Let people try your product first, or make them sign up first?
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When I'm trying a new SaaS tool, I'm much more interested in signing up if I've already seen what it can actually do. Being asked to fill out a form before seeing any real value can make me leave before giving the product a chance.
I get why founders ask people to sign up upfront, though. It helps them save their work, personalize the experience, and understand who's using the product. And some tools need a bit of setup before they can show useful results.
Personally, I like the idea of letting someone try one small part of the product first, then asking them to create an account when they want to save their work or go further. But I'm not sure that approach makes sense for every type of SaaS.
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My app sits in the middle. Sign in comes before the product, there is no anonymous mode, because every system I run keys on one user id and a purchase that arrives with no id cannot be credited to anyone. But the pitch comes before the sign in ask: a short onboarding and a quiz about what they want to make, so by the time I ask for an email the person knows what they get for it. And the first thing they get is free. Ten welcome credits, the first song can be made and played without paying, it just cannot be downloaded or shared until they subscribe. The welcome credits are one per mailbox, otherwise the try first offer becomes a free song factory. On the web I just ran the other experiment: a funnel that asked for a card right after the quiz. A couple of hundred checkout forms opened, zero paid. Since last week the same funnel sends people to the app for the free song instead, and I judge it by installs and subscriptions. So my answer is let them try, but attach the try to an identity you can bill later.
Try first, at least for small tools. Focushours (My website) works fully signed out: data stays in the browser, and you only sign in if you want sync across devices. For a timer, a signup wall would have lost most people before they saw anything. The real cost: without accounts I barely know who my users are, so feedback has to come from actually talking to people.