I gated “saved regex library” behind Pro. Then nobody used the free local version either
Hey IH —
Forge Regex Pro is $9/mo. The upgrade story has been: unlimited gens + cloud history + share links. Testing/replace/export stay free.
I also shipped a free Recent list in localStorage — prompt, pattern, flags, test text — so closing the tab isn’t a dead end.
The awkward part
Cloud history table: 0 rows. Share links: 1. So the thing I thought people would pay for has not even been tried in the free local form.
Possible reads:
- Nobody is returning, so history never matters
- People don’t trust a regex tool to keep state in the browser
- The control is too quiet and they miss it
I’m not ripping Pro’s cloud sync. I am treating “history converts” as an untested hypothesis, not a strategy.
Ask
Did local-first history ever create return visits for you before you built accounts, or does history only matter after someone already lives in the tool?
For me local history only mattered after I was already coming back for another reason. Early on, a Recent list I might browse later never beat "I'll just regenerate it." The saves that stuck were the ones that rescued mid-flow work I'd lose if I closed the tab — not a library for someday. If free users aren't producing enough patterns to care about yesterday, cloud history is downstream of that habit, not the cause of it.