Ask HN: Best way to transition from free beta to paid?

[bradleyjoyce]

I recently took over an app that has been in a free beta period for about year. There are a decent (yet still relatively small) number of users that have been on this free beta.

I'm planning on transitioning the application out of the 'beta' and to a freemium subscription model.

Some users would qualify for the free level of service, some would be at paid levels of service after the switch.

What's the best way to handle this kind of change? Migrate all beta users to free plan and let them decide to upgrade? Let them keep current level of service and give them X days/months to enter payment information? Give them a discount over announced pricing plans?

Curious to hear how other people have done this.

[scottyallen]

The question I'd ask myself if I were you is, "What's the COST of allowing all existing users to continue to use the app for free, and charge new users as they signup?"

If the answer is that there's little or no incremental cost (beyond, say, hosting costs and occaisional support), then I would allow all existing users to continue using the app for free, indefinitely.

Your beta users have likely put up with a lot of crap while you and your predecesor ironed out the kinks, added necessary features, etc. It's better to continue in their good graces and have them be enthusiastic evangelists for your product than risk angering them by jacking up the price.

[xatax]

I don't have any advice, but I'll be watching this topic rather intently.

I had an idea (admittedly, a rather mundane idea) regarding and apartment-seeker website. The idea is on indefinite hold while I build something else, but one major problem I had with it was charging holding companies for ads before I had any visitors to the site (a classic chicken-or-egg problem if there ever was one).

The only thing I could think of was to begin charging from the start, but give the holding companies a sufficiently generous credit on the site to get them started - no risk to them, but it would give the site enough content to stand a chance at getting visitors to rent those listed apartments. The site gets bootstrapped, and the holding companies start paying as normal.

This approach might not work for you, but perhaps the same sort of "transition" could work. You approach your beta users with an offer of credit at your premium level for a set period - making it explicitly clear that they'll have to pay after that - then let them transition smoothly into the paid version. Perhaps you could even have some sort of segmented pricing where you offer a continued discounted rate based on how early they transition to paid status (i.e. for the first week, they can get three months at 75% off, second week is 50%, third week 25%, last week 10%, then full price therein). It puts a subtle pressure on them to sign up earlier, creating an artificial scarcity that might make them want in sooner.

This is all just off the top of my head, and I've never done anything like this before, so take this entire comment with a generous helping of salt.

[0ptr]

I've turned free beta mobile application to paid version just by informing people about the change. Offered 40% discount to old users and it started to sell right away (license is around $20). There was people complaining about price but otherwise I got even positive feedback. However conversion rate was not that good but app had several hundreds of thousands users already so it turned out to be business after all (additionally to consumer markets we also sell enterprise versions).

I think it is important to have viable user base, you are going to lose a lot of your existing "customers". They signed up to free version so it is really unlikely that they start paying for it. Also if your free version hasn't attracted that much people, how it would attract if you ask money for it? Do change when you can lose 99% of your free users and still maintain valid business.

And what I almost forgot. You didn't mention what kind of segment you are targeting. Strategy heavily depends of that. If it is enterprise go premium like yesterday, if you are free they are not even interested. Consumers and small businesses are much more difficult.

[bradleyjoyce → 0ptr]

I suppose it might be important to mention that the free beta was a closed beta... people had to be explicitly invited to use the site for free.

The target customer is businesses/enterprises or other organizations that was to brand their social media presence in one location (starting w/ twitter and eventually including other sources).

the app is http://get.floxee.com/

[aquark]

I'm looking at doing something similar.

I'm planning on providing beta users a significant free period beyond when I start charging, ie. a whole free year. The incremental cost is relatively small and the goodwill seems worthwhile.

I don't want to offer permanently free accounts since anything that is 'permanent' will be a pain sometime in the future! Always provide a 'sunset' clause.