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Ask HN: What makes you start a free trial?
Assuming the product is relevant to your interests, what are drivers that make you start (or not start) a free trial when offered one?
Things that come to mind:
- having to leave personal data (and the quantity of data)
- likeliness of getting contacted by sales or marketing teams
- promise of trial: seeing the entire product vs only a part, flexible 'do your thing' vs strictly walled garden, etc.
- (no) credit card required
- start immediately vs wait for email to confirm your interest
- time to get started: see a ready-made instance of the product vs set it all up yourself
- others?
Curious to hear your thoughts!
- sysadm1n 5y agoI start a trial to try out the service, as I think that is paramount in making a decision of whether I will continue with a (paid) subscription. Many services are successful because of trials. Some get their trials abused by people setting up multiple accounts, but that can be mitigated with phone verification and other tactics. (It's trickier to get disposable phone numbers than disposable emails)
- xz18r 5y agoTrue, but one trial is not like the other. Any specific 'form factors' (like the ones mentioned above) that play a role in deciding to start one? Or does everything come down to the product as presented on the accompanying website?
- sysadm1n 5y agoI usually case the joint of a service before signing up. So the service has to have screenshots, testimonials, and a thriving community before I consider hitting 'register'. I often have a gut instinct cultivated by years of signing up for random services, that I listen to before hitting 'register' too. It could be something simple that turns me off like a broken link in the footer, and other red flags like not having the full legal address of the business in the 'about' section.