Is it better to launch paid from day one instead of starting completely free?
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Giving away a product for free builds a nice illusion of fast growth, but transitioning to paid later is honestly brutal. Users get so used to getting everything for zero cost that asking them to pay later changes their entire mindset from curious explorers to strict critics overnight. Looking back I wonder if starting with a small paid tier right from the beginning filters out the wrong crowd and saves you from that sudden growth cliff.
Have you tried charging from day one or did you also struggle moving away from a free model?
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I'd split it smaller than free versus paid: what exactly is free, and where the paid line sits. In my app the first song is free to make and listen to, and downloading or sharing it needs a subscription. I also ran a short free trial on the weekly plan. Of the first 15 trials that reached a decision, 1 converted and 8 were cancelled within hours of starting, because the trial unlocked the download and it was being used as a free download key. So the trial went away and the free first song stayed. My takeaway: free should let people feel the value, and the one thing they would pay for should not be free, even for a few days.