Deciding whether or not to use free trials as part of your SaaS pricing strategy is a major decision you'll have to make as a business. But the second part of this decision is almost as critical: how long should the free trial be?
While free trials and freemium plans are a popular strategy to get new users in the door and boost conversion rates, a lot of their effectiveness relies on how long the trials lasts. Why? Because this directly determines how long a new user has to actually get familiarized with your product, interact with it, witness its benefits and value, and — most importantly — become convinced that they need your product for the long haul. It can basically make or break
your free-to-paid conversion, and even affect your ability to get those paying customers to upgrade later on.
In this post, we'll dive into the details of free trial best practices and how to properly use timing of these periods to help maximize your conversion rates, customer retention and growth.
See also:
Converting Free Users to Paying CustomersObjectives for Users by the End of the Trial Period
The obvious objective at the end of any free trial would be, a user converts to a paying customer. This is basic 101 knowledge. But what actually has to happen to get the user to reach the conclusion that they're willing to pay for it? This will help you determine how long to make your trial last.
These are some basic types of stages or outcomes you might be looking to see:
- User is familiar with the product
- They learn the ins and outs, the way the product approaches certain actions or tasks, and has basic proficiency in using the core features of it
- They can contextualize it, and understand its place within their ecosystem / stack / workflow
- They get invested in it, enjoy using it or otherwise fell connected or compelled to keep going - they're "sucked in"
Pro tip: Make sure free trials specifically — and not their twins,
freemium plans or free tiers — are the right fit.
A/B Testing or Getting Feedback
Because you need to make sure your free trial users have enough time to actually accomplish these phases above, you may need to iterate on the length a bit and gather feedback from them in real time about how long is helpful for them. This is one of the core best practices for ensuring free trial conversions:
- Real-time monitoring and feedback: You may also use feature-tracking, in-platform or email surveys, and other methods to check in with a customer during their trial to see if they're using the platform, how much, which features they've explored, if they're using it correctly, and more.
- Retroactive feedback: You may also consider doing surveys or feedback sessions with both customers who chose to move forward with a paid plan, and those who ended up not converting, to discover what worked and what didn't.
Side Note: Will you Offer Support for Users During This Trial?
Does your product have a learning curve where users may benefit from a brief tutorial, or may need access to a help desk, resource center, or even live customer support chat to make use of the platform before they can really start to see the benefits? This can influence whether or not they're able to make the most of your product before their free trial is completed.
Key Factors Influencing Free Trial Length
Here are several critical factors to consider when determining the length of a free trial. Some of those include:
Sales led / Enterprise vs Product led / Self-serveThis is a huge factor -- how big are the ticket sizes and the volume of user you're dealing with? If you're going after big-ticket enterprise customers, a handheld, bespoke free trial experience to may be part of a months-long effort to try to win them over, and something you'll gladly take on.
On the other hand, a self-serve user who would only be upgrading from free to $15 / month is not worth offering any special situations or customer support, especially given there may be a huge mass of customers in that bucket.
Read more:
Best practices for self-serve pricing pages Product Complexity
As we alluded to above, the intricacy of your product is one of the primary driving factors to determining the appropriate free trial length. Complex products with multiple features, advanced customization options, or those that require integration into existing systems often necessitate a longer trial period.
Users need time to navigate the learning curve, integrate the product into their daily routines, and witness tangible results from their usage. As mentioned, you might even have to offer customer support, or for larger-ticket customers, engage with them on calls during that time period. For instance, a comprehensive CRM system or an enterprise-level analytics platform may offer a 30-day or even a 60-day trial to ensure users can fully grasp and evaluate the product's capabilities.
User Onboarding Process
The design and efficiency of the user onboarding process play a crucial role in how quickly users can derive value from a SaaS product. A robust onboarding process, complete with tutorials, guided product tours, and responsive customer support, can help the user with really understanding the workings of your product better. If your invested in a great onboarding experience that quickly showcases key features and benefits, you might be able to opt for a shorter trial period because of that.
Sales Cycle Length
Understanding the typical sales cycle length within your industry is another important factor. For B2B SaaS products targeting large organizations, the sales process can be lengthy, involving multiple stakeholders and approval layers. A longer trial period can accommodate this extended decision-making process, allowing all involved parties sufficient time to evaluate the product thoroughly. Frankly, if your customer is using the product, and is engaged, and all of the forth and back could lead to a huge contract, you will most likely not take away your product out of the hands of your customer after 30 days.
Customer Feedback and Data
Data-driven decision-making should underpin the choice of trial length. Analyze engagement metrics, usage patterns, and conversion rates from your existing free trials to optimize for the optimal duration. When do users typically start actively using the product? At what point do they begin to disengage? Additionally, direct customer feedback can reveal whether users feel the trial period is adequate for their evaluation needs. This data can guide adjustments to the trial length, ensuring it aligns with user behavior and preferences. If you don't have this data (yet), you have to rely on your senses here, but if you do, make sure to make good use of it.
