Our users create accounts they never use, just to look at one thing.

We analyzed account creation behavior across 11,000 signups over 6 months.

Signups who viewed exactly one page and left: 23%
Median time from signup to last action for that group: 4m 10s
Most common single page: a shared document or a public example
Signups who returned within 30 days: 6%

Nearly a quarter of our signups were people who wanted to see one specific thing that someone had shared with them. They did not want an account. They wanted access. We were making them create a password, verify an email, and complete a profile so they could look at a single page for four minutes.

We added guest access for shared links — no account, view only, with a soft prompt to sign up if they wanted to edit or comment. Total signups dropped 14%, but signups who took a meaningful action within 7 days rose 31%, because the people who signed up now actually wanted to.

What are you forcing people to become users when they only want to be visitors?