Anyone here launched a free tool as a growth channel?

We recently launched a free chart generator (CSV/Excel → charts) alongside our main product—not as part of our free tier, but as a completely no-signup tool.

The goal is to let people experience the value immediately—that “aha moment” of turning raw data into a clean chart before asking for anything.

So instead of:
👉 sign up → learn → use

We flipped it to:
👉 use → see value → then consider signing up

Now we’re trying to figure out the right balance between:

• Keeping it frictionless
  vs

• Introducing conversion points (save, embed, share, etc.)

Curious how others here approached this

• Have you tried a separate free tool (not just a free tier)?

• Did it actually convert into users or customers?

• Where did you introduce signup without hurting UX?

• Anything you’d do differently?

If you're curious, its at: https://embedful.io/chart-generator/

Would love to hear real experiences 🙏