Is freemium still a good GTM?
I keep hearing that freemium is "over" in 2025.
Users expect everything free, and conversion rates are tanking with limits. But then I look around and see some of the biggest SaaS wins built entirely on freemium- Dropbox, Slack, Calendly, and even Notion to some extent. These aren't ancient relics, they're still dominating their spaces. But yes, they started way back in the day.
So what's the real story here? Are we just seeing survivorship bias, or is freemium actually harder to execute than people realize?
I'm building a scheduling tool myself (Like Calendly Pro, but with major improvements) and wrestling with this exact question. My gut says keep the core free to lower barriers and let the product speak for itself. But the freemium is dead chorus is loud (it's a noise on X to be honest)
Are we overthinking it, or has the freemium playbook actually changed in ways that matter?
Replies
Declaring that something "is dead" is just someone trying to write a provocative headline that is so common it is a cliché. The freemium business model may not be new or in vogue anymore but that doesn't matter as it obviously can and does work when executed correctly. You should only be concerned about what business model will work best for your business and ignore the noise on social media.
Cal ID
@william_z That's such a good answer. I'm digging deep to find out if there is a workaround for people to use my free tier without actually converting to a paid plan. I'll probably optimise the flow even further, but I've decided to go with freemium.