SaaS metrics
Free trial
A free trial lets people use a paid product for free for a set time, such as 14 days, before they pay.
Some trials ask for a card at signup and charge at the end. Others ask only when the trial ends. Asking for a card up front usually means fewer signups, but more of them pay.
A trial works only if people reach value before it ends, so your activation rate and onboarding matter most. Email each trial user yourself on day 1 and day 3. Compare it with freemium before you choose, and turn more trials into paying customers by fixing where people stop.
Go deeper
- How to turn free trials into paying customersSaaSTurn free trials into paying customers when you only have a few dozen trials: list every trial and its first win today, offer every new trial a 15-minute setup call, ask for payment the day the product first works, ask everyone who did not pay why, and fix the biggest drop every Sunday.
- Free trial vs freemium: which to chooseSaaSChoose between a free trial and freemium for your SaaS with 4 numbers: start with a 14-day free trial and no card unless a free user costs you under $1, gets value alone in 10 minutes and shows your product to others, then change it after 30 ended trials.
- How to write SaaS onboarding emailsSaaSWrite SaaS onboarding emails that get new signups to their first win: pick the one action that shows your product works, send a plain welcome email and four short emails triggered by what each user did from a free Loops account, write by hand to every stuck signup every day, and fix the email where most people stop every Sunday.
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