Should my SaaS have a free plan or a free trial?

What each one asks of the user

• A free trial gives full access for a set time and then asks for a decision. It creates a deadline, which pushes people to try the product properly.
• A free plan gives limited access with no deadline. People can stay for months, which lowers the barrier to starting and raises the risk they never pay.

When a trial fits better

• The value is visible within days (a report, a result, time saved).
• The buyer is the user and can decide alone.
• Free users cost you real money (heavy compute, support, paid APIs).

When a free plan fits better

• The value grows with use: history, data, habits built up over weeks.
• Free users bring others: shared links, invites, public pages.
• You’re early and need feedback from as many real users as possible.

Put the limit where the value is

A free plan fails when it gives away the part people would pay for. Look at what your most engaged users rely on and make the free plan run out there: more projects, more history, a feature that saves real time. Limits that only annoy (a watermark on everything, a tiny cap) push people away instead of up.

What to measure

1. Free to paying, per source. Some channels bring people who upgrade; others bring people who never will.
2. Time to upgrade. If it’s long, a trial might suit you better; if it’s short, your free plan may be too generous.
3. What paying users asked for before paying. It shows which limit, or which promise, made them decide.

Whichever you choose, write the rule down and keep it for a few months. Switching every few weeks makes the numbers impossible to compare.

With Nordva Launch

Launch itself has a free plan with no time limit (web analytics, a waitlist, a Stripe connection), because its value grows as history builds up. For your product, Launch reads Stripe read-only and shows which of your signups became paying customers, per source, and each person’s feedback sits on their record.