium model is better suited for B2C situations. However, this depend on understanding your audience, your product's value, and long-term strategy. You could also consider running experiments or surveys to gauge customer preferences before making a final decision.

I think it depends on the industry and the specifics of the company.

Depends on what the product costs you. If you generate SEO blog posts for a website using GPT-4, you want to go for Free Trial. Otherwise Freemium is a good option to gain some traction, leveraging referral and doing some feature gating (best example that comes to my mind: Bumble / Tinder that blur the pictures of your match, they show you a glimpse of what you want and what you could access by paying)

While free trial is more common, Freemium has its applications in specific situations. If the value proposition is clear and your free tiers are considered to be of good value, then by all means try Freemium. There is a chance that many users will convert after a while to paid tiers in order to make use of all the advanced features of the product. If however the product requires time and attention by the user, then tree trial should be considered in order to allow the prospective client to familiarize himself with the product.

Depends on the product. For most bootstrapped SaaS founders, if there are significant costs to providing a freemium version at scale, then free trial is the better way to go.

Freemium with free trial.

Freemium when you can. But depending on the product and the sales strategy, it's not always a good option

Free trial. So they can see everything they will get if they pay for it.