Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've used serve/funnel on the tailscale free tier... definitely agree that the team size limit seems like it would move companies to the paid plan though.
I think how it works usually is that they let you use the features from higher tier plans than the one you're on; once you use them enough they send you an email asking to upgrade. That's what happened to us and I've seen other users mention it. Not sure how I felt about it, OTOH maybe it was less friction than explicitly subscribing for some "2 weeks free trial" or whatever but OTOH it did feel weird and unexpected.…
Ok I checked the pricing page and funnel is available in the free tier (limited to 3 users) but not the $6/user/month tier - which you need for more than 6 users... strange pricing structure but I guess I see the logic.
Any chance you were asked to upgrade from $6/user/month to $18/user/month and not free to $18/user/month?