I came to basically the same conclusion. The product costs money to run. If some plans cost more to run than they bring in it creates a perverse incentive.
When I created my own SaaS I decided it would be paid only. This way everything is aligned. I do offer a very generous free trial, but it is limited and you will run out. The trial costs can come from the marketing budget, but all users past the trial will be incrementally profitable.
It’s also important to note that non-paying customers are frequently the worst customers–by construction they have shown that they don’t value your business, and similarly, don’t value the benefits they get from it. They’re frequently less likely to give useful feedback and less likely to view their work with your business as a collaboration.
By contrast, the enterprise customers I’ve worked with tend to both care deeply about their relationship (which, at the right price tier, is properly seen as an investment) and to be more flexible (provided you treat them well, communicate proactively, and give advanced notice whenever possible).
Nice article, I can see why you would share it. But maybe it is not on-topic here at Lobsters? It is about buying or selling IT services, not about computing.
(Although there is a finance tag, the the About page says tags like art don’t imply every piece of art is on-topic. […] Will this improve the reader’s next program?)
Entrepreneurship is specifically mentioned as off-topic, and I think that rules this article right out.
Some things that are off-topic here but popular on larger, similar sites: entrepreneurship, management, news about companies that employ a lot of programmers, investing, […]
It seems as on topic as discussions of Redis licensing, or nix governance, or any other reasonable considerations of what tools to use to solve technical problems.
Maybe you could have a free trial as a step on to a free/super-cheap student tier? It’s more work on both sides though, just ‘cause it’s more management. A benefit of a free tier is the super low barrier to entry.
I came to basically the same conclusion. The product costs money to run. If some plans cost more to run than they bring in it creates a perverse incentive.
When I created my own SaaS I decided it would be paid only. This way everything is aligned. I do offer a very generous free trial, but it is limited and you will run out. The trial costs can come from the marketing budget, but all users past the trial will be incrementally profitable.
It’s also important to note that non-paying customers are frequently the worst customers–by construction they have shown that they don’t value your business, and similarly, don’t value the benefits they get from it. They’re frequently less likely to give useful feedback and less likely to view their work with your business as a collaboration.
By contrast, the enterprise customers I’ve worked with tend to both care deeply about their relationship (which, at the right price tier, is properly seen as an investment) and to be more flexible (provided you treat them well, communicate proactively, and give advanced notice whenever possible).
Nice article, I can see why you would share it. But maybe it is not on-topic here at Lobsters? It is about buying or selling IT services, not about computing.
(Although there is a finance tag, the the About page says tags like art don’t imply every piece of art is on-topic. […] Will this improve the reader’s next program?)
I am glad this article was posted here. I think it is appropriate and valuable.
I am glad you enjoyed it. But do you think it is on-topic according to Lobsters’ guidelines?
Entrepreneurship is specifically mentioned as off-topic, and I think that rules this article right out.
It seems as on topic as discussions of Redis licensing, or nix governance, or any other reasonable considerations of what tools to use to solve technical problems.
This is sad, because some people (like students) may not be able to may for a paid tier and therefore rely on the free tier.
Maybe you could have a free trial as a step on to a free/super-cheap student tier? It’s more work on both sides though, just ‘cause it’s more management. A benefit of a free tier is the super low barrier to entry.
GitHub has a student pack with many free stuff, but of course they just to it to make young developers dependent on them.