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
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
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@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?
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@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?
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@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?
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@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.
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@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.
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@suslovcomua Which plan is used the most?
Uspacy
@busmark_w_nika Professional plan
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@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.
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@jvatgainwrk Looking forward to updates :)
It is very tricky i would say. If you want to do it right then you can try this, but keep in mind that the number of users you have in the end will decide what outcome will be in terms of profits or loss.
So i generally follow a simple step, For a completely new product like @Waysorted you need to figure out the functionalities it requires to turn a person into a regular user of your tool. Then you map out the places where the users are heavily dependant on and you slowly charge them for the high compute/ more cost draining feature which requires your constant supply of investment.
After this you will have some of your users churn out but some people will also pay for it. Now you just improve your capabilities with the earnings/ get a grant or investment by showing the proof of people purchasing your product or if its not in losses market more to the people and gain more customers.
Gradually you will target organisations and then your whole idea of monetizing will need a revamp. Per seat cost, more complex and less buggy tool.. etc..
I feel like this is a good way to get into a customer base. It's just my perspective happy to read your thoughts on it!
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@sudhanshu_singh25 So the main idea is shift from possibly b2c to b2b as well? because e.g. we have b2c, but there are ocassional opportunities to collab with B2B. But we already secured our positino and reputation.
@busmark_w_nika it completely depends on the product, The cases where the product or service is not created for a business, ideas can be grown in b2c for more customers and thus generating more revenue.
@busmark_w_nika you mentioned that you have had possibility for collaboration in b2b if you go that way, your product and team would likely require to shift their mindset in creating a more fit product for an org as they are paying you hefty amount. This makes a small team change their perspective on the products development.
All of this can make you do things which a individual does not require and then you would have to manage the complexity of developing features which cater both. Eventually a lot of companies pick b2b to grow quickly and then increase the team size to cater more areas
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@sudhanshu_singh25 B2B opportunities are very occasional and usually go hand in hand with "discount", because if they want to buy a licence for a consumer app (e.g. their employees), they want some sort of a rebate.
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.
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@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.
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@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.
I'm building three products right now and each one has a completely different answer to this. For Shoute (voice-to-text), the free tier is generous because the product sells itself once people try it. For Fridge2Frame (physical keepsakes), free doesn't make sense since there's a cost-of-goods. My rule of thumb: if the free tier creates a habit, it's worth giving away.
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@sharmila_rangasamy I would say that if a free tier creates a habit it is time to move to a paid :D
@busmark_w_nika Totally agree :)