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Why we ditched our free plan

blog.trak.io

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Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#31

Post by liamgooding »

rsobers wrote: post #26
liamgooding wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Gabemart, original author here. I understand your objection. The term 'freeloader' was used because they're taking stuff for free with no expectation to pay anything in the future. Also, an article that attracts discussion is a good thing, right? :) [edited]

> The term 'freeloader' was used because they're taking stuff for free with no expectation to pay anything in the future. You set this expectation yourself by offering a free plan, no?

Yes we offered a free Beta, but as we discussed in this article we intended to make the product 'Freemium' but realised we were going into the trap of 'Free'.

As a young and early stage team, we made some assumptions, and got some stuff wrong. We need to make changes and decisions that can guarantee we create a sustainable business, one where we can keep the lights on :-)

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#32

Post by liamgooding »

tigroferoce wrote: post #22

Do you realise that in the upper right corner of the page you linked there a link titled "Try Track.io For Free"?

Original author here.

Yeah but the subtle wording in that CTA is "Try". We have a totally free, no credit card required, 30 day free trial :-) Something which I probably need to point out in my original article, my bad

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#33

Post by liamgooding »

marincounty wrote: post #23

Why not just start charging? If people can't live without your app, won't they just buy it? I'm glad I read your blog;it reaffirmed an old saying. The more someone tries to sell their product, or explain how brilliant they are--the more skeptical I become. I don't know why this blog irritated me, but this company made it to HN; which just might be better than charging the Free Loaders.

We do charge now.

Everyone who was in the private Beta sees a "nagware" popup explaining our switch to a paid service, with options to also "Skip" and continue evaluating the product, or to email us to explain why they need a free plan

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#34

Post by liamgooding »

dspillett wrote: post #28
liamgooding wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does a unicorn lose it's rainbow if I just go ahead and edit the original article? Never too sure once something has been discussed whether it's cool to revise the original source...

Make sure you clearly label the edited version as such (perhaps add a "revisions" section at the bottom listing each version and the changes between them like: 2014-04-14 @12:34: Original publication 2014-04-14 @17:00: Spelling and grammar fixes 2014-04-15 @13:00: Updated wording to avoid terms potentially seen as insulting ... ... ... Better yet, include the earlier versions and link to them in that change log. This…

Thankyou!

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#36

Post by pingburg »

I've respected the HN community for a long time. This was a place where ideas could be shared and unlike many sites that were just an echo-chamber for a particular point of view, things were debated here on a much higher, respectful level. Lately, however, if you don't 'fit' a particular worldview, comments are down voted instead of being debated.

Case in point. Here a company has provided insight into why they don't believe their product fits with the freemium model. This is so against dogma and current ideology that it's being down voted not on its merits but on the audacity to have a different opinion.

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#37

Post by teemo_cute »

liamgooding wrote: post #29
rsobers wrote: post #24

Wow, this is the absolute wrong way to ditch a free plan. Holy shit! The post comes off really condescending towards the beta users that helped get the product off the ground. Sure, the business lessons are valid and helpful (despite being a complete regurgitation of advice espoused by people like Rob Walling and Patrick McKenzie), but IMO they don't belong in the same post that tells a cohort of your very first user…

Hey, original author here. Haha Thanks for the point of view - yeah it's a big splash but there was no hiding the fact so we just wanted to be totally transparent about it. So far the replies from all our beta users has been exactly what we hoped for (expected), either "Thanks for the honesty" or "Cool, we were just checking it out, we're not in a position to need something like this now" or a few "Yeah screw you guy…

If I were you (trak.io) I would take down that blog post now. It's for your own good. It's bad PR, very bad PR.

The damage has been done. Learn from it and move on.

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#38

Post by evgen »

pingburg wrote: post #36

I've respected the HN community for a long time. This was a place where ideas could be shared and unlike many sites that were just an echo-chamber for a particular point of view, things were debated here on a much higher, respectful level. Lately, however, if you don't 'fit' a particular worldview, comments are down voted instead of being debated. Case in point. Here a company has provided insight into why they don't…

I think they are mostly being downvoted because they are apparently real dicks. This "I made a mistake so there is obviously a problem with you" attitude they display here and in the post in question shows a level of immaturity that puts them in the running for d-bag company of the year.

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#39

Post by liamgooding »

evgen wrote: post #38
pingburg wrote: post #36

I've respected the HN community for a long time. This was a place where ideas could be shared and unlike many sites that were just an echo-chamber for a particular point of view, things were debated here on a much higher, respectful level. Lately, however, if you don't 'fit' a particular worldview, comments are down voted instead of being debated. Case in point. Here a company has provided insight into why they don't…

I think they are mostly being downvoted because they are apparently real dicks. This "I made a mistake so there is obviously a problem with you" attitude they display here and in the post in question shows a level of immaturity that puts them in the running for d-bag company of the year.

Seems a harsh, unfair and hasty assessment considering you've never met anyone in our team or spoken to any of our users.... :-/

Re: Why we ditched our free plan

#40

Post by borski »

While this may work for some, be careful of listening to advice on the internet. I have read dozens of articles like this.

For us, to be totally honest, our conversion went way down when we introduced the 30-day trial. When we had a free plan (which we do again), our conversion was way higher, because I suppose it took >30 days for people to truly see the value in the product. So for us, a free plan is what worked best.

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