How do you decide what features should be free and what should be paid?
Let me start from the creator’s perspective:
I personally don’t have a product (apart from hiring people for creative work or offering personal consultations).
But as a creator, I constantly share content, insights, and information, value that helps me build trust (for free). Based on that perceived expertise, people eventually decide to work with me (a paid service).
So some things I share for free to eventually move toward a paid collaboration.
Personally, it’s sometimes hard to judge when I might be giving away too much for free.
And I assume it’s similarly tricky for builders.
You want users to try the product, but then comes the question of paid features, or a trial limited by time or usage.
How do you decide which parts of your product or service remain free, and which become paid?
When I share content publicly, I usually provide generalised advice. But when it comes to a specific case or a tailored strategy that requires a personal approach, that’s where it becomes paid.
Replies
This folder thing is something I've thought about a lot too.
My take is that free should solve the problem, paid should solve it better. If free does too little, no one sticks around. Too much, no one upgrades.
Wondering though, do your users upgrade because they hit a wall or because they genuinely want more?
This hit close to home - spent the last 10 years helping businesses set up automation and CRM systems, now building my own (QuantixOne).
The one thing I kept seeing: builders' gate, the wrong stuff. They give away the boring parts for free and hide the thing that actually makes someone go "oh wow" behind a paywall. Then wonder why nobody converts.
My take is simple — free should let people feel the difference. If a user signs up and it feels like every other tool they've tried, they're gone. Let them experience what makes you different. For us, that's the AI layer - lead scoring, smart tagging, that kind of thing.
Paid should kick in when they want more of what already worked. More volume, more channels, more automation runs. You're not taking away value — they're choosing to go deeper because the free tier already proved it.
Biggest trap I've personally fallen into: overthinking it early on. You won't get the line right on day one. Ship it, watch what users actually do, and adjust. The data will tell you where the paywall belongs way better than any framework will.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@rajan_garg Okay, but how to set pricing to some tool that has maybe 2 features :D it is difficult :D
For us, the rule is simple: free features get you to the result, paid ones get you there faster or with more control. The core value has to be accessible — otherwise people never stick around long enough to see why the upgrade is worth it.
The tricky part isn't deciding what to charge for, it's making sure the free experience is good enough to build trust, but not so complete that there's no reason to go further.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@microcamtest Feel it the same way.
For now, my rule is that a free product should feel great, but limited, to the point where a user who wants to use it more than once has to pay.
In software, they almost always ask for a free trial, and as long as it's financially feasible, I always offer it.
In many cases, I'd like to be more generous with freemium plans, but it's just a matter of budget.
This is a massive challenge, especially when your target audience is students who don't have credit cards. Instead of a traditional paywall, I actually architected a completely different system for my launch today: a simulated virtual economy.
Users don't pay with fiat; they pay with 'Focus Hours' that they earn by studying. They use that currency in a live virtual exchange to unlock premium 3D assets in their dashboard. It creates the friction and value of a paid tier, but entirely through gamified sweat equity. Would love to hear if anyone else has experimented with virtual economies over strict paywalls!
I like the way you framed it around general vs tailored value, that’s a really clean way to think about it.
For products, it often feels similar: free should help users understand the value, while paid should unlock outcomes they can’t easily get on their own.
The tricky part is finding that boundary where free is useful, but not enough to replace the need for the paid layer.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@munevver_ertuncccc I am still figuring this our :D
Magic
@busmark_w_nika , glad your LinkedIn is still unblocked 😄 Still following. More billboards in the works.
Honestly, no formula here. Early on people paid just to skip our waitlist fro Magic, which was a lucky start.
After that it's just two things: how much you can afford to give away, and giving enough value to hook someone before they see pricing.
User behavior keeps shifting though. I'd call it the SaaSpocalypse but we're all just figuring it out
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@ivan_puzyrev I need to say that your product grabbed my attention when you reacted quickly and created that billboard :D
Simple rule we landed on: let people experience the core value for free, charge for scale and depth. Our sandbox is completely free - anyone can run a sample evaluation to see exactly what the product does. The paid tier unlocks real usage, team features, and the full analysis engine. The logic: if someone tries the free version and doesn't immediately see the value, no pricing trick will fix that. And if they do see it, the paid price is a rounding error on the problem cost.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@avrisimon Did you start asking for money from the very beginning? Or was there any trial?
Veltrix AI
How about a free trial?
I'm building a consumer product, and I believe that when possible, flexibility is key. Allow the consumer to decide whether they want a free ad-supported version, paid ad-free version, etc. Not only is optionality better for consumers, it allows you to understand what consumers value and how much they value it for. You get richer insights.
That being said, I do not want to ever charge a subscription for my specific product's core functionality (splitting receipts in seconds by scanning a receipt photo or pasting a link).
The goal of the company is to make it as easy as possible for people to spend quality time together, by reducing friction from social admin work like splitting bills. So charging for the core functionality is misaligned the mission.
It always comes back to the company's mission and the product's purpose. That's how you build lasting growth. There are always multiple avenues for revenue, and you don't want the avenue chosen to be misaligned with the product & company mission. That will catch up with you down the line in terms of your customer loyalty, retention, and growth numbers.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mckinley_lovett Okay, but how did you get those insights? Did you make any internal research of pricing?