
Ask HN: Requiring users to sign up for free trial. Yay or nay? - jonathan-kosgei
We have an API product that has had a no signup or credit card free tier for a while now.<p>However due to rampant abuse (potentially a small scale DDOS) we&#x27;re contemplating requiring users to sign up to access the free tier.<p>Does anyone think this is a bad idea that might reduce uptake of our API?
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ColinWright
These days, getting an email or other sign-up for something has (at least) two
significant factors:

* Do I trust you with the data I give you; and

* What do I get in return for my data?

If you are clear and upfront that the sign-up has been introduced because of
lots of bogus accesses, you'll gain some sympathy. But people will still ask
both of those questions.

If you act in a trustworthy manner, and you provide value in return, then I
think it's fine to ask for a sign-up. But you need to gain the user's trust,
both that you will treat their data with respect, and that there will be
something in return.

Exactly how you convince them of those two things is not easy, and effectively
"marketing".

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ocdtrekkie
I am a bit surprised your free tier doesn't have a signup. Do you give people
an API key, just like, randomly generated on the fly on page load?

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jonathan-kosgei
Nope, you can call our endpoint without an API key but you'd be limited to
1500 requests a day.

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ocdtrekkie
Oh, another reason I realized you should have registration/people's email:
While you wouldn't want to automatically send these people marketing emails
without their express interest, you WOULD want to be able to send your free
tier users security notices.

I don't know which API you are at, but I use OpenWeatherMap, and usually, do
so with a city ID to request the location. But you _can_ query OpenWeatherMap
by GPS (I don't, myself), and you could be querying it using precise
coordinates. So if OpenWeatherMap were to have a security breach, my location
history might be leaked, and I'd like to know that... even if I'm on the free
tier.

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jonathan-kosgei
Thanks for the feedback, this does help. I'm wary of adding another step
before users can get started with the API but it might become necessary to do
so.

Thanks again!

