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
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.
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@curtis_swick How much marketing do you do for that? Because it seems like you are getting users but without any extra promotion. If you promote it even more, I can bet that it would grow pretty fast.
@busmark_w_nika still very minimal on the marketing front, I'm running just ~$600/mo in ads across platforms. I want to make sure I nail this pricing revamp before I dive in much more. but you bring a valid point.
I'll look at scaling marketing sooner than expected.
I usually decide based on whether the feature removes friction once… or repeatedly.
for example with my JSON fixer tool, fixing a broken payload once should be free. everyone hits that problem occasionally.
But if someone is fixing malformed API / LLM output constantly, that’s where usage-based or deeper workflow features start making sense.
free handles the occasional annoyance. paid supports the people building pipelines around it every day.
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@dechefini Feel free to share a link :)
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.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@mihir_kanzariya That's why I am trying to come up with more useful features I can label with the price tag :D
A safe rule is to keep the core utility free so users can actually see the value. You charge for "power user" features that save time, provide deep data, or help teams work together. If a feature directly helps a company make more money, it belongs in a premium tier. Some founders use a usage limit instead of a feature gate to keep the user experience smooth. This way, the product stays accessible until the user reaches a certain scale.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@oliviajames True, the worse is that my tool doesn't help to earn money. 🫣
My goal is to make the world better and easier, so I try to focus on giving the main benefit of the product for free, and then convenience and upgrade features the paid portion that can be unlocked. It may not make me rich but at least I feel like I'm contributing.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@cybercraftsolutionsllc what is the main free feature of your tool?
Great question! this was actually something I wrestled with a lot on my latest side project
My general rule: if a feature already exists somewhere else for free, I make my version free too. The way I see it, if someone wants that functionality, they can already get it elsewhere. So why would they pick mine? Because mine comes with more built in, even at the free tier.
From there, any additional settings or customization layered on top of that feature becomes paid. The goal is to offer a solid free baseline thats enough to be useful while reserving the deeper control and extra capabilities for paid users.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@smoothies949 What if the product is unique, so then, how to decide which features will be free when you are the trendsetter?
I think in B2C products the core experience has to stay free, otherwise users won't even get to the point where they understand the value. The goal of the free tier shouldn't be to tease, but to genuinely solve a problem so adoption feels natural and frictionless.
For paid features, I've found it works best when they add to the experience rather than restrict it. Things like higher limits, more customization, or entirely new capabilities on top of the core product tend to feel fair and intuitive for users.
A practical principle I follow is tying monetization to cost: if a feature creates direct ongoing costs on our side (infrastructure, APIs, storage), it's a strong candidate for premium. That way the business stays sustainable without compromising the base experience.
And one thing I'd avoid at all costs: moving previously free features behind a paywall. It breaks trust very quickly. If anything, it's better to introduce new premium layers or expand existing ones, rather than taking value away from users.
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@andrasczeizel But CapCut did this after 2 years (moving the free features behind a paywall), and I bought their product, in my opinion, it was a brilliant marketing move.
The framing that helped us most: free gets them to the win, paid lets them keep or scale it.
If someone can't experience the core value for free, they won't convert. But if the core value IS the whole product, there's no reason to pay.
So we ask: what's the smallest slice that proves the promise? That's free. Everything that builds on the result — saving, customizing, repeating — that's paid.
Your content example is spot on. Generalized insight = free, because it builds trust. Tailored strategy = paid, because now you're doing the thinking for them.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@oana_clopotel At least you reassured me a little that I'm not giving away so much for free. :D
On the product I am launching today, Sour Mango https://www.producthunt.com/products/sour-mango-nomads, I decided to give each user who is not subscribed the ability to use the premium feature for a set number of times per day. The AI Travel Assistant, the Wi-Fi speed test, and the local price check all have a combined limit of 10.
More detailed features, such as the destinations that provide you with accurate information about different cities, from the apps to use, to visa, tax, safety information, are restricted.
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@ibrahim_zarifeh1 Cool! I supported the launch :)
Pretty simple for us, we have a free tier and additional usage is charged. Features are mostly the same for both
minimalist phone: creating folders
@karan_kankariya1 How many features are for free? :)
@busmark_w_nika All of them are, our customers only pay more for more usage!