Free trials: enough time to see value, or enough time to procrastinate?
I’m deciding how long a free trial should last, and I keep coming back to how often someone actually needs the product.
Seven days can mean seven chances to get value from a daily tool. For something used in a weekly meeting, it might mean just one.
My background is in sales management. When you agree on a coaching action with someone, the value doesn’t end with that conversation. You need to follow up the next week and see whether anything changed.
That’s why I’m leaning toward 30 days for the product I’m building. It gives people a chance to experience several weekly cycles.
But I can also see the opposite argument. More time might simply mean “I’ll try it later.” Perhaps better onboarding would do more than another two weeks of access.
If you’ve experimented with trial length, what did you learn? Did a shorter trial help people get started, or did a longer one give them the time they needed?
I’d love to hear what surprised you, including changes that didn’t work.
Replies
If people sign up and never move to paid, the first thing I'd do is put the price clearly on the site, before touching the trial length. In my experience, when you ask someone to move from free to paid matters more than how long the free part lasts. A weekly tool getting only one real use in seven days is a good point, though.
One surprise from mine, a consumer app: the length mattered less than what the trial unlocked. My weekly plan had a short free trial, and of the first 15 trials to reach a decision, 8 were cancelled within hours of starting, 4 expired, 2 hit a billing issue and 1 converted. The reason was plain once I looked: the first song is free, and the trial unlocked downloading and sharing it. So people used the trial as a free download key, took the one thing they came for, and cancelled. I removed the trial from the weekly plan and kept it on the yearly one. So before choosing 7 or 30 days, I would ask what a person can take away during the trial and keep after it ends.
Marc, ours is 7 days and I've gone back and forth on it too. what I've noticed is the people who end up paying have usually talked to me before they start, so they already know what they want to get done in the trial. the ones who sign up cold tend to drift whatever the length. for a weekly-meeting tool I'd keep 30 days but get their first meeting in the diary during signup, so the clock isn't just ticking.