Trial Periods... Are they really worth it?

There is no SaaS without a Trial!

Many indie devs are into SaaS nowadays and their monetization strategy normally falls into two categories:

• A fully paid product with different tiers
• A freemium model

Quite often in either of these methods, the creators offer free trials. A way for users to actually try the paid version without credit card is needed! (got to have these last magic words)

Feedback

I have been really enjoying writing my thoughts both here and on indie hackers and from yesterday's post I got a few Devs visiting my virtual co-working space for entrepreneurs and asking me if they could try it for free...

I had already considered a trial in the past but I have always rejected the idea

My product is a paid community and I have been lucky enough to have found really cool and active first members 💪

It somehow seemed odd to allow strangers to come into our virtual office just to disappear a few days after (much like my father... 😿). Plus it's a 4 euros subscription that can be canceled at any time...

If people are not willing to pay that then they probably never will... - Tiago thinking to himself

I explained my reasons to this user and then got convinced by the explanation... 😱

Is not about the money but the fact of giving my credit card info and committing to a product without actually knowing if it works... - user

I realized that the problem was not losing the 4 euros but rather being tricked by a sketchy podcaster with possibly an empty slack channel!

I decided then to give it a shot! Here is what I have done...

1- Get a coffee ofc... ☕

2- Asked the community members if they were ok with it and like always they were super supportive!

3- Create a new extra in the buymeacoffee platform for a value of ZERO euros and use zapier to store the new user data together with the expiration date into Airtable. #NoCode4TheWinBROOOO

4- Change the landing page to this beauty...

Results

It's amazing because since I implemented the trial a grand total of ZERO new members have joined!!! So I was right!

Or maybe is still too soon to tell... XD I will wait a couple more days to take my conclusions and I will keep you posted! (btw if you prefer listening to these adventures in an audio format you should checkout my podcast)

I hope you found this entertaining and I would love to know what are your thoughts on trial periods... Have they been working out for you?