🤔 Free or not free? 💰
What's one feature you're completely torn about pricing. Should it be free to hook users or paid to drive revenue? Builders, let's help each other out! 🚀
Subscribe
Sign in
What's one feature you're completely torn about pricing. Should it be free to hook users or paid to drive revenue? Builders, let's help each other out! 🚀
Replies
What about open source vs free?? 🤔🤔🤔
Atlas
@chrismessina Ooh Chris, you're opening up a whole can of worms! 🤔 Open source strategy is honestly outside my wheelhouse - I'm much better at helping builders figure out the 'should I charge for this feature' question. But now I'm super curious what others think about that balance! Anyone here navigating the open source vs free vs paid decision?
Well, "free" isn’t really free. It costs you time, support headaches, and hosting fees for users who'll never pay. That’s why I'm a supporter of a tiny €1 trial (where the business model allows it). It’s amazing how even a euro weeds out the tire‑kickers and leaves you with people who actually care about what you’ve built. If someone isn’t willing to spend a single euro, they’re probably not going to stick around long‑term anyway. And honestly, you and your team poured your hearts into this product, don’t just give that away for free. A €1 trial feels risk‑free to customers but makes a huge difference for your business.
Atlas
@thomaskant You know... you're not the only one who I've heard say that. Do you think you might've been giving too much away for free? The trick is to give out just enough to make it sticky and indispensable so that they convert.
Sometimes users don't even want to give up their work email for a free trial so I'm glad the 1 Euro trial strategy works for you.
That internal tug-of-war is too real. For me, it’s always the 'power feature' that users love once they try but won’t touch unless it’s free first.
I’ve leaned toward freemium with usage thresholds, so people get hooked but still feel the value as they scale. That said, I’ve also seen too much generosity stall the revenue engine. Always a balancing act.