How do you decide what features should be free and what should be paid?
Let me start from the creator’s perspective:
I personally don’t have a product (apart from hiring people for creative work or offering personal consultations).
But as a creator, I constantly share content, insights, and information, value that helps me build trust (for free). Based on that perceived expertise, people eventually decide to work with me (a paid service).
So some things I share for free to eventually move toward a paid collaboration.
Personally, it’s sometimes hard to judge when I might be giving away too much for free.
And I assume it’s similarly tricky for builders.
You want users to try the product, but then comes the question of paid features, or a trial limited by time or usage.
How do you decide which parts of your product or service remain free, and which become paid?
When I share content publicly, I usually provide generalised advice. But when it comes to a specific case or a tailored strategy that requires a personal approach, that’s where it becomes paid.
Replies
Velocity: AI User testing
Traditionally its scaled with size, charging by heads model but thats being challenged, but how many are poking the app is still relevant. Theres a gap between an individual and a team. Theres also clear division in enterprise B2B as that has many teams. Depending on your ICPs, traditionally you divided features based upon how much shared interactivity was required. It's going to shake out in the cost of acquisition. Depending on how valuable your ICP is, you will be willing to pay more to acquire them.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@kevin_mcdonagh1 I would say many factors decide in different products. I have always had only experience with B2C, so B2B pricing I never tried to solve.
with my app I'm working on now, I decided to make almost all features free, the paid version simply unlocks unlimited access, the free tier has limited access. I thought this approach would be more user friendly rather than gate keeping cooler / more useful features behind a paywall
minimalist phone: creating folders
@alexanderbiglane what is the tool? And what will be the pricing?
@busmark_w_nika its an iOS app for creatives who like to world-build or write stories. It's an organizer for the content they make, using structured cards and themed to table-top experiences like DnD. It's called TomeWorlds. Pricing is a good question, I just launched and I'm curious about the feedback I'll receive but the research I did suggested a small subscription to cover server costs is the easiest way to go, $4.99/mo or $49.99/yr if they'd prefer to save some through a yearly commit.
Free should let users experience the core value. Paid should unlock scale, speed, or depth. Right?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@alex_rodukov1 I swear that for the product, it is easier to decide compared to service :D
One framework that’s helped me think about this is:
Free should help users understand the problem.
Paid should help them solve it.
Free features are great for:
• discovery
• learning
• experiencing the concept
But the moment the product starts delivering clear outcomes or decisions, that’s usually where paid features make sense.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that if the free tier removes too much friction, people sometimes never feel the need to upgrade.
So I try to think of free as education and proof, and paid as execution and depth.
Curious how others approach it — do you prefer freemium, trial models, or paid from day one?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@hpsimulator But in the product, it should be somehow limited because in some cases I can do a lot even with the free version. But it doesn't earn money to company.
@busmark_w_nikaYeah, that’s the tricky balance.
If the free version is too powerful, people never upgrade.
But if it’s too limited, they never understand the value.
The best setups I’ve seen usually limit something like:
• usage (credits / runs)
• depth of results
• automation or scaling
So users can experience the core insight, but the moment they want consistent outcomes, they hit the paid tier.
Out of curiosity — do you usually prefer a free tier, or a short trial that unlocks the full product?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@hpsimulator Free tier and better features behind the paywall, but in most cases it worked when I used a tool for 1 year, had there everything, and then had to switch to a paid version :D
TinyCommand
For us, the split is between access vs scale.
On TinyCommand, core features like building workflows, using AI agents, forms, and integrations are available in the product so people can actually experience how it works. What becomes paid is usually usage and scale — things like the number of workflow executions, higher limits, or heavier automation usage.
We’re also experimenting with a free trial where all features are unlocked initially, and then some become paid after a period of time. Curious if others have tried this model and how it worked out for them.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@priyanka_gosai1 But what about costs? Because I expect that even free featurs triggers something (e.g. usage of AI tokens that are not for free) OR? How do you cover these costs?
TinyCommand
@busmark_w_nika Yes, even free features do incur some cost, especially when AI is involved since tokens are not free.
In our case though, most users on the free tier don’t use the platform very heavily. They’re usually just trying things out or running small workflows, so the AI usage stays relatively low. Because of that, the overall cost doesn’t add up to a lot.
So yes, there is a cost, and for now we’re simply absorbing it as part of letting people explore the product.
Uspacy
Great question!
Here’s how we decided to structure it at Uspacy:
— Free plan — essential features without which it’s impossible to work, or that it would be embarrassing to charge money for.
— Standard plan — advanced capabilities that already allow you to work, but something should always be missing — it should feel slightly uncomfortable.
— Professional plan — all the maximum features.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@suslovcomua Which plan is used the most?
Uspacy
@busmark_w_nika Professional plan
minimalist phone: creating folders
@jvatgainwrk Does it work? (I mean – what is the churn rate vs how many people will stay with you)
@busmark_w_nika I'll keep you updated, we just started our marketing campaign on Saturday haha We're a very new company. We only have a handful of clients at the moment. Of the 5, two are on our highest tier, and the other 3 are on the lowest tier. We're watching the middle tier closely and will have to react accordingly. Exciting though.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@jvatgainwrk Looking forward to updates :)
I went a different route with this. I built a collection of browser-based utility tools -- image converters, PDF tools, QR generators, text formatters -- and made everything completely free with no signups. The logic was simple: these are small tasks people need done fast. Putting a paywall on a QR code generator feels wrong when the tool costs almost nothing to run since everything processes locally in the browser. The trade-off is you build trust and traffic first. Monetization comes through ads and eventually premium features for power users. But the core tools stay free forever. Not every product can do this, but for utility-style tools it works surprisingly well.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@sourav_mahapatra1 ads between sessions are also something I am considering. But for the product as we have it is contraintuitive – we present minimalist (ads and minimalism don't fit well) :D
i think for free version the product suppose to solve user need so that we can acquire them. but if user need more effort to do a task then i think that could be categorized as advanced feature.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@rajkumar_001 The trend I see the most often is that some builders are unknown, build a product and price it directly. I do not think that's the best approach to gain users, especially when they do not have any maker's history with other products.
honestly the simplest heuristic ive found is to follow the cost structure. if a feature has real per-unit costs to deliver (like AI inference, video processing, cloud compute), that draws the paywall line for you. give away the stuff thats cheap to serve, charge for the stuff that actually costs you money per user.
the mistake i see a lot of builders make is the opposite though. they gate features that cost them nothing (UI customization, extra views, cosmetic stuff) while giving away the compute-heavy features for free to attract users. then they wonder why margins are negative at scale. if your most expensive feature is also your most compelling one, thats actually ideal because the value and the cost are aligned. users pay for what they love AND what costs you real money to run.
one thing i learned the hard way: usage caps beat feature gates almost every time for AI-heavy products. let everyone try everything, but limit how much. people who hit the cap are already sold on the value, converting them is way easier than convincing someone behind a feature wall that the locked thing is worth paying for.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@umairnadeem I have a question: Why do you keep replying to the same thread 3 times? :D Please, don't tell me it is AI :D
@busmark_w_nika lol three replies because i have three opinions and zero impulse control. definitely not AI, just caffeinated