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
I would suggest looking at it the other way around: Define what's the conversion rate you want to see, and work from there.
The Freemium model is always a trade-off: Collecting users vs making income. The balance dictates the conversion rate.
I'm currently thinking about the exact same question for a product I'm working on, and this is how I try to think of it:
When considering the free/paid features, I always imagine it as a giant slider, where its left side point to free users, and the right one - to paid ones. Now, what do I prefer? So on the one hand - paying users are always great. On the other hand - a not-so-happy free users will never become paid ones, and users, even free ones, are a great resource that can be used for other endeavors.
So first I think about the goal - free users vs paid users - and from there I take it to the features parity.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@memi_lavi What product are you working on? :)
@busmark_w_nika A Chrome extension that analyzes the page you're in and makes it easier to understand across countries / timezones etc. A bit vague, I know, but I'm still working on the main idea...
This is an interesting post. I'm struggling with this today. Its definitely harder as a bootstrapped founder trying to find that balance to drive traffic and create revenue. Each part of the product has to have value. Value to get the traffic, then depth to expand the following and increase revenue. Its a delicate balance, but critical and could also be the factor in either success or failure of your new company.
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@wereframe Bootstrapped usually give a price tag from day one (esp. when they do not have well-paid jobs) and maintenance costs something too.
The framework I've settled on after a few product cycles: free = diagnosis, paid = prescription.
Free content shows the user their problem clearly. Paid content gives them the exact fix. The moment your free tier solves the problem, you've destroyed the reason to upgrade.
For micro-SaaS specifically, I've found the usage-based gate converts better than feature-gating — let users access the full product, but limit runs/outputs/reports. They get to feel the full value before hitting the wall. The conversion conversation becomes 'do you want more of this?' rather than 'unlock this feature you've never seen.' Much easier sell.
One thing that's underrated: validate that your paid tier is solving a real bleeding pain *before* building it. I run thevibepreneur.com which validates micro-SaaS niches with buyer proof — the same lens applies to pricing tiers. What are people already paying for? Start there.
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@vatsmi What you said... maybe I am giving too much value because people started talking whether I want to create some paid community lol
I usually stick to the "How vs. What". The "What" is free, but the "How" is paid
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@yisak_mebrate I wish to have it so easy in content products! :D
Okan
Your general versus tailored approach translates perfectly to how I think about SaaS pricing, where it usually comes down to core utility versus convenience. I always make sure the free tier solves the user's primary problem completely so they actually experience that "aha" moment without hitting a frustrating paywall. Once they need to scale their volume, automate workflows, or invite team members, that creates a natural friction point where upgrading feels like a no-brainer.
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@y_taka I think that I need to reconsider my pricing strategy, i think that I am offering too much for free :D
I personally think if it is not using much of any infrastructure like server cost or anything else and its gonna help people, I would make it free.
But on the other hand there are also people who think Free = cheap stuff or just want limelight, so you have to put a minimum so they understand the value, only if they and then serious people will be at your platform who actually understands and value your product.
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@anshumaanvishnu Well, in that case, when I wanna charge, I need to come up with more features I will put behind the paywall.
The framework that's worked for me: the free tier should deliver enough value that the user can clearly see what the paid version would do for them at scale.
If free gives them nothing useful, they leave and never come back. If free gives them everything, they never pay. The sweet spot is free delivers a real result, but the natural next action requires upgrading.
For example with my product (AI recruiting for sales roles), free gets you 1 search and 2-3 candidates. That's enough to see real results and think "okay, this actually works, I want more." The upgrade isn't gated behind some artificial wall, it's gated behind genuine usage growth.
The mistake I see most often is gating features instead of volume. Hiding core functionality behind a paywall means free users never experience the product properly. Limiting how much they can use it means they do experience it, and they want more.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@curtis_swick Setting those limits was a gold route, how many paying users does the tool have? circa
@busmark_w_nika I'm re-working pricing tiers now with the data I have, just 5 so this comes out to be ~$1,000 MRR
I think I can capture more users / more volume by adding a lower tier that has a bit more restriction to it (3-5 searches, full candidate list, $49/mo) instead of the one shot $199/mo 50 searches as it was for most of those signups. The issue now is continuing to provide value post month 1. I think some of this comes down to hiring insight and a slight pivot to include either tooling or these sales personnel or other ideas. I'm still working through it.
My rule of thumb: free should solve the pain well enough that users keep coming back, but paid should remove the friction that makes the free version annoying at scale.
For example if your tool lets you track 3 projects for free but charges for unlimited, the limit itself becomes the sales pitch once users are hooked. You never have to "sell" them on it, they sell themselves when they hit the wall.
The worst thing you can do is make the free tier so good nobody ever needs to upgrade. Learned that one the hard way lol.
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@mihir_kanzariya That's why I am trying to come up with more useful features I can label with the price tag :D
the real answer nobody here is saying: if your product has variable costs per user (like AI inference), your free tier IS your marketing budget. treat it that way.
i run AI-heavy pipelines and every prompt costs real money. so i structured it as: free tier = enough to hit the wow moment, maybe 5-10 uses. paid = unlimited or high volume. the key insight was tracking exactly where users go from "oh cool" to "i actually need this in my workflow" and putting the gate right after that moment.
what changed everything for me was caching aggressively. i cache outputs with vector similarity search so if someone requests something close to what already exists, i serve the cached version instead of burning another API call. cut my costs by 60-70% overnight. suddenly the free tier became way more generous without actually costing more.
the trial vs freemium debate is a false choice imo. trials work when your product needs time to click (like writing tools or habit apps). freemium works when value is immediate but scales with usage. combining both usually just confuses people about what theyre actually getting.
For me the line is blurry and I don't think there's a clean answer. The mental model I keep coming back to is: free should create/show the problem, paid should solve it.
For content/services like yours, free builds the belief and generates the trust that you can help. Paid is the actual help. You're not giving away too much as long as the free stuff makes people want the paid service more, not less.
When I build products I take a similar approach, FREE should be generous enough that users get real value and trust the product, but the moment they want to go deeper, faster, or at scale, that's where paid comes in play.