Is charging users from day one better than chasing viral adoption?

When we opened signups for our first app, we made it completely free to attract as many users as possible. We hit thousands of signups quickly, but the servers were expensive to maintain, and users were vocal about leaving the moment we introduced paid plans.

​On our latest release, we put up a strict paywall right after the trial period. The user base is significantly smaller, but paying customers provide immediate validation, clear feature requests, and consistent revenue to sustain development.

​Why do early teams still fear putting a price tag on their product from the start?