3 profitable alternatives to free plans

I recently received messages from solopreneurs making their first $1 online after removing free plans.

If you think you need one, here are 3 alternatives to become profitable faster.

Estimated reading time: 3 min 43 sec

A free plan is a bad idea disguised as an opportunity. 

Only 3% of free users will convert to paid users.

To make $5,000 with a $20 plan, you’ll need 8,250 users (100K visitors). Let that sink in.

But free users spread the word…

If someone refuses to pay for your product, they won’t tell their friends about it.

Less than 3% of customers of my $50K/month product spread the word. And they spent a few hundred $ on the product, worked with it for hours, and made their $1 online.

Free users testing the water won’t become your marketers. They won’t give you a backlink either.

But people won’t pay if they can’t try my product…

Then the problem is probably your landing page copy. It’s either unclear or not speaking to your customers’ emotions.

Alternative 1: Free credits

If your product requires significant time investment for customers, like API-as-a-service, offer limited free credits to test it out.

The user should understand the core of your product without being able to benefit from it.

For instance, it’s free to create a profile on my startup IndiePage. Users pay to deploy their page to show it to others (the real value).

Alternative 2: Free trial with credit card and auto-subscription 

If your product isn’t a painkiller and adds value over time, you can try free trials.

• Maximum 7 days 

• The user must add a credit card 

• Subscription starts automatically 

You want users to commit. An email isn’t a commitment. A credit card is.

Alternative 3: Free tools

If a standalone feature of your startup is sharable but not worth paying for, turn it into a free tool.

Ahref gets tons of traffic from their free SEO keyword research tool. I also added +25% daily traffic to ShipFast thanks to LogoFast.

Free tools help you make some noise by launching on Reddit, Product Hunt, Twitter, etc. For best results, let users try them without signing up.

AI wrappers are trendy and easy free tools to launch. My friend Dan doubled its revenue in 2023 thanks to them. He documented everything in his new course.

Free users slow solopreneurs down.

Avoid freemium and get paid for your work to get profitable faster.