(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)
In an Indie Hackers survey, 51% of founders supported 30 day free trials, while 49% supported free tiers:
Want to share something with nearly 115,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing
I recently posted about what to include in a free tier vs. a paid tier. Today, I thought I’d dig into the heated debate between free tiers and free trials.
In a survey posted on Indie Hackers last year, 51% of indie hackers voted for 30 day trials, while 49% voted for a free tier. As you can see, things are pretty divided!
There’s no perfect answer, but knowing the arguments might help you decide what’s best for you.
Freemium is newer, so it gets a lot of press. Here's why it's a really solid option:
Founder Vu Tran says:
Freemium is powerful. It provides a set of free features that hook users to the platform. Once they start using those, they put more effort and properties on the platform. This is really a good thing for better retention.
Freemium is not all rainbows and gumdrops. Here are the downsides:
Freemium might be the right choice for you if:
Here are a few pointers on how to do freemium well:
Now, let's muddy the waters a bit! Free trials are still a stellar option, and may even be a better one than freemium. Here's why:
Founder Deepak Marath puts it simply:
Free trials will help you eliminate the ones who never intend to pay.
Of course, free trials also have their downsides:
Go with a free trial if:
Founder Vu Tran weighs in again:
[Free trials are best] if your feature set is small, and built around a single value. The free trial will offer time for users to confirm the value that you tell them [about] on the landing page.
Here are a few pointers:
Another option is to do both freemium and a free trial. Many companies start users on a free trial of the premium tier to give them a taste for everything that the product has to offer. After the trial ends, the user can go down to a free tier, or they can pay to continue on the premium tier. It still creates urgency, but you don't lose the user if they don't convert immediately.
In some situations, a 30 day, no hassle, money-back guarantee can work well. One indie hacker saw a 100% increase in revenue when they did this.
You could also offer demos. They show off some of the value, but don’t allow potential customers to really get their hands dirty. This option is most relevant for enterprise customers.
One way to decide is to analyze your addressable market, as determined by the price and complexity of your product. If you’ve got a product with a low price and low complexity, opt for a free tier. If you’ve got a product with a high price and high complexity, opt for a free trial.
If it’s a product with a high price and low complexity, opt for a free tier. And, if it’s a low price and high complexity, well...you’re in a tough situation, regardless.
I also came across this quiz that might be able to steer you in the right direction.
For indie hackers, it will ultimately come down to your costs. Can you afford a free tier?
Where do you stand in the free tier vs. freemium battle? Let's chat!
Discuss this story.
from the Growth Trends newsletter by Darko
🚘 Uber has launched cartop ads.
🛠 How to deploy advanced schema at scale.
🤖 The US has ruled that AI-generated images from text cannot be copyrighted.
💻 Three things you should consider when getting started with Google Ads.
💸 Here's how the inventor of the troll doll missed out on a fortune.
Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.
from the Trends.vc newsletter by Dru Riley
I'm going to kick this off with a relevant quote:
Show me the incentives, and I will show you the outcome.
Here's how you can use referral programs to boost your sales!
You need to make sales, find employees, or get deal flow.
Referral programs incentivize others to help you sell, hire, and invest.
Rewards may be cash, credit, discounts, products, or experiences.
If you do it right, you have an aligned, diverse salesforce. If you do it wrong, you're plagued by fraud, brand damage, and cannibalized sales.
Programs:
People:
Publishers:
"Why did you mention affiliates? The topic was referrals."
Referral programs target existing customers. Affiliate programs target partners. The goal is the same: Sales. The title was a toss-up.
"Why not do sponsorships instead?"
They're not mutually exclusive.
Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.
Subscribe to Trends.vc for more.
📈 Three metric-driven areas of growth marketing that acquirers look for. Posted by Dan Siepen.
🤔 ChatGPT wrote 95% of this landing page. What do you think? Posted by Hugo Hamel.
🆓 I made a free drag-and-drop React template builder. Posted by Toma Rares.
⚖️ Do I launch on Product Hunt before or after getting my first paid customers? Posted by Jim H.
🤑 The method that's brought me an extra $10K MRR in 2023. Posted by Simon Høiberg.
📹 YouTube: A net positive in your life? Or just a time suck? Posted by Justin Fan.
Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.
Hi, indie hackers! I'm Salai Vedha Viradhan, and I published the Blender Python Cheatsheet on Gumroad a couple of days ago.
Here's how it led to me accidentally making my first dollar online!
At three pages, the tool is a collection of the most frequently used functions and solutions to common problems that you encounter when writing scripts or add-ons using the Blender API. I released it for free. I did not intend to charge anything for it. To my surprise, the free downloads went up to 100 within a few hours.
I have the Gumroad app on my phone, so it kept sending me notifications for every download. I turned off notifications for free downloads because I got so distracted that I could not work. Five minutes later, I received another notification. It was a sale! $1.
This one dollar may not be much, but it is my first dollar online!
So far, my cheatsheet has been downloaded 360+ times, and I have made a total of $22 from eight people. Money aside, this is one of the most wonderful feelings I have had in my life. The best part is that it didn't take me much to do this!
All I did was:
Looked through my previous scripts, and compiled a list of solutions to hurdles that I faced regularly.
Created a neat cheatsheet using Notion, Figma, and Carbon.
Posted it on Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and every possible Blender forum I knew. I also submitted it as a story to BlenderNation, which gave me the most reach.
I went from idea to first customer in just two days. If this is possible with such simple steps, I can't imagine what all of us can achieve with deliberate, consistent effort.
I am now feeling more inspired and confident than ever before. I feel like I can actually do this for a living. I can't wait to share the many other things that I am exploring and working on at the moment, and see where it goes!
Discuss this story.
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to James Fleischmann, Darko, Dru Riley, and Salai Vedha Viradhan for contributing posts. —Channing