How to increase sales of your product that has many free users but only a few paying ones?
For over a week, the wider Product Hunt community has been chiming in with their “two cents” in the discussion about where to draw the line between which product features should be free and which should require payment.
Just yesterday on X, a post started trending about a tool with 35,000+ users, but only just over 1,300 paying customers. The founder was asking the community for advice on how to increase conversions.
Many people had a very straightforward opinion: remove the free version (but this isn’t the path he wants to take).
Possible solutions include:
Free users could be required to have a badge on their profile promoting the brand. (though this can’t be applied to every business, but he is considering this one)
Showing ads in the free tool. (invasive, but can at least cover some costs; downside: the tool may feel sluggish)
Removing the free plan completely – this could work if users have been accustomed to the tool long enough. (CapCut did it like that.)
What tricks would you use to convert free users into paying customers?
Replies
In my opinion, ads don't have to be invasive, especially in the context of a saas : they can be easily integrated as sponsored messages, as long as they are 100% related with the object of the app (and therefore aligned with the interests of the user).
That would require additional work to find those sponsors with activities related to the app, but you would also sell the impression for a much better price (I'd assume at least 20 x compare to google ads).
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@kapkap I rather meant something for AdSense, because finding a sponsor is way more work.
Not me curiously waiting for the comments 😆
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@ruxandra_mazilu You are not alone here. I would like to know that top secret ingredient too :D
Very interesting topic. as I am struggling with have to give the best pricing with the fairness to the user. I have limited my free version I think this is help for conversion rate. but then I think why am I doing this app? I don't want to be about just the bottom line. I want to help people and that guides my pricing. doesn't mean my pricing is right though
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@david_sherer Not gonna lie, when we removed a free tier, many people started complaining, but many "free-tier" people finally subscribed. There will always be people who complain.
@busmark_w_nika That is the truth it is the one who get things free or very cheap that complain the most
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@david_sherer facts!
Feels less like a pricing problem and more like a value gap. A lot of free users never reach a point where the product becomes something they rely on, so there’s no real reason to pay.
I’d start by looking at what paying users do early on that free users don’t. What actions they take, what they complete and where free users drop off before getting there.
Instead of removing the free plan, I’d tighten the path to that first meaningful outcome and gate what comes after it. Once someone reaches value, the conversion decision becomes much easier.
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@arun_tamang how would you spot those patterns? Through heatmaps and mixpanel events?
@busmark_w_nika I usually don’t start with tools. I’ll take a few recent users and try to reconstruct their first session. What they were trying to do, where they clicked, how far they got and where things stopped making sense. Sometimes that’s from quick user conversations, sometimes from watching a few session recordings.
You don’t get perfect data this way, but patterns show up pretty quickly. There’s usually a point paying users get through that others don’t. Once that’s clear, tools just help validate it at scale.
From what I’ve seen, conversions jump when you gate outcomes, not features — let users get value for free, but charge when they want speed, scale, or real results.
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@allinonetools_net But they need to be very used to the new product :)
Love this. Freemium is tricky but gold for growth if you play it smart. Instead of nuking free or ads (which can tank UX), I'd focus on behavior-triggered nudges that feel helpful, not salesy.
Also, in-app success stories. Show anonymized "Free user → Pro: 3x'd output" badges right at friction points.
That's maybe not much, but I'm so intrigued to see the other comments, lol.
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@swati_paliwal How did you decide when it comes to pricing your own product?
This is a classic freemium challenge. A few strategies I’ve seen work well without alienating free users:
Value gating: Keep the core free, but make premium features clearly transformational rather than incremental. Users should feel the upgrade is unlocking something meaningful.
Free trials of premium: Let users experience the upgrade fully for a limited time, then let them decide.
I’ve found that the key is framing premium not as a restriction but as an enhancement to outcomes they already value.
We're testing a ton with this right now.
Our latest test is first 7 days on unlimited tier with a big count-down timer showing that they need to either pay or will be downgraded. Then once downgraded to free, they get access to all the basic features and 1x use of our hook feature per day.