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4 Comments

Changing free features to paid services?

I'm looking for advice about moving a free feature to a paid service. I run an app for making flowcharts. Since the initial release of my app in 2021, users have been able to have unlimited free flowcharts.

Instead of limiting the number of flowcharts users can have, I built upsells around more templates, customization, importing, and AI.

Two years of development later I've failed to generate even $1000 recurring revenue, despite having well over 10,000 MAU. For that reason I think it may be time to switch things up.

I want to do right by my users. Does anyone have any experience making a transition like this. I know it's quite app-specific but if anyone has any anecdotes or thoughts it could really help me formulate a plan.

Thanks!

posted to Icon for group Product Development
Product Development
on June 21, 2023
  1. 2

    Going from free to paid is a sensitive topic, but the one advice I could get pricing-wise is to think how much value users get out of your product and charge around 10-30% of that.

    So If without your product people would need to spend 10 hours on 1 diagram, and 1 hour of their time costs 100$ then it costs them 1000$, then you should be charging them 100-300$, the numbers are just an example.

    1. 2

      That's a solid strategy for setting a price. Going to keep that in mind for this and future products. Thank you!

  2. 1

    Perhaps reach out to a subset of your users, explain the situation, and ask if they would consider paying for the product. If so, ask them what they think would be a reasonable price.

    May not be the answer but could be a place to start, good luck!

    1. 1

      That's a great suggestion. Thanks!

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