Why Free Plans Don’t Work
softwarebyrob.com
Why Free Plans Don’t Work
1–10 of 118 posts
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#2Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the beginning to eventually make it known?
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#30.8% of free user accounts eventually upgraded to paid.
When only 1% of users were using paid?! That's doubling your paid user-base!
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#40.8% of free user accounts eventually upgraded to paid. When only 1% of users were using paid?! That's doubling your paid user-base!
But how many free users came in in the mean time? Maybe the raw number was doubling but the paid user percentage wasn't. And even it was he found a way to get an 800% increase.
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#5Looks like "the web changes everything" is coming around full circle. To see the future one need only look in the past. What are retailers doing today? They've been at this for, what? Thousands of years, right?
In other words: some things are going to be expected to simply be provided (e.g. free wifi at starbucks). Some things people are just not going to pay much for, not even as much as you did (e.g. loss leaders like Milk). Some things you can mark way up.
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#6Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the beginning to eventually make it known?
That's why you offer free trials. :)
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#7Yes, but would those companies have become popular if there hadn't been a free version in the beginning? Would as many invest in an unknown product in the beginning to eventually make it known?
That's why you offer free trials. :)
So the real advice is: Offer free accounts and then get rid of them.
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#8I think you should use a free plan if actively using the 'free' plan will eventually force the user to go to a paid plan. e.g. dropbox.
If you just give your core product away for free then users will only switch if they need the extra features of the paid plan. You can still use 'free' for marketing, because total conversion rates with a free plan will probably be higher, just don't expect these 'free' customers to switch if they don't have to.
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#9I expect in the near future we'll see more Trial Membership Plans ala Netflix and others and the Free Plan will be removed in favor of a demo example or a "nearly free" plan.
Re: Why Free Plans Don’t Work
#10"... led to an 8x increase in paid conversions. Look at that again. That’s not 8%. That’s 800%."
Technically, a 700% increase.