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Of course, if you add value for the users or solve their pain point, they will be willing to pay. I personally think that one month free trial model is better t

Of course, if you add value for the users or solve their pain point, they will be willing to pay. I personally think that one month free trial model is better than freemium. It sets the users' expectation from the beginning. I always thought Freemium is sort of sleazy.

aidos 14y ago
Can you explain how you find freemium to be a sleazy model? That's a genuine question - I run a freemium service and I'd hate for there to be a perception that we were in any way sleazy.
- doktrin 14y ago
  Intuitively, we know it's fairly rare for something to be provided for nothing. Therefore, it's often assumed that the business model of freemium ventures is either : 1) purely ad-supported (increasingly difficult, imho) 2) generating (at least some) revenue by harvesting user data 3) running at a loss with the goal of being acquired as soon as feasibly possible 2 & 3 specifically could in various contexts be viewed as sleazy. This isn't my personal indictment, but they do represent views I've heard bandied about on a semi-consistent basis.
  - aytekin 14y ago
    What you are describing is the "free" services, not "freemium" services. Freemium means trialing a product based on usage as opposed to trialing it based on time. Once your usage goes over a threshold you are an active user and you start paying for the service. That's our model on JotForm and it works well for us. One of the best examples of this model is evernote. I remember they were saying something like if the users stays active on their product for n months, they will almost certainly become a premium user.
- boomzilla 14y ago
  Maybe the word choice was not right (I am a non native speaker). What I think is the users should always be treated with respect and transparency: everything is laid down on the table upfront. A lot of freemium services are implemented in a way that kind of deceives the users to sign up and grow dependent on the service before letting them know that a lot of things won't work or stopping working if you don't pay.
MicahWedemeyer 14y ago
I think there are a lot of services where a 1-month free trial will prevent the kind of growth you need to sustain yourself. For a perfect example: LinkedIn. It's a freemium service where recruiters and other big-players pay for increased access. Another example is Flickr: There are so many photo-sharing sites that who would sign up for a paid one with so many others for free? Running a freemium site requires walking a line between the free and paid users. It can be sleazy, but it doesn't have to be, and there are definitely models where it makes sense.

aidos 14y ago

Can you explain how you find freemium to be a sleazy model? That's a genuine question - I run a freemium service and I'd hate for there to be a perception that we were in any way sleazy.

doktrin 14y ago
Intuitively, we know it's fairly rare for something to be provided for nothing. Therefore, it's often assumed that the business model of freemium ventures is either : 1) purely ad-supported (increasingly difficult, imho) 2) generating (at least some) revenue by harvesting user data 3) running at a loss with the goal of being acquired as soon as feasibly possible 2 & 3 specifically could in various contexts be viewed as sleazy. This isn't my personal indictment, but they do represent views I've heard bandied about on a semi-consistent basis.
- aytekin 14y ago
  What you are describing is the "free" services, not "freemium" services. Freemium means trialing a product based on usage as opposed to trialing it based on time. Once your usage goes over a threshold you are an active user and you start paying for the service. That's our model on JotForm and it works well for us. One of the best examples of this model is evernote. I remember they were saying something like if the users stays active on their product for n months, they will almost certainly become a premium user.
boomzilla 14y ago
Maybe the word choice was not right (I am a non native speaker). What I think is the users should always be treated with respect and transparency: everything is laid down on the table upfront. A lot of freemium services are implemented in a way that kind of deceives the users to sign up and grow dependent on the service before letting them know that a lot of things won't work or stopping working if you don't pay.

MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

I think there are a lot of services where a 1-month free trial will prevent the kind of growth you need to sustain yourself. For a perfect example: LinkedIn. It's a freemium service where recruiters and other big-players pay for increased access. Another example is Flickr: There are so many photo-sharing sites that who would sign up for a paid one with so many others for free? Running a freemium site requires walking a line between the free and paid users. It can be sleazy, but it doesn't have to be, and there are definitely models where it makes sense.