Competitive Benchmarking
Consider the trial lengths offered by competitors in your market. While it's not necessary to match competitors' offerings exactly, understanding the industry standard can provide context for your decision. If competitors offer longer trials and your product is new to the market, you might consider extending your trial period to ensure potential customers don't choose a competitor simply because they offer more time to evaluate the product. If you decide on a 7 day free trial and all of your competitors offer 30 days, you will most likely get some unhappy customers if you don't adapt.
Upgrade Incentives and Pathways
Finally, consider how the trial period will transition into your upgrade pathways and incentives. If your SaaS product offers multiple tiers or add-on features, the trial should give users a taste of the value these additional offerings provide. The trial period should be long enough to encourage exploration but also create desire for the enhanced capabilities available in paid plans.
Benefits to a Shorter Free Trial Period
While longer trials have their advantages, there are compelling reasons to consider a shorter trial period for your SaaS product. These especially are recommended for a low-cost, self-serve / PLG product, where the initial paid tier may be only $10-20 per month.
Immediate Engagement and Urgency
A shorter trial period can create a sense of urgency that motivates users to engage with the product right away. When users know they have limited time, they're more likely to dive in and start exploring the product's features from day one. This can lead to faster adoption and a more concentrated evaluation of the product's capabilities. The urgency can also prompt users to prioritize the trial in their schedule, ensuring your product gets the attention it deserves during the evaluation phase.
Qualification of Serious Prospects
Shorter trial periods can act as a natural filter for more qualified and interested prospects. Users who are willing to invest time in a trial with a shorter duration are often more serious about finding a solution and may have a higher intent to purchase. This can lead to more meaningful interactions with potential customers who are genuinely interested in what your SaaS product has to offer, ultimately improving the quality of your customer base.
Resource Optimization
Offering a free trial can be resource-intensive, requiring support from your customer service, success teams, and infrastructure. A shorter trial period can help optimize these resources by focusing efforts on a smaller, more engaged user group. This concentration of resources can enhance the support and guidance provided to trial users, potentially leading to a better overall experience and higher conversion rates.
Accelerated Feedback Loop
Shorter trials can lead to quicker feedback, allowing your team to iterate on the product and the trial experience at a faster pace. Users are prompted to provide feedback sooner, which can be invaluable for SaaS companies in the early stages of product development. This accelerated feedback loop can inform product improvements and refinements that enhance the user experience for future customers.
Enhanced Trial-to-Paid Transition
With a shorter trial period, the transition from trial to paid subscription can be more seamless. Users are still engaged with the product and the benefits they've experienced are fresh in their minds, making them more likely to convert to a paid plan. This can be particularly effective if the trial ends with a strong call-to-action or an attractive offer that incentivizes users to upgrade.
Reduced Window for Competitor Shopping
A shorter trial period means users have less time to evaluate competing products. If your SaaS product can demonstrate value quickly, a shorter trial can help keep users focused on your offering and reduce the likelihood of them shopping around. By providing a compelling, concentrated trial experience, you can position your product as the preferred choice before users consider alternatives.
Benefits to a Longer Free Trial Period
This is especially applicable to larger-ticket subscriptions where users may be asked to pay upwards of $100 per month, or pay on a per-user basis, and would want to be more confident a solution works for their team before signing on.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
The more time your users invest in the product, the more they may experience the "sunk cost fallacy" and not want to bother trying out another product, and end up converting to simplify things and be done with the shopping process.
More Time for "Stickiness" to Take Hold
If your product benefits from a network effect or is gamified in some way, users may come to like it the more they use it. Maybe they don't love it when they only have had time to engage with
Opportunities for Product Feedback, User Research & Engagement
Users may get really invested into playing around with your product and be eager to provide feedback, even try out new features or give critical mass for getting A/B testing data. This can create a positive feedback loop where they feel more invested in the product in part because they've provided feedback and are helping shape it.
Lower Churn / Higher Customer Retention
Because users will be more familiar with the platform or product, they are less likely to discover issues they have with it later on, and are less likely to cancel their subscription soon after it starts, an issue which can plague short trials.
Higher Ticket Prices
Having a longer free trial period may come along with the opportunity to charge more
Higher Change of Annual / Longer-commitment PlansBecause customers have longer to make sure this is the right solution for them, they may be more willing to commit to an
annual plan versus pay monthly, giving you predictable recurring revenue.
Conclusion: Finding the Optimal Free Trial Length for Your SaaS Product
How long you allow prospective customers to try out your product for free can have a huge impact on whether or not they end up converting. It can also affect your ability to get customers to upgrade once they are using your product for a while. Unfortunately, there is no one piece of advice that we can give you for this decision, but being aware of some of the factors at play will give you good food for thought for the next brainstorming with your team.
Whether you opt for allowing users a short burst of intense product exploration or a prolonged period of thorough evaluation, the goal remains the same: to convert them into loyal, paying customers by demonstrating the value of your SaaS offering. Balancing the need for immediate engagement with the opportunity for deep product understanding is your challenge, and we wish you all the best for finding the perfect free trial length for your startup.
Ultimately, the right trial length for your SaaS product will depend on all the factors listed above (and probably others unique to your situation). So hopefully this can serve as a starting point checklist in your next brainstorming session, and maybe let us know if it worked for you.
